What is a Petition of Administration? Do I have to Respond?
If you are involved in Florida Probate you will surely be getting some papers in the mail and most of these are boilerplate meaning they are meant to apply to everyone, and the details can be hard to understand. If you are the Personal Representative this can be even worse. When yourcertified mail starts to pile up you may be asking yourself what is a Petition for Administration? Whats a Notice of Administration? Here is a quick reference guide for you on the documents in Florida Probate.
- Maybe your rich uncle died or your Grandmother in Delray elected you as the Personal Representative either way you are going to have a lot of questions about Florida Probate, the good news is there are experienced attorneys looking to help and you are owed a fiduciary duty by them and the estate’s personal representative.
Petitions vs. Notices of Administration:
- A petition for administration opens the estate through an order granted by a judge and these give you twenty days to answer and claim a right to administer the probate yourself.
- These petitions lay out the interests of the petitioner along with their basic information.
- A Notice of Administration is issued at the end and is the judge telling everyone that the estate is closing and that you have three months to object to the will.
- A simple explanation cannot fully elicit the requirements of both of these documents and you may not even need to file one of these, talk to an experienced Florida Probate Attorney in Palm Beach Today.
- The official rules are available online in Florida so get the answers yourself in writing.
- Petitions for Administration are covered in Fla. Rule 5.200 and Notices of Administration are in 5.201.
- Your go to guy should be the personal representative of the estate (in other jurisdictions this is called an executor or administrator).
- The Personal Rep. will be represented by a (hopefully experienced) Florida Probate Attorney so do not expect legal advice from the PR themselves.
- Personal Representatives are fiduciaries and owe a duty of loyalty and candor to those beneficiaries of the estate.
- You are entitled to your own attorney to render legal advice consider pursuing that route rather than going it alone.