Summary Administration in Florida: The $150,000 Rule

On 1 July 2026 the ceiling for Florida summary administration doubled, from $75,000 to $150,000. A great many estates that would have needed full formal administration last year now qualify for a proceeding that is shorter, cheaper, and appoints no personal representative at all.

Most of what you will find written about this is out of date. This page is current, it cites the session law rather than the statute page, and it covers the two things that decide whether summary administration actually works for you: whether the homestead counts toward the ceiling, and the creditor step that is optional but protects the people who inherit.

What is summary administration in Florida?

It is Florida’s shortened probate route. Instead of appointing a personal representative, opening an estate, and administering it over months, the court reviews a petition and — if the estate qualifies — enters an order distributing the assets directly to the people entitled to them.

Under §735.201 there are two independent routes in, and you only need one:

• 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 two years, whatever the estate is worth.

The second route matters more than people expect. After two years, creditor claims are barred outright, so the size of the estate stops being the question.

The $150,000 Florida summary administration limit, and why most sources are wrong

Chapter 2026-57, Laws of Florida (CS/HB 1337), approved 29 April 2026 and effective 1 July 2026, raised the §735.201 ceiling from $75,000 to $150,000. The Supreme Court of Florida amended Florida Probate Rule 5.530(a)(7) to match, in In re Amendments to Florida Probate Rules — 2026 Legislation, No. SC2026-0690 (16 July 2026).

The same act moved three companion figures:

• Intestate small estate settled without any court proceeding: $10,000 → $20,000
• Income tax refund payable to a spouse or child without opening an estate: $2,500 → $5,000
• Bank account released by affidavit, no court order: $1,000 → $2,000

Two things are worth stating precisely, because most published summaries get them wrong.

The statute page still shows the old number. The official text at leg.state.fl.us and flsenate.gov displays $75,000, because no 2026 edition of the statutes has been posted. The current figure comes from the session law, not from that page.

This is worth dwelling on, because the statutes page is one of the first results Google returns for “summary administration florida.” Someone researching this today can land on the state’s own website and read a superseded number. The Florida Bar’s consumer pamphlet and several county clerk handouts carry the old figure too. If a source says $75,000 and does not cite Chapter 2026-57, it was written before July. That is not a criticism of those sources — it is simply how long it takes a statutory change to propagate.

There is no date-of-death cut-off. Chapter 2026-57 contains no applicability clause tied to when the decedent died. It says only that the act takes effect 1 July 2026, and §735.201 keys eligibility to the value of the estate subject to administration, not to a date. Sources describing the new ceiling as applying only where death occurred on or after 1 July are adding a limitation the statute does not contain.

Who qualifies for summary administration in Florida?

Work the first route carefully, because the arithmetic is not the obvious one.

The test is the value of the estate subject to administration, less property exempt from creditors’ claims. Two subtractions happen before you compare anything to $150,000.

Non-probate assets never enter the calculation at all. A bank account with a payable-on-death beneficiary, a life insurance policy with a named beneficiary, a retirement account, property held jointly with right of survivorship — none of it passes through probate, so none of it counts.

Then exempt property comes out. Section 732.402 exempts certain household furnishings, two motor vehicles, and qualified tuition programs, among other things. And then there is the homestead.

Why Florida homestead usually does not count toward the $150,000

This is the single biggest reason estates qualify that people assume will not.

Section 733.608(1) provides that all property of the decedent except the protected homestead constitutes assets in the hands of the personal representative. Protected homestead is generally exempt from creditors’ claims when it passes to heirs — so its value comes out of the calculation before you test the ceiling.

Work an ordinary Miami example. A condo worth $320,000 and a savings account holding $40,000. That looks like a $360,000 estate and far too large. But if the condo is protected homestead passing to heirs, the estate subject to administration is the $40,000 account. It qualifies comfortably.

That is a legal conclusion, not an assumption. Whether a particular house is protected homestead depends on how it was devised and to whom it inures, and the court determines it as a step of its own. Get it wrong in either direction and the petition fails.

