Video Summary

How do I stop automatic bill payments of a deceased person? It that’s assuming that the bank account is just in the decedent’s name and there’s not going to be well, whether or not there’s a probate administration or mot. My suggestion is, is to contact the bank, advise the bank of the deceit and that the person is deceased and provide them with a death certificate. And I asked that that the, the account be frozen. Uh, so that is important. If however, the account is in joint names with someone, the co-owner is, is entitled to the money. And so whether or not you want to have that automatic bill payment stopped or not well, or have the account closed, to stop it. That’s a real question that you would need to talk to or reason with or determined with the co-owner, particularly if it’s husband and why.

I don’t suggest a husband or wife, if they have a joint account close the account out when they lose their spouse. The reason for that is if you leave the account open and their joint names, and they get a small check made payable to the deceased person, they can deposit into the joint account and access that check. Otherwise they call and need to say, well, how am I going to cash this check? Because it’s in the decedent’s name. I always ask,” was there a bank account that deposit in?” And the answer is no, you can see where that’s problematic. Particularly one is for a relatively small sum. So, if you have any questions about probate, give me a call at (727) 847-2288.

Video Summary

What are the different types of probate in Florida? Well, Let’s start with the smallest types of probate. It’s called a distribution without administration. If you have paid the funeral bill and the bills of the deceit and the last 60 days of their life. And there is a bank account out there that is less than the amount that you paid for the funeral bill and those, you can go to the court with a death certificate, take the bills with you and show that you paid them and ask the probate clerk and ask that a letter be sent to the bank directing them to distribute the money to you. And that’s called a petition, distribution without administration. So that’s the lowest type or the minimum amount that you can use without going through a full probate proceeding.

There has been a recent statute and the last couple of years that talks about if there’s assets of $10,000 or less. And if you have all the heir state that they are, who the heirs are, and who’s entitled to it, and the decedent’s been dead for more than a year, and that all the creditors have been paid, then you can also proceed or check with the bank, or go to the court to get an order authorizing the distribution of that asset without going through a formal administration. Then at once we move up to the from that, we then go to what they call a, sum written ministration in the event that the assets of the decedent that are just in his name alone are $75,000 or less. And there are no creditors or provision is made to pay the creditors from the money. Then you can ask the court to enter an order of some written ministration. This is fairly quick and it requires all the beneficiaries of the estate, whether it be with a will or without a will, they sign this, and when they sign it, they say that they’re responsible for any of the bills. So even if they hadn’t they’re supposed to make probation for filing with the court and the court enters what they call an order of some written ministration as fairly easy to do. Of course, it varies from county to county and, and the county where I’m at, we can get this done in about 30 days. If you go down to Miami Dade county, they require you to send a notice to creditors out and that takes and wait, 3 months before you can file your petition for summary administration or get an order of some written and restoration.
So, it varied from county to county, but that’s the other type of administration. Then you have a formal administration and that’s where you petition the court and have a personal representative appointed. Many times people come to see me and they say, well, “the stock company says, well, we need to have letters”, what they’re asking for letters of administration. And that is a legal term. And that is the authority when the court signs letters of administration that gives the designated executor or now known as a personal representative, the authority to act. And so that is a formal administration. And that will take probably 6-9  months, depending on the complexity of the assets, the number of errors involved as far as that’s concerned, the unnoticed accreditors published and then the statutory period for creditors further claims takes, 3 months from the date of the first publication in the newspaper.
And notice must be given to any reasonably ascertainable creditor of the estate administration. There’s more to the formula administration, as far as that’s concerned. When determining whether or not the assets on a summary administration are applicable. You do not count the homestead property of the decedent if he left it to his heirs. So that would be something that would qualify or not count toward the $75,000. So, if you have a probate question about whether or not you need to file probate, or what type of probate you need to file, or the cost or time periods, we’ll give me a call at (727) 847-2288.

Video Summary

Who are the parties that have to be involved going through the Florida probate process? Well, first you have the beneficiaries, whoever is named in the will. They need to be involved as far as the process is concerned, then you, if there’s no will involved, well, then you need to determine who the heirs are. Whether they have children, deceased children, grandchildren, and if they have none, then who the parents are to determine who the beneficiaries of the estate are. So those are all folks that need to be involved with the probate of a Florida probate. Then you also have the personal representative, whoever has been named as the executor. We now call them personal representatives. So they’re involved in the process and that they’re the administrator. They take care of paying for the creditors claims and distributing the assets, liquidating the properties in order to make distribution or distributing the assets in kind.
Then you have the creditors and that the creditors need to be paid before there is a distribution of the assets of the beneficiaries. You also have the judge who supervises the probate administration as far as requiring inventories and accountings and taking care of any contested matters between the beneficiaries or, if the personal representative is not doing their job, removing them. And then the clerk of the court who is short of the gatekeeper to the judge and then to submit the paperwork to the judge, they review it and then send it on to the judge to be signed. Usually you do not have to appear in court in a probate proceeding unless it is a will contest or there is litigation involved. So if you have any questions about probate or need an estate, probated will give me a call at (727) 847-2288.

Video Summary

How long does the Florida probate process take from start to finish? The court requires the states to be closed within one year from the time that they are opened. However, you can petition to ask that the estates be that time be extended. The minimum time for handling a formal administration is four months. And that once the estate is open, you must have a statutory period for creditors’ claims, which runs for three months after the first publication in the newspaper. So it’s hard to, you can’t close it before the time period for the creditors period expire. So it’s probably at least a minimum of four months to try and say that all the states can be handled or close within that one-year period. It depends, it’s not necessarily, feasible a lot, has to do with what kind of assets that you have and how complex the will is. And the cooperation of all the parties involved. Many times, we have problems collecting money from banks and it gets dragged out for some time trying to collect all the assets or even determine what assets are involved. So, the time period from start to finish depends upon the, the assets and the parties involved. So, if you need to have an estate taken care of, well give me a call at (727) 847-2288.