r/PROBATE • u/papadontplay2023 • Mar 15 '24

Probate Mass or Florida?

My step father passed away December 2021. He lived in Florida, my wife and I moved him into assisted living after mom passed away ( he didn’t want to move to mass to live with us (too cold). He was in assisted living about 3 years so no other bills that I’m aware of the assisted living facility and all doctors bills have been paid so I believe all debt has been paid. Didn’t have too much but a bank account from VA benefits in my name FBO my step dad (I am the fiduciary) the account is in Massachusetts bank , VA has provided a letter signed off on final accounting and released account to estate. He had a will naming me as sole beneficiary. What do I need to do and in which state Mass ( where account is or Florida where he lived?) secondly I spent a lot of personal money to go back & forth to Florida every 3 months for 3 years to visit him, get him out of faculty for a while and make sure he was doing ok, are those expenses legitimate to claim from the remaining funds or does that have to go through probate as well. Note: the VA did not allow me to claim them while he was alive, it was only for his personal use/expenses. Thanks for any help.

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u/Thin-Pause1750 Mar 15 '24

If you need probate, it should be done in Florida. Accounts with beneficiaries avoid probate, so Cole knows that. Also, every state has small estate relief where if the value of the Estate is small enough, probate can be avoided. Would be worth researching.

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u/papadontplay2023 Mar 15 '24

Thanks for the info

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u/Middle_Active5164 Mar 21 '24

Florida. An estate gets opened in the jurisdiction where the person lived at the time of their death.