Florida statutes require that the last will and testament of a deceased person be filed with the court within 10 days of the death. If the will has already been filed with the court, you can obtain a copy of it from the probate clerk of the court.
If the will has not been filed with the court, you can request that your uncle immediately file it so that he is in compliance with the statutory requirements.
The following description is of the typical probate administration process according to Florida probate law and the Florida Rules of Probate Procedure. There are many exceptions to the following process depending on the different facts and circumstances of each individual probate estate.
When the petition for probate administration has been filed with the probate court, your uncle will be obligated to provide you notice that the petition for administration has been filed, and should provide you with a copy of the will at that time. Obviously, the will should provide you with the information about your share of the estate, or the specific gifts that the deceased person made to you.
Your uncle will have approximately 60 days after filing the petition for probate administration within which to file an inventory of the estate, showing all of the assets that belonged to the deceased person.
Creditors of the deceased person will have approximately 90 days from the filing of the petition for probate administration within which to file any claims against the deceased person's estate. Any claims that are filed by creditors must be dealt with by the personal representative before a complete distribution of the estate's assets can occur.
After all of the creditors' claims, if any, are dealt with, either by paying the claims or objecting to the claims, the personal representative will distribute the assets of the estate to the appropriate beneficiaries. After all of the assets of the estate have been distributed the personal representative will be required to provide each beneficiary a full accounting of all of the assets that were a part of the probate estate. The beneficiaries will be given an opportunity to object to any parts of the accounting with which they disagree or have questions. Alternatively, if all of the beneficiaries are satisfied with the distributions they have received they can waive their right to the accounting to save the estate the cost of having the accounting prepared.
Answered on Aug 17th, 2012 at 9:59 AM