Florida Probate: How the Process Actually Works

Probate is the court-supervised process of collecting a deceased person’s assets, paying valid debts, and distributing what remains to the people entitled to it. In Florida it happens in the circuit court of the county where the decedent lived, and it comes in two main forms: summary administration for smaller or older estates, and formal administration for everything else. Assets titled in the decedent’s sole name generally must pass through probate; assets with beneficiary designations, joint owners with survivorship, or a funded living trust generally do not.

When Is Probate Required in Florida?

Probate is required when the decedent owned assets in their sole name with no automatic mechanism to transfer them at death. Common examples:

• A bank or brokerage account with no payable-on-death beneficiary
• A home or other real estate titled only in the decedent’s name
• A car, a final paycheck, a refund owed to the decedent

Probate is generally not required for:

• Assets in a funded revocable living trust
• Life insurance and retirement accounts with living named beneficiaries
• Property owned jointly with right of survivorship, or as tenants by the entireties between spouses
• Bank accounts with POD/TOD designations

Having a will does not avoid probate. A will is a set of instructions to the probate court: it controls who receives the estate, but the estate still goes through the process.

What Are the Types of Florida Probate?

Disposition without administration (§735.301, Fla. Stat.) is not really probate at all. Available only when the estate consists of exempt personal property and nonexempt personal property that does not exceed the preferred funeral expenses plus the last 60 days of medical bills. Effective July 1, 2026, Florida also doubled the small-estate figures in this corner of the law, so intestate estates with personal property up to $20,000 can now be resolved without opening an administration. It’s a form filed with the clerk, mostly used to recover a small final bank balance.

Summary administration (Chapter 735, Fla. Stat.) — a shortened proceeding available when the estate subject to administration in Florida, less exempt property, is worth $150,000 or less (threshold doubled from $75,000 effective July 1, 2026), or the decedent has been dead more than two years. No personal representative is appointed; the court simply orders distribution of the assets.

Formal administration (Chapter 733, Fla. Stat.) is full probate. The court appoints a personal representative, creditors are noticed and given a claim window, and the personal representative administers and closes the estate. Required for larger estates and usually the better choice when there are debts to cut off, assets still to be located, or disputes brewing.

How Long Does Florida Probate Take?

Summary administration commonly runs a few weeks to a few months, depending mostly on how quickly the court signs the order. Formal administration realistically runs six months to a year for a routine estate, and longer if there is a homestead issue, a will contest, a tax return, or property to sell. The creditor claim period alone is three months from first publication of the notice to creditors (§733.702, Fla. Stat.).

Do I Need a Lawyer for Florida Probate?

For formal administration, yes — Florida Probate Rule 5.030 requires the personal representative to be represented by an attorney unless the personal representative is the sole interested person (or is themselves an attorney). For summary administration, representation is not always mandatory, but the petition still has to correctly account for homestead status, exempt property, and creditor exposure, which is where self-filed petitions most often go wrong.

What Should I Do First After a Death?

1. Locate the original will, if there is one. The custodian of a will must deposit it with the clerk of court within 10 days of learning of the death (§732.901, Fla. Stat.).
2. Order several certified death certificates.
3. Do not distribute, spend, or “just transfer” anything yet, especially the house. Homestead property has its own rules that trip up families constantly. See Florida homestead in probate.
4. Make a rough list of what the decedent owned and how it was titled. What needs probate depends on how each asset was titled.

The Florida Probate Guides

Each part of the process gets its own detailed guide:

• Summary Administration in Florida: Who Qualifies and How It Works
• Formal Administration in Florida: Steps, Timeline, and What the Personal Representative Actually Does
• Florida Homestead in Probate: Why the House Has Its Own Rules
• Ancillary Probate in Florida: When an Out-of-State Resident Dies Owning Florida Property
• Florida Just Doubled the Summary Administration Limit to $150,000

Common Questions

Does Florida probate control out-of-state property? No. Real estate in another state needs a proceeding there (ancillary administration works in reverse for out-of-state decedents owning Florida property).

What if there’s no will? The estate is intestate and passes by statute to the surviving spouse and descendants in the shares set by §§732.102–732.103, Fla. Stat. The process itself is the same.

Can probate be avoided after death? Mostly no. Avoidance planning (trusts, beneficiary designations, deeds) has to happen before death. After death, the only question is which form of probate applies.

Reviewed by David A. Shulman, Florida Bar Board Certified in Wills, Trusts & Estates. Last updated July 2026.