Summary administration compared with formal administration and disposition without administration

	Disposition without administration	Summary administration	Formal administration
Governing law	§735.301	§735.201–§735.2063	Chapter 733
Value limit	Funeral + last 60 days’ medical expenses	$150,000 excluding exempt property, or dead 2+ years	None
Real property allowed	No	Yes	Yes
Personal representative appointed	No	No	Yes
Attorney required	No	Usually not required by rule	Yes — Rule 5.030, unless sole interested person
How it starts	Informal application, by affidavit or letter	Verified petition	Petition for administration
Creditor bar	—	3 months from first publication, if you publish	3 months from first publication
Typical timeline	Days to weeks	Weeks	Months to years
What you end up with	A letter from the court authorising transfer	An order distributing assets	Letters of administration, then a final accounting

And one route that does not exist. Florida has no general small estate affidavit. A great many people search for one, download an out-of-state template, and find that no Florida bank or clerk will accept it. The four Florida routes are the three above plus the narrow bank-account affidavit under §735.303 — now $2,000. If someone hands you a “Florida small estate affidavit” form, check what statute it cites before you rely on it.

Who files a Florida summary administration petition and who must sign

Under §735.203, the petition is signed and verified by the surviving spouse, if there is one, and by the beneficiaries — with one exception: a beneficiary who will receive a full distributive share under the proposed distribution need not join.

If a beneficiary will not sign, that does not stop the case. Formal notice of the petition must be served on any beneficiary who does not join. They get notice and an opportunity to object; their refusal is not a veto.

The relative nobody can find is the real obstacle. Reconstructing who the heirs are, and locating them, is usually the work — not the paperwork that follows.

What a summary administration petition must establish

A petition for summary administration is short, and that is exactly why it gets rejected. Every element has to be on the face of it:

• That the estate qualifies — either the value figure with exempt property already subtracted, or that death was more than two years ago.
• A description of every asset subject to administration, with a date-of-death value for each, and the ones you are excluding as exempt or non-probate identified as such.
• Who is entitled to what, and the proposed distribution — the order will track this, so an error here becomes an error on title.
• That a diligent search for creditors was made, what it found, and how those debts are provided for. This is the element most often done thinly.
• Verification — the petition is sworn, not merely signed.

Where there is a will, the original has to reach the clerk in paper and be proved before the court will act on the petition.

The two-year route to summary administration in Florida

The second door into §735.201 gets treated as a footnote and deserves better. If the decedent has been dead more than two years, the value ceiling disappears entirely — a multi-million-dollar estate can proceed by summary administration.

The reason is that Florida’s non-claim provision bars creditor claims two years after death regardless of whether anyone published anything. Once no claims can be made, the main purpose of a formal administration — orderly payment of creditors — has nothing to do.

In practice this is the route for the house nobody dealt with. A parent dies, the family keeps paying the taxes, and years later someone needs to sell and finds title still in the decedent’s name. That estate does not need formal administration however valuable the property is. It needs a petition establishing the date of death and the heirs.

What Florida circuit courts require in a summary administration filing

Summary administration is a state procedure, but you file it in a particular circuit, and circuits publish their own requirements on top of the statute.

The Eleventh Judicial Circuit, which covers Miami-Dade, publishes separate probate checklists — including one specifically for summary administration where there is no will — setting out every document the clerk expects and the order they expect it in. Several county clerks publish complete petition packets. Seminole County’s petition-for-summary-administration-with-will packet is a good example of how much local variation there is in what gets asked for.

Two practical consequences.

Get the local checklist before you draft anything. It will tell you whether the circuit wants a separate petition to determine homestead status, how it wants the proposed order formatted, and whether it requires anything the statute does not.

Do not assume a form from one county works in another. A packet published by one clerk reflects that clerk’s practice. It is a useful model, not a statewide form.

Where there is no will, the intestate version of the petition is a different document from the testate one, and most circuits treat them as separate filings with separate checklists.

Can you file summary administration without a lawyer?

More plausibly than you can do a formal administration, and the reason is structural.

Florida Probate Rule 5.030(a) requires every personal representative to be represented by a Florida attorney unless they remain the sole interested person. Summary administration does not ordinarily involve appointing a personal representative — the court distributes directly — so the rule does not bite the way it does in a formal administration.

That said, be careful with the conclusion. Circuits differ in what they expect from a self-represented petitioner, and the petition itself carries requirements that are easy to get wrong: the homestead determination, the exempt-property arithmetic, the beneficiary joinder and formal notice under §735.203, and the diligent search for creditors. A petition that is deficient gets rejected, and the estate’s deadlines keep running while you fix it.

