Florida Probate Process: Steps, Deadlines and the Shortcuts

By Rozsa Gyene, California estate planning attorney, State Bar of California #208356. Published September 28, 2026. Last reviewed September 28, 2026.

This guide walks through formal administration, the ordinary Florida probate, and then the two shorter procedures. Each rule is cited to the section of the Florida Statutes it comes from. It is general information, not advice about any particular estate.

Where the case is filed

Venue for probating a will and granting letters is the county where the decedent was domiciled; if the decedent had no Florida domicile, any county where the decedent's property is located (section 733.101). Filings go through the clerk of the court in that county, the same clerk that takes the will on deposit; the Miami page describes the Miami-Dade clerk's probate office.

Step 1: deposit the will within 10 days

Whoever holds the original will must deposit it with the clerk of the court having venue within 10 days after learning that the testator is dead, giving the clerk the date of death or the last four digits of the Social Security number (section 732.901). A custodian who refuses can be compelled by petition and made to pay costs and attorney's fees. The clerk keeps the original will for at least 20 years, whether or not it is ever probated.

Step 2: appointing the personal representative

Florida calls the executor or administrator the personal representative. Section 733.301 sets the order of preference. In a testate estate: the person nominated in the will, then the person selected by a majority in interest of those entitled to the estate, then a devisee. In an intestate estate: the surviving spouse, then the person selected by a majority in interest of the heirs, then the heir nearest in degree. Any adult Florida resident is qualified to serve (section 733.302). A person is not qualified if the person has been convicted of a felony, has been convicted in any state or foreign jurisdiction of abuse, neglect or exploitation of an elderly person or a disabled adult, is mentally or physically unable to perform the duties, or is under 18 (section 733.303). A person who is not domiciled in Florida cannot qualify unless the person is a legally adopted child or adoptive parent of the decedent, is related to the decedent by lineal consanguinity, is a spouse, brother, sister, uncle, aunt, nephew or niece of the decedent or someone related by lineal consanguinity to any such person, or is the spouse of a person otherwise qualified (section 733.304). Every fiduciary granted letters must file a bond with surety unless the will or the court waives it, and the court may waive, require or adjust the bond on petition (section 733.402).

Step 3: the notice of administration

The personal representative promptly serves a notice of administration on the surviving spouse, the beneficiaries, certain trustees and anyone who may be entitled to exempt property (section 733.212). The notice identifies the estate, the court and the representative, and warns that any objection to the validity of the will, the venue or the court's jurisdiction must be filed within 3 months after service; in any event such objections are barred one year after service or on the order of final discharge. The same notice starts the clock for a surviving spouse's elective share election and a claim to exempt property, described in the Florida spouse's rights guide.

Step 4: notice to creditors and the claims period

The representative promptly publishes a notice to creditors once a week for two consecutive weeks in a newspaper published in the county, and must make a diligent search for reasonably ascertainable creditors and serve them (section 733.2121). A claim not filed within 3 months after the first publication, or within 30 days after service on a creditor who had to be served, is barred (section 733.702). Two years after death, no claim may be brought at all except by a creditor who already filed (section 733.710).

Step 5: the inventory

The representative files a verified inventory of the estate's property, listed with reasonable detail and the estimated fair market value of each item at the date of death, and files an amended inventory if property is later found or a value was wrong (section 733.604). Inventories and accountings filed with the clerk are confidential and exempt from Florida's public records law; they are available to the representative, the representative's attorney and interested persons.

Step 6: distribution and discharge

After administration has been completed, the personal representative is discharged, and the discharge releases the representative and bars any action against the representative and the surety (section 733.901). Time between the steps is set by the representative's work and the court's calendar; the Florida Statutes set the deadlines above, not an overall length, so none is estimated here.

Summary administration

Summary administration is available when the will does not direct formal administration and either the value of the entire estate subject to administration in Florida, less the property exempt from creditors' claims, does not exceed $150,000, or the decedent has been dead for more than 2 years (section 735.201, as amended by Chapter 2026-57, which raised the limit from $75,000 effective July 1, 2026). Any beneficiary or the person nominated in the will may petition, and the petition is signed by the surviving spouse and the beneficiaries (section 735.203). The will is proved and admitted, known creditors are served and provided for, and the court may enter an order of summary administration allowing immediate distribution; that order authorizes banks and other holders of the property to transfer it (section 735.206).

Disposition without administration

The smallest estates skip proceedings entirely. When the estate consists only of personal property that is exempt under section 732.402 or the constitution, plus nonexempt personal property worth no more than the preferred funeral expenses and the reasonable medical expenses of the last 60 days, the court may, on an informal application by affidavit or letter, authorize payment of that property to the persons entitled (section 735.301). The Miami-Dade clerk's probate office, for example, describes this as a small estates petition and lists what it requires; see the Miami page.

The homestead

Florida's constitution limits how a homestead can be left. Section 732.4015 restates the rule: the homestead may not be devised if the owner is survived by a spouse or a minor child, except that it may be devised to the spouse when there is no minor child. That rule applies to a homestead held in a revocable trust as if the grantor owned it. The spouse's rights guide explains what the surviving spouse receives instead.

What a living trust changes

Property that was transferred into a living trust during life belongs to the trust, so it is not part of the estate the representative inventories and the court administers. The successor trustee handles it under the trust's terms. Property left outside the trust still goes through the steps above, which is why a Florida trust package includes a pour-over will and funding instructions. See the Florida living trust page for what the package includes and how it is signed.