Columbia County Probate - Probate in Florida
Christopher Q. Wintter Florida Probate Lawyer of Wintter & Associates, P.A.
Contact information: 2239 Hollywood Blvd. Hollywood, FL 33020 - Hollywood: 954-920-7014
Miami-Dade: 305-948-6788 - Boca Raton: 561-470-3448 - Fax: 954-920-7080
Wintter & Associates, P.A. is a Florida trust and estate law firm focusing its practice in the areas of probate administration, trust administration, guardianship administration, probate litigation, trust litigation, guardianship litigation, and estate planning. The firm's professionals are devoted to the representation of clients in estate, trust, probate, and guardianship proceedings. The firm is well known and is well respected by its colleagues, competitors, adversaries, and judges.
Christopher Q. Wintter has over 23 years of experience as a practicing attorney and is a recognized expert in Trust and Estate matters by the Florida Bar. Mr. Wintter earned his Juris Doctor from Duke University School of Law (1987) and earned his Bachelor of Science in Accounting with High Honors from the University of Florida (1982).
Our attorneys have a thorough understanding of the legal, tax and financial issues that come into play with complex Trusts and Estates. Mr. Wintter holds the prestigious Board Certification by the Florida Bar in Wills, Trusts, and Estates, a credential held by fewer than 350 attorneys out of the more than 90,000 attorneys licensed to practice law in Florida. Mr. Wintter has been Board Certified since 1999. Prior to becoming an attorney, Mr. Wintter was a CPA and maintained his license as a Certified Public Accountant from 1984-2002.
To learn more about Wintter and Associates, P.A., please visit our web-site www.WintterLaw.com.
The process of probate is a complicated and detailed process that can cause you to incur a great deal of fines and fees if not handled with the utmost knowledge and care. This requires an understanding of the entire probate process that most of us simply do not possess. Even more complicated is the fact that if your deceased loved one lived in a different state from you, you must learn the probate laws for that state as well as for the state in which the deceased lived and comply with all of the correct regulations.
Because of this very complex and confusing probate system and because Florida estates are often probated by relatives from out of state, the state of Florida has mandated that Florida estates, with few exceptions, must be probated with the assistance of a probate lawyer to ensure that the process goes smoothly and quickly. While this does add an expense to your probate proceedings, it also gives you the opportunity to work with a professional lawyer who can help you to get through the probate process faster than you could on your own, and with fewer fees or fines for mistakes than you would likely incur.
Florida Statutes Section 733.6171, which states:
733.6171 Compensation of attorney for the personal representative -
(1) Attorneys for personal representatives shall be entitled to reasonable compensation payable from the estate assets without court order.
(2) The attorney, the personal representative, and persona bearing the impact of the compensation may agree to compensation determined in a different manner than provided in this section if the manner is disclosed to the parties bearing the impact of the compensation and if no objection is made as provided for in the Florida Probate Rules.
(3) Compensation for ordinary services of attorneys in formal estate administration is presumed to be reasonable if based on the compensable value of the estate, which is the inventory value of the probate estate assets and the income earned by the estate during the administration as provided in the following schedule:
(a) One thousand five hundred dollars for estates having a value of $40,000 or less
(b) An additional $750 for estates having a value of more than $40,000, but not exceeding $70,000.
(c) An additional $750 for estates having a value of more than $70,000 and not exceeding $100,000.
(d) For estates having a value in excess of $100,000, at the rate of 3 percent on the next $900,000.
(e) At the rate of 2.5 percent for all above $1 million and not exceeding $3 million.
(f) At the rate of 2 percent for all above $3 million and not exceeding $5 million.
(g) At the rate of 1.5 percent for all above $5 million and not exceeding $10 million
(h) At a rate of 1 percent for all above $10 million.
If there are contested issues, a lawyer who is local to Columbia County will be able to deal with local laws and regulations that a probate lawyer might not be aware of and that he or she would have to waste time looking up. If your loved one passed away after living in Columbia County, then a Columbia probate lawyer is the best choice for seeing the estate through the complicated probate process and returning your life to normal after this upheaval.
However, if there are no contested issues, any probate attorney in the State of Florida will be able to handle the probate since it will be done mostly by mail. There is no substitute for local knowledge and experience when it comes down to working on the process of probating an estate. You will be thankful that you hired a probate lawyer as you see the professional way that your case is handled from beginning to the very end. Contact a Columbia County Probate Lawyer