Check the practice in the circuit where the estate will be filed before assuming you can do it alone.

When a Florida probate lawyer is worth it in summary administration

The rule not requiring one is not the same as it being a good idea. The situations where a summary administration reliably goes wrong without help:

• There is real property, and the order will have to function as a title document. A defective legal description surfaces years later when someone tries to sell.
• The homestead determination is contested or unclear — whether the property is protected homestead decides both eligibility and who takes it.
• A beneficiary will not join the petition, so formal notice has to be served correctly under §735.203.
• There are creditors, or you are not certain there are none. The diligent search is an element of the petition, and getting it wrong leaves the people who inherit personally exposed.
• Someone has already been paying the decedent’s bills and expects reimbursement from the estate.
• The estate is close to the $150,000 line, where the exempt-property arithmetic decides whether you are in summary administration or formal administration.
• The decedent lived out of state and this is an ancillary proceeding for Florida property.

None of these makes the case difficult. They make it the kind of case where a rejected petition or a defective order costs considerably more than doing it properly the first time.

What an order of summary administration does, and what happens next

This is the part that gets least attention and matters most to whoever inherits.

Under §735.206, the court enters an order allowing immediate distribution of the assets to the persons entitled to them, naming who receives what.

Then the consequence people do not expect: those recipients become personally liable for a pro rata share of all lawful claims against the estate, up to the value of what each actually received, excluding exempt property. Receiving under a summary administration order is not the same as receiving free and clear.

Three limits soften it:

• Two years from the date of death, neither the estate nor those to whom it was assigned is liable for any claim, unless proceedings to enforce it began before then.
• Only creditors who were properly noticed, and for whom payment was not provided, can pursue a recipient. A creditor who was not notified may still recover, but must prove entitlement to reasonable attorney’s fees as costs.
• Someone who buys property from a recipient takes it free of all creditor claims. The exposure attaches to the person who inherited, not to the property in a purchaser’s hands.

The creditor notice step in Florida summary administration

Here is the thing that is easy to miss reading the statute: under §735.2063, publishing a notice to creditors in a summary administration is optional. The statute says a person who obtains the order may publish.

But publication is what buys the bar. Once proof of publication is filed, all claims of creditors who are not known or not reasonably ascertainable are forever barred unless filed within three months after first publication. The notice must comply with §733.2121 and must state the total value of the estate and the names and addresses of those to whom it has been assigned.

Skip it, and there is no three-month bar. The recipients simply carry the §735.206 exposure until the two-year mark passes.

Optional in the statute. Rarely optional in practice.

Summary administration where there is real estate

Unlike disposition without administration, summary administration can be used where the decedent owned real property — and it is one of the most common reasons to choose it.

Two things drive the case. First, the homestead determination, which decides both whether the estate fits under $150,000 and how the property passes. Second, the order itself: an order of summary administration operates on title, which is what a title insurer or a buyer will want to see before the property can be sold.

If the plan is to sell, raise that at the start. It shapes how the petition is drafted.

Using an order of summary administration as a title document

Once entered, the order of summary administration is what a title examiner reads. It is doing the job that letters of administration and a personal representative’s deed do in a formal administration — moving title from the decedent to named people — and it does it in a single instrument.

Which means the property descriptions in the petition matter more than anything else on the page. Take the legal description from the recorded deed, not from the tax bill. An abbreviated or inaccurate description produces an order that does not cleanly convey, and the defect surfaces years later when someone tries to sell — at which point curing it costs multiples of what the administration did.

If the homestead is protected and passes to heirs, expect the court to determine that separately. Several circuits publish their own homestead checklists for exactly this, and the determination is what a title insurer will want alongside the order.

Florida property when the decedent owned real estate in another state

Summary administration handles Florida property. If the decedent lived elsewhere and owned a Florida condo, this is often the right route for the Florida asset — an ancillary proceeding — while the home state handles the rest. The reverse also holds: a Florida resident with an out-of-state property will need something opened in that state, and a Florida order does not reach it.

How long does summary administration take in Florida?

Weeks rather than months, in a clean case — materially faster than the formal route, which commonly runs the better part of a year or longer.

The variables are the clerk’s queue in the county where you file, whether a homestead determination is needed, whether every beneficiary joins or has to be formally noticed, and whether you publish notice to creditors and wait out the three months before distributing. The paperwork is rarely the slow part.

