Creditors in a Probate
When someone dies in order to transfer the assets to those entitled to them a Probate is required. Probate is the process of going to court and having the court give authority for assets to be transferred. If assets are titled in a Trust or titled in joint names, then a probate may not be necessary. These are issues that should be discussed with an Estate and Probate attorney.
During the probate process, assets are gathered and the Personal Representative takes control of the assets for safekeeping until it is time to be transferred to the proper beneficiary. The personal representative has a duty to notify all reasonably ascertainable creditors of the estate by serving a Notice to Creditors on them and also a duty to publish a Notice to Creditors in the local newspaper, so creditors have a chance to file a claim. A sample Notice to Creditors is below.
Credit Card companies, medical and hospital providers, and utility companies are some of the entities that sometimes are owed money upon someone’s death. These creditors have a requirement by law to file a Statement of Claim with the probate court within 30 days of receiving a Notice to Creditors and within 90 days of the Notice to Creditors being published. If a Creditor has filed a Statement of Claim with the probate court, the Personal Representative can then file an Objection to the claim. If the objection to claim is filed, the creditor is limited to a period of 30 days to file a lawsuit on the claim. If the lawsuit is not filed timely, then the court can strike the claim and no money will be paid to this creditor out of the assets of the probate. A link to the Florida Law on creditors claims is above. A sample Order on Striking Claim is below.
In Florida in order to go through the Probate process a lawyer is required. Therefore, please contact Kreutzer Law Offices and we can guide you through this process and protect you against any unlawful creditors claims and do our best to save you and the estate money.
