Video Summary
How long does probate take in Florida? Wow. That’s a loaded question and it’s very hard to give a general answer to that since you need to look at whether there are a well or not, whether we have know how many beneficiaries are involved and what’s the nature of the assets as far as that’s concerned. So to try and give you a general idea, what it is, the rules of court indicate that the probate administration needs to be concluded within one year. If not, you need to file something with the court, explaining to the court, why the estate administration’s taking longer than one year. An example of that in the event, there was any litigation. So if it is a relatively simple administration where the assets and you have the designated beneficiary stocks and bonds and bank accounts or real estate I would usually tell the client that hires me, that you’re probably looking between six to nine months to probate the estate.
And in order to have it concluded and in the assets liquidated or distributed to the beneficiaries, there are several types of probate administration. There is a summary administration. So if there if the assets are less than $75,000 and arrangement have been made to satisfy their creditors you can file a summary administration and have it distributed directly to the beneficiaries. And that proceeding usually only takes about 30 days. Once you file it with the court, when you have smaller estates, there’s other procedures that can be followed where my it’s still a probate proceeding, but you really don’t have to, it’s short form and just submitted to the court. So, I hopefully gave you some idea, some guidance, although I didn’t really answer the question on how long it takes. It depends on the beneficiaries, the assets, and what’s involved. If you have a probate issue or an estate will give me a call and I’ll be glad to talk to you about it at (727) 847-2288.