All interested parties get notice of the petition for administration in a probate process. Interested parties to a probate process may include family members, beneficiaries of an estate, or any potential creditors of an estate.
The parties involved in the administration process of a probate proceedings are those interested in the estate. Typically those are the beneficiaries themselves. The personal representative is another party, and they’ll hire an attorney to represent them during the proceedings who will be responsible for filing all the necessary pleadings during the probate process.
If a notice that is published in a local newspaper where the decedent resides in order to notify all creditors that the decedent has passed away and if they have any unpaid debts, to file a claim against the decedent’s estate within a time period indicated.
The probate process involves a number of steps, but it can be broken down into three main categories. The first category is filing the death certificate, filing any will that’s available, and having the PR appointed for the estate. The second is collecting assets, filing an inventory, handling any debts of the state, and the third phase is finally making those distributions to the beneficiaries that are designated in the last will.
There are various types of probate proceedings. The most common would be a formal probate, a summary probate which is for assets valued less than $75,000 and an ancillary probate for a nonresident decedent who died owning assets in the state of Florida.
Depending on the type of probate that is required, it may be necessary for the will to be probated by a personal representative to be appointed to act on behalf of the estate in order to collect the decedent’s assets, pay any creditors, and distribute the remaining assets to the estate’s beneficiaries.
You would have to file a formal claim against the estate that it’s opened in probate court and make sure to attach evidence of what is owed from the decedent’s estate. Please speak to a competent attorney for more information.
You should always deposit the original will with the Clerk of Court in the county where the decedent resided. Whether you have to probate the will or not, depends on how the decedents assets were titled. If they were in his sole name with no designated beneficiary, then you would have to probate the will.
If you have any particular questions about the taxation of an estate I would recommend that you contact an experienced accountant or trust an estates attorney to help direct you through the process.
The probate process can simply be described as the process of clearing title to assets in order to transfer to new beneficiaries. Let’s say your uncle dies. If he died and he had property named in his name alone, in order to transfer it to new people, you need an order from the judge to re-title those assets.
Yes, it is highly recommended that you give notice to secured creditors. If you don’t give notice to a secured creditor, they have a 2 year window period in order to file their claim, which can be a very big problem in the future if the beneficiaries of the estate have already spent the assets.
The personal representative will be responsible for filing the final tax return for the person who passed away recently, but an estate tax return is only due if there is a federal tax bill. Now in Florida, there’s no state-level death tax, but there still is a federal tax requirement, so if an estate is valued at more than $5.4 million, there is a potential estate tax bill, and then a return would have to be filed.
No, you do not need the original will in order to start the probate process. It is always recommended that you file the original will if you can find it, but you can start the probate process with a copy of the will or with no will at all.