Florida Small Estates: Summary Administration and Disposition Without Administration

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

This guide cites chapter 735 of the Florida Statutes for both procedures, with the exempt property definition from chapter 732. It is general information about the statutes, not advice about a particular estate.

Summary administration: who qualifies

Section 735.201 allows summary administration for a resident or nonresident decedent's estate when two things appear. First, in an estate with a will, the will must not direct administration under chapter 733, the formal procedure. Second, either the value of the entire estate subject to administration in Florida, less the value of property exempt from creditors' claims, does not exceed $150,000, or the decedent has been dead for more than 2 years. The $150,000 figure is the one in section 735.201 as amended by section 7 of Chapter 2026-57 (CS/HB 1337), approved by the Governor on April 29, 2026 and effective July 1, 2026, which raised the limit from $75,000. The 2 year branch tracks section 733.710, under which creditors' claims are barred 2 years after death, so an old estate no longer needs the creditor procedure of formal administration.

What counts as exempt from creditors' claims is set out in section 732.402: household furniture, furnishings and appliances in the decedent's home up to a net value of $20,000, two motor vehicles under 15,000 pounds used by the family, qualified tuition program accounts, and certain death benefits. Those items come off the top before the $150,000 test is applied.

The petition

A petition for summary administration may be filed by any beneficiary or by the person nominated as personal representative in the will (section 735.203). It must be signed and verified by the surviving spouse, if any, and by the beneficiaries, except that a beneficiary who will receive a full share under the proposed distribution need not join, and must instead be served with formal notice. If a required signer has died, is incapacitated or is a minor, the statute names who signs in their place. If a trust is a beneficiary and each trustee is a petitioner, formal notice goes to the trust's qualified beneficiaries unless they join.

What the court does

Under section 735.206, on the filing of the petition the will, if any, is proved and admitted to probate in the ordinary way. Before the order is entered the petitioner must make a diligent search for known or reasonably ascertainable creditors, serve a copy of the petition on them, and make provision to pay them to the extent assets are available. The court may then enter an order of summary administration allowing immediate distribution of the assets to the persons entitled to them.

That order does the work a personal representative would otherwise do. The people to whom parts of the estate are assigned are entitled to receive and collect them; debtors of the decedent, holders of the decedent's property and transfer agents are authorized to pay or transfer to the persons named in the order and are not accountable to anyone else; and buyers from those persons take free of the decedent's creditors and of the surviving spouse's and other beneficiaries' rights. Nonexempt property that remains in the recipients' hands stays liable for claims until they are barred.

Disposition without administration

Section 735.301 provides that no administration is required and no formal proceedings are instituted when the decedent left only personal property exempt under section 732.402, personal property exempt from creditors under the constitution, and nonexempt personal property worth no more than the sum of the preferred funeral expenses and the reasonable and necessary medical and hospital expenses of the last 60 days of the last illness. On an informal application by affidavit, letter or otherwise, and if the court is satisfied that the section applies, the court may by letter or other writing under seal authorize payment or transfer of the property to the persons entitled. Anyone who pays or transfers under that authorization is discharged from liability.

The Miami-Dade County clerk's probate office describes how it applies this in practice: it calls the filing a small estates petition, requires that the deceased was a Miami-Dade resident, that assets are $6,000 or less and do not exceed the funeral bill, and that the petitioner supply a certified death certificate, the itemized funeral contract, the paid receipt and documentation of assets, with assets released only to the party who paid the funeral. Practice varies by clerk, so check the office in the county of domicile.

Two things the shortcuts do not change

The original will still has to be deposited with the clerk within 10 days after the custodian learns of the death, whichever procedure follows (section 732.901). And neither procedure applies to property that never enters the estate: assets held in a funded living trust, accounts with a pay on death beneficiary, and property held with a right of survivorship pass under their own terms, which is the subject of the Florida transfer on death deed guide.

Why a living trust matters here

Summary administration is simpler than formal administration, but it is still a court case with a petition, signatures from every beneficiary, creditor searches and an order, and it does not apply when the estate exceeds $150,000. A funded living trust takes the home and accounts out of the estate entirely, so the successor trustee distributes them under the trust's terms without a petition or a value ceiling. See the Florida living trust page for what the Florida package includes.