What probate actually costs a Florida family

When my father passed, I learned what probate is the way most families do: by going through it. Nobody had explained it beforehand, and I would rather you hear it now, while there is still time to do something about it.

What probate is

Probate is the court process that transfers a person's property after they die. If something was in your name alone when you passed, with no beneficiary named and no trust holding it, it generally has to go through probate before anyone can legally receive it. A will does not avoid probate. A will is the set of instructions the probate court follows.

What it costs in time

In Florida, a formal administration commonly runs six months to a year, and longer if anything is contested or the estate is complicated. During that time the assets are frozen. The house cannot be sold, the accounts cannot be drawn on, and the family is waiting on a court calendar while the bills keep coming.

What it costs in money

There are court filing fees, and there are attorney's fees. Florida law sets out what is presumed reasonable for an attorney in a formal administration, and the figures scale with the size of the estate. On a modest estate that can still be several thousand dollars. On a larger one it is considerably more. Those costs come out of the estate before anyone inherits.

What it costs in privacy

Probate is a court proceeding, and the case itself is on the public docket: that an estate was opened, who is handling it, and the will, which is filed with the clerk. Florida does shield the financial details. The Bar's own consumer pamphlet notes that documents containing financial information about the estate are not open to public inspection. So the privacy cost is smaller than people fear; the real costs are the months of waiting and the fees.

I went through probate for my own father. Nobody had explained it to us. The house sat, the accounts sat, and we waited on a court calendar while the bills kept coming. I do this work so other families hear about it while there is still time to plan.

Michelle Rocchio

What keeps an estate out of probate

Not everything goes through probate. Assets with a named beneficiary, such as life insurance and most retirement accounts, pass directly to that person. Accounts held jointly with right of survivorship pass to the surviving owner. And assets held in a properly funded revocable living trust pass according to the trust, privately and without the court.

That word "funded" is the one people miss. A living trust is only as useful as what has been retitled into it. A trust that was signed and then left empty does very little.

What to do with this

You do not need to decide anything today. What is worth doing is looking at what you own, how each piece is titled, and who is named on it. Most people find at least one thing that is not set up the way they assumed. That is the conversation I have with families every week, and it costs nothing to have it.

If you would like to have it, book a time or call (386) 212-9960.