Homestead Probate Lawyer

Homestead, Florida is a municipality within Miami-Dade County. It is between Biscayne National Park to the east and Everglades National Park to the west. Homestead is mainly a Miami community and main agricultural region. It is a main city of the Miami urban region, which is populated by about 6,012,331 individuals at the 2015 census. Homestead was integrated in 1913 and is the second oldest city in the county right behind Miami. The name stems from when the Florida East Coast Railway extension to Key West was being constructed. At the 2010 census, only 60,512 people lived there. Homestead and adjacent South Miami-Dade County neighborhoods shouldered the impact of Category 5 Hurricane Andrew on August 24, 1992.

Handling a Small Florida Estate

If a person is closing the estate of a Florida resident who passed away with an estate that is worth under a specific dollar amount, he or she will not have to undergo a formal probate court proceeding. It does not matter if the decedent left a will; what matter is the worth of the possessions left behind. If the value of the estate according to the “small estates” restriction in Florida, the individual can exploit a simplified probate process, frequently called a summary probate. Rather than having a court hearing before a judge, the person might require only to file at least one simple form and wait for a specific amount of time prior to issuing possessions.

In a few states, it can even be simpler: Inheritors can utilize a straightforward affidavit to claim possessions. If an individual resides in one of those states, he or she just has to wait a required time period, then endorse a straightforward, declared statement that no probate proceeding is occurring in his or her state and that he or she is the person authorized to receive a specific possession—a bank account, for instance.

When a person is attempting to determine if the value of an estate is under the Florida small estates restriction, first the individual must make a list of the possessions. Not everything an individual possesses is included, though. For this list, the person must add only the things that pass to inheritors and recipients by will or, if there is no will, by Florida intestacy laws, which decide who inherits.

The person must not include possessions that are held in joint tenancy, retirement plans, payable-on-death (POD) bank account, real estate handed over by a transfer-on-death deed or brokerage account. These possessions are not included toward the small estate restriction because they go to the chosen inheritors despite what a will or state intestacy law states. If an individual had a life insurance policy with a chosen inheritor, the insurance earnings will not be included either. A few states also do not include the amount of money owed on an automobile, or a house, while others include the fair market value of a possession, even it is depending on a loan or mortgage.