Florida summary administration checklist: what to gather before you file

1. Certified copy of the death certificate.
2. The original will, if there is one — it has to reach the clerk in paper.
3. A list of every asset with a date-of-death value, separating probate from non-probate.
4. The deed to any real property, and whether it was the decedent’s homestead.
5. Names, addresses and relationships of the surviving spouse and every beneficiary.
6. A diligent search for creditors — known debts, and the search you did to find unknown ones.
7. Funeral expenses and any medical expenses from the last 60 days.
8. Whether anyone has already paid estate debts out of pocket and expects reimbursement.

Where Florida summary administration petitions go wrong

Counting the homestead. The most common reason a family concludes they do not qualify when they do.

Counting non-probate assets. Payable-on-death accounts and jointly held property inflate the number and do not belong in it.

Skipping the creditor search. The petition requires a diligent search. A cursory one leaves the recipients exposed and can be challenged later.

Distributing before the three months run. If you publish and then distribute early, the recipients carry the risk personally.

Assuming the two-year route is automatic. It removes the value ceiling, not the rest of the requirements.

To talk through whether an estate qualifies, call (305) 224-6811 or send a message through the contact page.

Florida summary administration FAQs

What is the summary administration limit in Florida in 2026?

$150,000, raised from $75,000 by Chapter 2026-57, Laws of Florida, effective 1 July 2026. The figure is measured on the estate subject to administration less property exempt from creditors’ claims, so the protected homestead generally comes out before you test it. There is also a second route with no value limit at all where the decedent has been dead more than two years.

Does the house count toward the $150,000?

Usually not. Under §733.608(1) all property except the protected homestead constitutes assets in the personal representative’s hands, and protected homestead passing to heirs is generally exempt from creditors’ claims — so it comes out of the calculation. Whether a particular property is protected homestead is a determination the court makes, not something to assume.

What does an order of summary administration do?

Under §735.206 it authorises immediate distribution of the assets and names who receives what. It also makes those recipients personally liable for a pro rata share of lawful claims, capped at the value each received. A purchaser who later buys from a recipient takes the property free of creditor claims.

Do I have to publish a notice to creditors?

No — §735.2063 says you may. But publishing is what starts the three-month bar for unknown creditors. Without it, the people who inherited stay exposed until two years from the date of death.

What forms do I need for summary administration in Florida?

At minimum a verified petition, the death certificate, the original will if there is one, and a proposed order. Beyond that it varies: many county clerks publish complete petition packets, and circuits publish their own checklists specifying what they want and in what order. Get the checklist for the circuit where you are filing before you draft — a packet from a different county is a model, not a form you can rely on.

Can creditors still come after my family after the estate is distributed?

Yes, within limits. Under §735.206 the people who received assets are personally liable for a pro rata share of lawful claims, capped at the value each received and excluding exempt property. That exposure ends two years after the date of death, or sooner for unknown creditors if a notice to creditors was published and the three months ran. It is the main argument for publishing.

Is a personal representative appointed in summary administration?

No. That is the structural difference from formal administration. The court orders distribution directly to the people entitled, which is also why Rule 5.030’s attorney requirement does not apply in the same way.

Can summary administration be used if there is a will?

Yes, provided the will does not require formal administration. The will is still deposited with the clerk and proved, and the distribution follows it rather than the intestate statute. Most circuits treat the testate and intestate petitions as separate filings with separate checklists.

Can you use summary administration if there is no will?

Yes. Intestacy does not disqualify an estate — the distribution simply follows Florida’s intestate succession rules instead of a will. The Eleventh Circuit publishes a summary administration checklist specifically for intestate estates, which is a good indication of how routine it is.

What happens if another asset turns up after the order?

The order distributes the assets described in the petition. An asset that was not described is not covered by it, so reaching that asset takes a further filing. This is one reason the asset schedule in the petition matters more than its length suggests — and one reason to search properly before filing rather than after.

How much does summary administration cost in Florida?

Less than formal administration, and the honest answer beyond that is that it depends on the estate. A single bank account with one beneficiary is a different piece of work from a homestead determination with a beneficiary who will not sign. There are filing fees payable to the clerk regardless, and publication costs if you publish notice to creditors. Tell me what the estate looks like and I will tell you what it takes before you commit to anything.