Knowing when you need to “lawyer up” to get your inheritance may be tricky. After all, you have to balance spending money on a Palm Beach probate lawyer vs. going it alone. Is it worth the money? Inheriting from a Florida Probate If you inherit from a Florida probate, you should expect to get your money within a year. After all, estates are supposed to be “expeditiously” administered. (Read Florida probate law 733.602). Find the assets, pay the last expenses, and distribute everyone’s inheritance. But some people want their own lawyer. Their own advocate or pit bull or “firepower” to stand up and fight. Fight for what? Candidly, in some cases, you don’t need to fight. You need the Florida Probate Code explained to you. The process. The Florida Probate Rules can be read for free online. Heck, you can read all about the Florida probate process online for free. You don’t need a Florida probate lawyer for that. But, if there’s a will contest, or some “contested” matters, you may want your own counsel. When do you need your own Florida probate lawyer? First of all, if you trust the person running the estate, why do you need to pay for a lawyer? The personal representative will have her own lawyer and pay for that lawyer from the estate. But many times, information is with-held. Or things are going nowhere. The “PR” is not disclosing information about the assets, the estate, and what she is doing with YOUR money. […]

West Palm Beach probate litigator, John Pankauski,  is the author of Pankauski’s Trustee’s Guide: 10 Steps to Family Trustee Excellence. If you are a trustee or a beneficiary of a family trust, you need this book. Palm Beach trust litigator John Pankauski- the attorney who the attorneys hire- gives you the inside scoop on what it means to be a trustee and what you need to know if you are involved with a Florida family trust.