Probate costs? (Venice: real estate, how much, lawyer)

[higelj2]

What would typical probate costs be to settle a estate worth 800k in Venice,Florida? My mother has a will, is it worth pursuing a trust?

[sware2cod]

Bank accounts can avoid probate if there is a co-owner or beneficiary listed on the acct. Sometimes a bank doesn't allow beneficiaries but instead allows a "payable on death" person to be designated.


Real estate is a diff matter though. With a real estate deed - a co-owner can get the property and avoid probate if there is right of survivorship listed on the deed. Possibly other ways as well. Or a trust for the real estate.

[twinkletwinkle22]

Trusts cost money to set up and may be just as costly, maybe more, than probate, depends on many things. People use trusts not just to avoid probate but also for privacy, nothing is filed publicly with a trust. There are many other reasons for a trust but probate avoidance is not the biggest for less than million dollar estates. My opinion, am not a lawyer.

Good advice from sware2 that bank accounts, CD's and brokerages do not go through probate if they are titled in ways to avoid this. If you are the only heir in her will you can talk to an elder law attorney to get advice about how to title her accounts but you will need to have POA to have this discussion with an attorney or bank officer.

If you are not the only heir in the will you'll have a hard time finding a lawyer to make change from will to trust unless your mom is still sharp enough to do it herself.

[jimbo23]

I am in the process of settling the trust of my late mother. She made the trust in Florida. The only thing needed to be filed with the probate court so far has been her original Last Will and Testament. Yes, even with a living trust, a will is required, and it will need to be filed with the probate court within a certain time-frame after the death of the trust maker. The trust documents are not filed with the probate court.

The court system does not get involved in settling the trust, and no details are publicly available about values of the estate, but I do know a will is made to go along with the trust in Florida. The trustee has full authority to make distributions to the beneficiaries (heirs) in accordance with the trust with no oversight from the probate system. I believe the only time the court would get involved is if an heir files a formal complaint against the trustee.

As far as costs, it depends how much hand holding you want. Lawyers are expensive. They will take care of every little thing for you if you want, and charge accordingly. If all you need is a little advice and a few documents to be prepared, it will be cheaper to settle. It's hard to put a price on settling an 800k estate, but it should not cost more than 2-3k for everything (lawyer, tax filing, etc), maybe less, depending if everything goes smoothly with no disputes between heirs, and no complicated property to liquidate or transfer.

Income taxes will need to be filed using a TIN vs SSN after the final tax return of the trust maker, but the fees for preparing the taxes in my case have been minimal, certainly no more the the annual fee she paid to do her taxes when still alive.

I can't speak to the costs of a will that goes through probate, but so far the costs to settle a trust are not prohibitive, and the process is fairly simple.

[higelj2]

Thanks for the info.

[TreeBeard]

Jimbo is right on some issues, way off on others.

A probate or trust administration is too complicated to explain in a simple post. The attorney fees to probate an estate in Florida is 3% of the gross estate. The personal representative gets the same fee. The costs for an attorney in a trust administration is 75% of 3%. The Trustee gets paid reasonable compensation. Attorney fees are negotiable. The percentages mentioned herein are part of the statutory framework under Florida law but can be deviated from.


The final cost of the probate or trust administration will depend on the nature of the assets. What is part of the probate estate or trust? How much of the $800,000 is in the homestead? Are there 401ks, IRAs involved? Beneficiary designations are great estate planning tools, but that depends on what the testator or grantor wants to do as part of their estate plan.

For instance, beneficiary designations may not be a good idea if the goal is to provide sub-trusts for heirs or minors.


Contact a good estate planning lawyer who will go over your mother's estate and determine what the best plan is for her.

[beach43ofus]

We used an Wills & Trusts Attorney in Downtown SRQ for our Will and 2 Trusts (1 for real estate, 1 for the rest), and it cost ~$1,800. PM me and I'll share the name of the guy we used. Remember to get access to any safe deposit boxes too.

[Gulf coast jon]

Originally Posted by beach43ofus

We used an Wills & Trusts Attorney in Downtown SRQ for our Will and 2 Trusts (1 for real estate, 1 for the rest), and it cost ~$1,800. PM me and I'll share the name of the guy we used. Remember to get access to any safe deposit boxes too.

Be careful when taking advice on city-data. You might be taking advice from a proud deplorable that can't even use coherent English.

[Nancy in Nokomis]

When my Mom died I was already handling her bills and I was the only surviving beneficiary so I did not even do probate. Everything was fine.

[beach43ofus]

Originally Posted by Gulf coast jon

Be careful when taking advice on city-data. You might be taking advice from a proud deplorable that can't even use coherent English.

Typo..duh! Sounds like a personal attack, and stealing a thread to me. Politics has nothing to do with end of life planning. Where's yac?

Thanks for adding sooo much to the conversation jon...shouldn't it be Jon? Typo?

Tell us about your last will and testament, and your trust/s. We are trying to learn from each other, so we're all ears.