People who have lost a spouse have a difficult road ahead. Healing from grief can take years. There are also countless adjustments that likely need to occur within the surviving spouse’s daily life. Unfortunately, people who have lost spouses do not have the luxury of focusing on their emotional healing afterward.
Instead, they must actively involve themselves in the probate process to protect themselves and assert their rights. The law does protect surviving spouses, but people often have to know their rights to make use of them.
How can spouses who have lost their partners protect themselves during the probate process?
Claiming homestead rights
Spouses share assets and usually live together. Even in scenarios where both spouses do not have their names on the title record for the property, the surviving spouse typically has a protected interest in the marital home. Most of the time, it is possible to protect the home to prevent its sale to repay creditors. Surviving spouses may need to check with local authorities to ensure that the home has proper designation as a homestead. They may need to prepare to execute documents to assert their interest in the property depending on the current vesting.
Pursuing a will contest, if necessary
Perhaps there were challenges in the marriage. The deceased spouse may have disinherited the surviving spouse by leaving all of their property for others. In such scenarios, the surviving spouse may be able to claim their elective share of the estate by taking the matter to the Florida probate courts. Spouses generally have a baseline right to inherit specific property even if a will leaves nothing to them. They have the right to retain a vehicle that belonged to the deceased spouse and a certain amount of the estate’s overall value.
Utilizing retirement savings and pension benefits
Generally speaking, spouses have the right to continue receiving pension benefits when the primary beneficiary passes. They may also receive the funds that remain in a retirement account unless their spouse attached a different beneficiary designation to their account. Reviewing pension documents or communicating with the professionals administering a pension can help spouses verify what rights they have. They may also need to reach out to the financial professionals tasked with managing a retirement savings account.
Navigating probate proceedings while dealing with the grief of losing a spouse can be difficult. People who have appropriate support during the probate process are less likely to make mistakes or oversights that deprive them of their rights as a surviving spouse.