WHERE’S MY INHERITANCE? how to compel a Florida estate to give you what’s yours (5 things to know about inheriting money in Florida estates)

Wondering where your inheritance from the Palm Beach probate is?  Why won’t that personal representative make a distribution of your inheritance to you? After all, you are named in the Florida will and you are an heir ! It’s your money, right?  Well…not so fast.  Here are 5 things to know about getting any inheritance in Florida and what you can do to force an estate executor to make a probate distribution to you.

1.    Where’s my money?!?   First of all, know that debts of the deceased person, also called claims or statements of claim, or creditors claims, as well as expenses of administration, like probate fees and estate lawyers in Florida, get paid before you see a dime of an inheritance. Why? ‘Cause that’s what the Florida Probate Code says!  Read about it here:  http://www.leg.state.fl.us/statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Index&Title_Request=XLII#TitleXLII

2.    Patience, Young Luke !  The executor of the estate, called a Personal Representative in Florida, does not have to make a distribution within the first five months.  Read Florida Probate Code Statute 733.801:  No personal representative shall be required to pay or deliver any devise or distributive share or to surrender possession of any land to any beneficiary until the expiration of 5 months from the granting of letters. Here is a link to read this part of the probate code:  http://www.leg.state.fl.us/statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&Search_String=&URL=0700-0799/0733/Sections/0733.801.html.  Why?  You need to give the estate administration process a chance to get going; to set up accounts, get a tax ID number for the estate, to publish notice to creditors, to give formal notice under the Florida Probate Rules to interested persons.  The personal representative should be given some time, some breathing room, to set things up.

3.    Make the Ask.  Make a demand on the personal representative to give you your inheritance. Put it in writing.  Use it as evidence if the executor or personal representative is unreasonable or mean to you.  You might be able to get your attorneys fees back, or a part of them back, if you prevail in probate court.   Have a backup or an alternative, too.  If the estate won’t make a complete distribution, then ask for a partial distribution.

4.    Use the law.  There are probate code laws and probate rules which help you get your inheritance.  You can file a petition with the court and have your day in court to make your case.  You should consider reading Florida Probate Code section 733.802, http://www.leg.state.fl.us/statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&Search_String=&URL=0700-0799/0733/Sections/0733.802.html; Florida Probate Rule 5.380 and 5.385:  http://www.floridabar.org/TFB/TFBResources.nsf/0/6C2FEF97C5969ACD85256B29004BFA12/$FILE/Probate.pdf.  These Florida laws on estates and inheritances give you the road map for a probate court to compel a distribution of an inheritance, make payment, determine beneficiaries of an estate and make a partial distribution of an inheritance from an estate.

5.    Don’t spend it all in one place.  Remember: there is a Florida probate law which says that if money or property is distributed to you improperly, or by mistake,  you don’t get to keep it. You have to give it back.  Read Florida probate law 733.812:  http://www.leg.state.fl.us/statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&Search_String=&URL=0700-0799/0733/Sections/0733.812.html