Her mother died without a will and the partner claims everything. The life insurance, furniture, and house each follow different rules in Florida.
What happens if your mother died without a will and her partner wants everything? This episode covers how three assets pass differently when someone died intestate in Florida.
Life insurance goes to the named beneficiary. The $8,000 is hers. It does not pass through probate and no creditor of the estate can reach it. A child is not personally liable for a parent's debt.
Furniture the mother owned before the relationship passes through her estate. Under Florida's intestate succession, when there is no surviving spouse, descendants inherit. The daughter may need to open probate to take legal possession.
The house turns on whether the quitclaim deed created joint tenancy with right of survivorship. If it did, the partner owns it. If the deed was defective, the mother's interest passed to her estate and the daughter inherited it.
Do you need probate if your mother dies in Florida? For personal property above a certain value, yes. The intestate succession guide at StepUpLaw covers the full order of inheritance.
Transcript
A question came in this week from someone whose mother died at fifty-seven after a cosmetic surgery. The mother had been living with a partner she never married, and now the partner is claiming everything, the house they bought together, the furniture she owned before they met, and eight thousand dollars from a life insurance policy where her daughter is the only named beneficiary. The daughter has receipts for the furniture going back to 2016, before the relationship started. The partner wants her out of the house and says everything inside belongs to him.
Three pieces decide this, and they follow different rules. The house turns on what the deed actually says. The furniture turns on whether it was the mother’s property when she died. The life insurance turns on who the beneficiary is, and the answer there is the simplest one.
Start with the life insurance, because it is not close. The daughter is the sole named beneficiary. That money is hers. It does not pass through probate, it does not belong to the mother’s estate, and no creditor of the mother’s estate has any claim against it. The partner asking for eight thousand dollars from that policy is asking for a gift. The daughter does not owe it. The debt for the surgery was the mother’s debt, and in Florida a child is not personally liable for a parent’s debts. If there is an estate with assets, the creditor can file a claim against the estate. The daughter’s pocket is not the estate.
The furniture is different. Personal property the mother owned before the relationship, and kept owning, is part of her estate when she dies. The receipts matter. If she bought it before they lived together and never gave it away, it passed to her heirs at death. The mother died without a will, which means Florida’s intestate succession statute controls. Under section 732.103, when there is no surviving spouse, the estate goes to the decedent’s descendants. That is the daughter. The furniture is hers.
But she has to claim it. In Florida, personal property over a certain value requires probate or at least summary administration to transfer. The daughter may need to open a small probate case in Osceola County, get appointed as personal representative, and then she has the legal authority to take possession of property that belongs to the estate. Without that, she is asking the partner to hand over property voluntarily, and he has already said no.
The house is the hard one. The partner apparently put the house in his name alone when they bought it in 2019. Then in 2022, he signed a quitclaim deed adding her, and the question is whether that deed gave them survivorship rights. Florida does not recognize joint tenancy with right of survivorship by default. Section 689.15 says a conveyance to two or more people creates a tenancy in common unless the instrument expressly provides for the right of survivorship. If the 2022 deed did that, if it said “as joint tenants with right of survivorship” or used the statutory language, then when the mother died her interest passed automatically to the surviving joint tenant. That is the partner. The house is his.
But that only works if the deed was drafted correctly and actually recorded. The first step is to pull the deed from the Osceola County Clerk’s records and read the exact language. A quitclaim deed that does not expressly create survivorship rights creates a tenancy in common, and if that is what happened, the mother’s half-interest passed to her estate. That means the daughter inherited it.
Here is the practical picture. If the deed created survivorship and was properly recorded, the partner owns the house and the daughter has no claim to it. If the deed was defective, she may own half of it and can force a partition sale. Either way, she owns the furniture her mother owned before the relationship, and she owns the life insurance proceeds outright. Nobody can make her pay the surgery loan from her own money.
What the daughter does this week is three things. Pull the recorded deed from the clerk’s office and read the survivorship language. Gather every receipt that proves the furniture was her mother’s. And do not write a check for eight thousand dollars to anyone.
Read the full guide at stepuplaw.com/florida-intestate-succession
Related reading and listening at StepUpLaw
- What Happens to Debt When Someone Dies in Florida?
- Do I Need Probate in Florida? Free Qualifier Tool
- Florida Beneficiary Designations: They Override Your Will
- Episode 8, No Spouse, No Kids. Leaving Your Estate to Charity in Florida
- Episode 21, Does a Beneficiary Form Override Your Will?
- Episode 15, Does Your Florida Estate Qualify for Summary Administration
Related guides
- What Happens to Debt When Someone Dies in Florida?
- Do I Need Probate in Florida? Free Qualifier Tool
- Florida Beneficiary Designations: They Override Your Will
Stepping Up is hosted 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. Episodes are general information about Florida law, not legal advice, and listening does not create an attorney-client relationship.
