Florida Statute 731.106
“Assets of nondomiciliaries”
What it means
When someone domiciled elsewhere dies owning things connected to Florida, §731.106 answers the preliminary questions. Situs first: a debt owed to a nondomiciliary is located where the debtor resides (or keeps its principal office) — unless the debt is wrapped in an instrument, because investment and commercial paper sit wherever the paper is at death.
A nonresident's will can elect Florida law to govern the validity and effect of dispositions of property with a Florida situs. And for a decedent domiciled in a foreign country, the court can direct the Florida personal representative to distribute directly to the persons entitled under the law of the decedent's own domicile — Florida process, home-country shares.
- A debt owed to a nondomiciliary is located where the debtor resides or keeps its principal office.
- Debts evidenced by investment or commercial paper are located wherever the instrument is at death.
- A nonresident's will may elect Florida law for property with its situs in this state.
- For foreign-domiciled decedents, the court may order direct distribution to those entitled under the domicile's law.
How it plays out
This section runs quietly underneath every ancillary administration we open. Situs decides what belongs in the Florida proceeding at all; the distribution power decides where the money goes when the Florida work is done. In foreign-decedent files — and Southwest Florida produces plenty, with Canadian and European owners — we often ask the court to send the net proceeds straight to the heirs the home country's law names, rather than routing funds through a second foreign administration.
