My Estranged Parent Died in Florida. What Happens Now?

1. Do You Inherit Anything From an Estranged Parent?

Florida law does not ask whether you and your parent were close. The answer depends on two documents, the will and the deed, and on whether your parent left a surviving spouse.

If there is a will, the will controls. Florida’s mandatory protections run to a surviving spouse and a minor child. An adult child has no guaranteed share, so a valid will can leave an estranged adult son or daughter nothing. A will can also leave you everything, which surprises people more often than the reverse. You can challenge a will for lack of capacity, undue influence or improper signing, but the objection has to be filed within 3 months after you are served with the notice of administration, and our guide to contesting a Florida will explains what that takes.

If there is no will, Florida’s family formula decides. Your right to an intestate share vests at the moment of death. The shares work like this.

• No surviving spouse. The children share everything equally. A child who died earlier is represented by his or her own children.
• A surviving spouse who is not your other parent. The spouse takes half, and the children share the other half. Most estranged children in a second-marriage family land here.
• A surviving spouse who is your other parent, with no children from anyone else. The spouse takes the whole estate, and the children inherit nothing at this death.

The full chart, including parents, siblings and more distant relatives, is on our Florida intestate succession page. Two kinds of property sit outside both the will and the formula. Life insurance and retirement accounts with a named beneficiary go to that beneficiary, and a house with a lady bird deed or in a trust goes to the people the deed or trust names.

2. Do You Inherit Your Parent’s Debt?

In the ordinary case, no. Your parent’s debts belong to your parent’s estate. Creditors are paid from what your parent left, and if the money runs out, the creditors at the back of the line are not paid. Nobody inherits a credit card balance.

Florida sets the order of payment in eight classes. The costs of the probate itself come first, then funeral expenses up to $6,000, then debts with federal priority and Medicaid’s claim, then medical bills from the last 60 days of illness, and so on down to ordinary unsecured debt such as credit cards in the eighth class. Within a class that cannot be paid in full, the creditors share in proportion.

Three situations do create personal exposure, and they are worth checking against your own facts.

1. A debt you signed for yourself. A co-signed loan or a joint credit line is your own obligation. The death does not change that.
2. A small estate closed by summary administration. The people who receive property through that shortcut are personally liable for a share of valid claims, up to the value each one actually received (property exempt from creditors does not count). Summary administration is available where the estate subject to probate, after exempt property, is $150,000 or less, or where the death was more than 2 years ago.
3. Taking property before a personal representative is appointed. Florida law makes a person who takes or interferes with a decedent’s property liable to the personal representative for its value and for any damage to the estate.

Creditors also run out of time. A claim generally has to be filed in the probate case within 3 months after the notice to creditors is first published, or 30 days after a known creditor is served, whichever is later. Two years after the death, the estate and the beneficiaries are no longer liable for claims against the person who died at all, whether or not anyone ever opened probate. A recorded mortgage is the exception, and it stays attached to the property it secures. Our separate guide covers inheriting a house with a mortgage or liens in detail.

3. The Letters That Start the Clocks

Once a personal representative is appointed, Florida requires two kinds of notice, and each starts a separate deadline.

The notice of administration is served on the surviving spouse and on the beneficiaries, which includes heirs when there is no will. Any objection to the validity of the will, the court or the county has to be filed within 3 months after the notice is served on you. The period can be extended only if the personal representative misstated the deadline, and there is an outside limit of 1 year after service. Our page on the Florida notice of administration walks through the other dates the same notice starts.

The notice to creditors is published once a week for 2 consecutive weeks in a local newspaper, and mailed to creditors the personal representative can reasonably identify. Where your parent was 55 or older, a copy also goes to Florida’s Medicaid agency, because Medicaid can file a claim for care it paid for after that age.

An estranged child often learns of the death from one of these notices rather than from family. If the envelope is dated, write down the date you received it, because the 3-month clock runs from service on you.

4. What Happens to Your Parent’s House?

If the house was your parent’s permanent Florida residence, it was probably a homestead, and a homestead follows its own rules at death.

A homestead passes free of most of your parent’s creditors. The Florida Constitution carries the homestead protection over to the owner’s surviving spouse or heirs, and the personal representative does not treat a protected homestead as an asset for paying the estate’s bills. The credit card company cannot force a sale of the house. The mortgage, the property taxes and debts for work on the house are the exceptions, because the Constitution never protected the home against those.

A surviving spouse changes the shares. A homestead cannot be left in a will away from a surviving spouse or a minor child. Where there is a spouse and there are children, and the house was not validly left some other way, the spouse takes a life estate (the right to live there for life) and the children own the remainder. The spouse can instead elect to take half the house outright as a co-owner with the children, but only within 6 months after the death, by a recorded notice that cannot be undone. If a stepparent is involved, read whether a stepparent can keep you from inheriting the house.

