Imagine your aunt passes away in her condo off Camino Real in Boca Raton. She left a will naming you as her personal representative. You hold the will in your hands, but the bank won’t release her account, and the title company won’t let you sell the condo. Why? Because a piece of paper naming you isn’t enough. You need the court to confirm it. That court process is probate.
Probate Defined Without the Jargon
Probate is the legal process Florida uses to transfer a deceased person’s assets to the right people and to pay off what they owed. Governed by the Florida Probate Code (Chapters 731 through 735), it does three things: it proves the will is valid, it pays legitimate creditors, and it distributes whatever is left to the heirs or beneficiaries. The person who manages this is called the personal representative, Florida’s term for what other states call an executor.
When Probate Is Actually Required
Not every asset goes through probate. Probate generally captures assets the deceased owned in their name alone with no built-in transfer mechanism. So your aunt’s solo bank account and her condo titled only in her name would likely need probate. But several common arrangements bypass it entirely.
- Revocable trusts (Chapter 736): Assets your aunt moved into a living trust pass to beneficiaries without court involvement.
- Beneficiary designations: Life insurance, retirement accounts, and payable-on-death accounts go straight to the named person.
- Joint ownership with survivorship: A jointly titled Boca home passes automatically to the co-owner.
- Lady Bird deeds: This enhanced life estate deed lets Florida property pass to a named beneficiary at death while you keep full control during life, avoiding probate on that property.
Two Roads: Formal and Summary Administration
Florida offers two main paths. Formal administration is the full process and is the norm for larger or more complicated estates. Summary administration is a faster, lighter option available when the probate estate is valued at $75,000 or less, or when the person has been deceased for more than two years. If your aunt’s only probate asset was a modest account, summary administration might resolve things in a fraction of the time.
What Probate Does Not Touch: Homestead
Florida’s homestead protection under Article X, Section 4 of the state constitution is a big deal here in Palm Beach County. A primary residence that qualifies as homestead is shielded from most creditors and passes to a surviving spouse or descendants under special rules. It is technically not a probate asset for creditor purposes, though the court often still issues an order confirming who inherits it. This is one reason Boca Raton families with a homesteaded condo or house should not assume their situation is straightforward.
The Good News About Taxes
Florida has no state estate tax and no inheritance tax. Heirs in Boca Raton do not pay a state tax simply for receiving an inheritance. Probate is about transferring title and settling debts, not generating a state tax bill.
The Takeaway
In plain English, probate is the court-supervised handoff of someone’s assets after death. Sometimes it is unavoidable; often, with the right planning like a trust or a Lady Bird deed, much of it can be sidestepped. Because Florida’s homestead, elective share, and administration rules have real traps, a Boca Raton probate attorney can tell you quickly whether your situation needs formal probate, summary administration, or no probate at all. This article is general information, not legal advice for your specific circumstances.
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For more on our Florida practice, see our overview of Florida probate administration. Morgan Legal Group's affiliated New York office also handles .
