Do you need a lawyer to do a probate?

Attorney Tom Olsen: People may say, "Tom, do I need to have a lawyer to do a probate?" Well, first of all, when you talk about a formal administration probate, which is the big dog, the Florida law requires that the executor or person represented be represented by a probate. If you're talking about a probate talk called a Summary Administration, and when can people do Summary Administrations?

Attorney Alexis Richards: People can do Summary Administrations if the value of the estate is less than $75,000 and there are no creditor claims. That's one of the most important things you look at when determining if someone's eligible to do a Summary Administration. No medical debt, no credit cards, absolutely zero debt.

Tom: Doing a Summary Administration probate, the law does not require that you represent by an attorney, but the probate court clerks, they're not going to give you forms, they're not going to answer your questions. If you want to do it yourself, you're going to have to spend some over the law library researching it, trying to find the forms, and trying to get it done right.

Alexis: Exactly. The biggest challenge for people is knowing exactly what to file.

Tom: Exactly. Realistically, most people use a probate even for a Summary Administration. There is one kind of probate that's available to people in certain situations where the clerks will give them the forms, will answer their questions, will hold their hands through that process, and I always get confused what the name of that type of probate is. Do you remember off the top of your head?

Alexis: I do because I help people once in a while with this, and it's called disposition of personal property. It's available in all the counties I've researched at least where the clerks will help you distribute assets if the funeral expenses exceeded the assets, but they won't allow more than $6,000.

Tom: The point would be is if mom passed away and she had a $5,000 bank account, and mom's funeral expenses were $7,000, that would be a situation where they would qualify for this type of probate called again-- What?

Alexis: Disposition of personal property.

Tom: That would be a situation where the court clerks would assist you, give you the forms, prepare the forms, answer your questions, and help you get before a probate judge who would sign an order under those limited circumstances and say, "This $5,000 belongs to you," and you can take it to the court and get your money.

Alexis: Exactly. When I'm listening and people calling with questions, I've actually had a few people now that I've told them about that option because it helps them to save time and money, and I want to make sure that I tell them that option if they want to do it.

Tom: Now, sometimes it doesn't work because most people, they're getting cremated these days, so funeral expenses are minimum. This is the kind of a situation where you've got to have a full-blown funeral for it really to be applicable for most of the time.

Alexis: I actually had someone where I'm trying to determine if they're eligible and I found out the funeral expenses were less, and I was like, "Uh-oh. It's not going to work--"