A house with a lady bird deed or in a trust skips probate. The deed or the trust decides who takes it. Our guide to inheriting a house in Florida covers how title is cleared on each path, and the court proceeding that confirms a home’s status is explained on our petition to determine homestead page.

5. Asked to Serve as Personal Representative? You Can Say No

A relative, a lawyer or a court clerk may ask whether you will serve as personal representative (Florida’s term for an executor). Nobody can require you to serve.

Florida gives a preference to the person the will names. Without a will, the preference goes to the surviving spouse, then to a person chosen by a majority of the heirs, then to the closest heir. If nobody with a preference applies, the court appoints a capable person. A person who is already serving may ask the court to accept a resignation.

Serving does not make your parent’s debts your own. A personal representative pays the estate’s obligations from the estate’s money, and is personally liable only for his or her own fault, such as paying creditors in the wrong order or distributing property before valid claims are resolved. The duties begin on appointment, not on the date of death.

Where you live matters for serving, though not for inheriting. Florida generally requires a personal representative to live in Florida, with an exception for close family that includes a child or grandchild of the person who died. So an out-of-state son or daughter usually qualifies. The full role is described on our Florida personal representative page.

6. What Not to Do in the First Weeks

• Do not pay your parent’s debts from your own money. A collector may be persuasive on the phone. A payment from your account is a gift to the collector, and the estate has no duty to pay you back ahead of the creditors Florida puts first.
• Do not take property before a personal representative is appointed. Removing the car, the jewelry or the furniture exposes you to a claim by the personal representative for the value, even if you are an heir.
• Do not move into the house, rent it out or sell anything if there is any chance you will refuse the inheritance. Accepting the property, or any benefit from it, ends your right to disclaim.
• Do not ignore a dated notice. The 3-month objection period runs whether or not you open the envelope.

Our page on what to do when a parent dies in Florida covers the death certificate and the first calls to Social Security and the banks, which apply to every family.

7. How to Refuse the Inheritance Entirely

Some estranged children want nothing from the estate at all. Florida law allows that through a disclaimer, a written refusal that is irrevocable once delivered.

A disclaimed share passes as though you had died immediately before your parent. Where the share came to you without a will, Florida’s formula then sends it to your own descendants, so refusing usually moves the share to your children rather than to your siblings. People are often surprised by that, and it is the first thing to decide.

Two events end the option. A disclaimer is barred if you have already accepted the property, and it is barred if you are insolvent when the disclaimer becomes irrevocable. A disclaimer of Florida real estate also has to be recorded in the county where the land sits to protect a future buyer. Florida sets no deadline of its own, but the federal tax treatment turns on nine months from the death. The details are on our page about disclaiming an inheritance.

8. A Practical Plan for the First 30 Days

1. Collect the paper. Keep every envelope, notice and collection letter, with the date you received it.
2. Find out whether probate is open. The clerk of court in the county where your parent lived can tell you whether an estate case exists and who the personal representative is.
3. Pull the deed. Most Florida counties post recorded deeds online. How the house was titled tells you whether it passes through probate, to a named person or to a surviving co-owner.
4. Decide one question before any other. Do you want to take your share, refuse it, or serve? Every later step depends on that answer, and refusing has to come before you accept anything.

You do not need to travel to Florida for any of this. A Florida probate is filed electronically, and documents can be signed where you live.

What Does It Cost to Handle an Estranged Parent’s Estate?

The price follows the path the estate takes. Summary administration, for estates of $150,000 or less after exempt property or a death more than 2 years ago, is a flat fee from $2,500. A routine formal administration is a flat fee from $3,500. A disclaimer, or advice on whether to serve, is a flat fee quoted at consult. A will contest or a fight over the house is litigation, which is quoted per matter rather than as a flat fee. Court filing fees, publication and recording costs are additional and passed through at cost, and posted fees are honored for 90 days. See the full fee schedule or estimate the statutory fees with our probate cost calculator.

Frequently Asked Questions

Common Situations

The situations below are illustrations of how the rules apply, not accounts of any client’s case.

The father who remarried. A daughter has not spoken to her father in twelve years. The father dies without a will, survived by his second wife and by the daughter from his first marriage. Because the daughter is not the widow’s child, the widow takes half the estate outside the house and the daughter takes the other half. The house was his homestead, so the widow holds a life estate and the daughter owns the remainder, unless the widow elects half the house within 6 months.

The collection letters. A son receives three letters about his mother’s credit cards, one addressed to him personally. The cards are in her name alone. The son writes back that the accounts belong to the estate and pays nothing. If no probate is ever opened and no claim is filed, the claims are barred 2 years after her death.

The son who wants nothing. A man is named sole heir of a father he cut off decades ago, and wants no part of the estate. Before touching anything, he signs and delivers a disclaimer. Because he has two children, his share passes to them as though he had died first, and he never becomes an owner of anything his father left.

