Probate and guardianship are legal proceedings in Florida involving court supervision of a person and/or of a person’s assets.  

Generally, the term “probate” is used in connection with the process of administering a decedent’s estate; however, in Florida, the probate court has jurisdiction over both probate and guardianship matters. Guardianship is the state-supervised process of managing a person and/or his property if he is unable to manage them for himself during his lifetime, where probate is the state-supervised process of managing a person’s assets after his death. 

Whenever someone dies who owns property in the State of Florida, regardless of whether he resides in Florida at the time of his death and regardless of whether he is a citizen of the United States, Florida laws come into play to ensure the steady and secure transition of ownership of that property. This legal process has been defined as “probate,” and it can range from the simplest of matters resolved in a matter of months to a protracted and years’-long battle in the Florida court involving significant amounts of both time and money.

For more information, click the following links to The Florida Bar’s Consumer Pamphlets:  Consumer Pamphlet: Probate in Florida or Consumer Pamphlet: What is Guardianship?