Court of Appeals Says Curator Cannot Impose Lien on Occupied Homestead Property

What is a Curator?

Sometimes curators are appointed by the probate court to administer the estate under certain circumstances where a personal representative or executor cannot serve. There are a variety of these situations, but what always remains the same is the general duty of the curator to collect the testator’s effects, pay claims against his estate, and distribute the residue to those entitled. Also uniform, is the well settled law in Florida that curator or personal representative does not have an unrestricted right to use estate assets as his own, and the probate code provides that assets of an estate shall be assets in the hands of personal representative or curator for specific purposes only, with significant restriction that he or she act reasonably for the benefit of the interested persons. A curator’s possession of estate assets derives from his appointment and is not an individual right of possession; thus, the personal representative or curator acquires interest solely as fiduciary, holding legal title, but the representative does not hold beneficial title to assets and has no right to dispose of estate assets for his own use. (more…)