Sources of Law

• Fla. Stat. §732.101 (intestate estate; heirs’ rights vest at death), §732.102 (spouse’s share), §732.103 (share of other heirs) and §732.104 (per stirpes). (retrieved 2026-09-23)
• Fla. Stat. §732.401 (descent of homestead; spouse’s life estate or 6-month election of a one-half interest, irrevocable, by recorded notice) and §732.4015 (devise of homestead restricted where a spouse or minor child survives); §732.201 (elective share belongs to the surviving spouse). (retrieved 2026-09-23)
• Art. X, §4(a) to (c), Fla. Const. (homestead exempt from forced sale except for taxes and assessments, purchase, improvement and repair obligations, and labor on the realty; exemption inures to the surviving spouse or heirs; devise restriction). flsenate.gov (retrieved 2026-09-23)
• Fla. Stat. §731.201(2), (20) and (33) (definitions of beneficiary, heirs and protected homestead).
• Fla. Stat. §733.212 (notice of administration; 3-month objection period, 1-year outside limit) and §733.2121 (notice to creditors; publication for 2 consecutive weeks; service on the Agency for Health Care Administration where the decedent was 55 or older). (retrieved 2026-09-23)
• Fla. Stat. §§733.301 (preference in appointment), 733.302 and 733.304 (residency and the nonresident relative exception), 733.502 (resignation), 733.601 (duties commence on appointment), 733.607 and 733.608 (possession of estate; protected homestead excluded), 733.619 (individual liability of the personal representative only if personally at fault). (retrieved 2026-09-23)
• Fla. Stat. §733.309 (a person taking, converting or intermeddling with a decedent’s property is liable to the personal representative for its value and damages). (retrieved 2026-09-23)
• Fla. Stat. §733.702 (claims due within 3 months after first publication or 30 days after service; mortgages and liens unaffected), §733.707 (order of payment in eight classes; funeral expenses capped at $6,000 in class 2; last-60-days medical expenses in class 4) and §733.710 (2-year bar on claims; recorded mortgages and security interests excepted). (retrieved 2026-09-23)
• Fla. Stat. §735.201 (summary administration; $150,000 or death more than 2 years ago) and §735.206(4)(e) (recipients personally liable for a pro rata share of claims, limited to the value received, exclusive of exempt property). (retrieved 2026-09-23)
• Fla. Stat. §739.201 (disclaimed interest passes as if the disclaimant died immediately before; descendants take by representation), §739.401 (disclaimer may be made at any time unless barred), §739.402 (barred by acceptance, assignment, judicial sale or insolvency) and §739.601 (recording a disclaimer of real estate). Federal nine-month rule for a qualified disclaimer, 26 U.S.C. §2518(b). (retrieved 2026-09-23)

What I Ask an Estranged Son or Daughter First

In 14 years of law practice, I have found that an estranged child reaches a lawyer later than anyone else in the family, because the news travels last to the person nobody was calling. By the time the first envelope arrives, a personal representative may already be appointed and a clock may already be running.

In my law practice these calls arrive in a few recognizable shapes, and I have a few take-home points.

The first is the date on the notice. The 3-month period to object to a will runs from service on you, and Florida extends it only where the personal representative misstated the deadline. I ask for the envelope before I ask about the family, because the envelope tells me how much of the window is left.

The second is the house. Whether the home was a homestead, and whether a surviving spouse is still living in it, decides more than the will does. A second wife with a life estate can live in the house for the rest of her life, and the children own the remainder while paying nothing and receiving nothing until then.

The third is the refusal. People who want nothing to do with a parent often assume walking away means ignoring the letters. Silence does not refuse anything. A signed and delivered disclaimer does, and it has to come before you accept anything from the estate (even a single month of rent).

Avoid paying a collector to make the calls stop. The payment comes out of your pocket, the estate owes you nothing for it, and the claim was likely to be paid from the estate or barred at 2 years anyway.

An honest limit belongs here. Whether a will can be successfully challenged depends on evidence about your parent’s last years, and an estranged child usually knows the least about those years. I can tell you what the deadline is and what a challenge requires. Whether the evidence exists is something we find out together, and sometimes the answer is that it does not.

Kevin D. Klagge, Esq., admitted in Florida since 2012. General information rather than advice on your situation.

Updated on September 23, 2026. Reviewed by Kevin D. Klagge, Esq., Fla. Bar No. 99502. Attorney Kevin Klagge represents families, businesses, and international clients in estate and tax planning, business structuring, and international law, with a focus on Florida legal tools. He litigates estate and business issues in court. General information about Florida law, not legal advice, and no attorney-client relationship is created. Deadlines and outcomes depend on your facts; past results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Do not send confidential information until we have agreed to represent you.