Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in Florida

Based on the general facts described in your inquiry, my advice is to 1) not sign any settlement of the estate until 2) you find an experienced, attorney who represents you rather than the estate or your daughter. You are entitled to the life estate; you are entitled to compensation for your daughters misuse of estate benefits and may have the legal leverage to demand such compensation. Of course, you have the right to object to any action or settlement agreement of the personal representative, trustee, attorney, or other person administrating the estate. It appears the settlement agreement offered to you is to make the unfortunate situation acceptable to the court rather than to distribute your father's estate as he wished.

Mr Martin has given you good advice above. You should seek out and retain an experienced trust and estates litigator, this may in fact lead to you having a decent bargaining position in seeking and having leverage to gain a part of your right to inherit back from your father.

In the event that your daughter maliciously or fraudulently destroyed your status to inherit ffrom your father may well be actionable by you. But caution is to be taken, since this type of remedy is usually available only after you exhaust your rights if any in the probate process (e.g. if you were to be successful in overturing the Will or Trust then the tort you could otherwise bring against the daughter for interference would be moot). Your counselor should also discuss with you causes of action in: constructive trust, restitution, and equitable lien. The Florida limitations statutes only give you 4 years to commence an action from the time of father's death, except if a professional malpractice matter is invovled then only 2 years. Hope this helps.