Summary Administration in Florida: The $150,000 Rule

On July 1, 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Most of what you will find written about this is out of date.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 both the session law and the amended statute, and it covers the three things that decide whether summary administration actually works for you: whether the homestead counts toward the ceiling, whether the new limit reaches a death that happened before July 2026, 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.

You will see it called other things. Summary probate, simplified probate, summary probate administration and a summary of administration all refer to this same §735.201 proceeding — there is only one, whatever a form or a clerk calls it.

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. It has a section of its own below.

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

Chapter 2026-57, Laws of Florida (CS/HB 1337), approved April 29, 2026 and effective July 1, 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 (July 16, 2026).

The same act moved four companion figures:

• §735.304 — intestate small estate settled by affidavit: $10,000 → $20,000
• §735.302 — income tax refund payable to a spouse or child without opening an estate: $2,500 → $5,000
• §735.303 — bank account released by affidavit, no court order: $1,000 → $2,000
• §733.6125 — new: a personal representative who has to sue an institution that refuses to honor their letters can now recover attorney’s fees. That one does not reach summary administration, for reasons covered below.

Why so much of what you will read still says $75,000

Timing, mostly. The change took effect on July 1, 2026, and most Florida probate pages were written before that and never revisited. Archived editions of the statutes compound it: the 2025 edition is still online, still says $75,000, and still ranks in search results as though it were current. So does Justia’s copy of the 2025 code, whose history note stops at 2001 and does not mention the 2026 amendment at all. The Florida Bar’s consumer pamphlet and several county clerk handouts still carry the old figure too.

The current text is at §735.201 in the 2026 Florida Statutes. Its History line ends “s. 7, ch. 2026-57” — that is the amendment.

A test you can apply yourself. If a source says $75,000 and does not cite Chapter 2026-57, it was written before July 2026. That is not a criticism of those sources — it is simply how long a statutory change takes to propagate.

The $150,000 test, in the order you actually apply it

Three different things get left out of this calculation, and most published guidance runs them together into one vague “assets” figure. They are not the same, and they come out at different stages.

An estate that looks like $190,000 on a bank statement can be a $120,000 estate for this purpose, and a house of any value can sit outside the calculation entirely. That is why the number in the statute is a poor guide to whether your family qualifies, and why the arithmetic is worth doing properly before anyone files anything.

Does the $150,000 limit apply if my relative died before July 1, 2026?

This is the question with the most money riding on it, and the answers being published across Florida right now contradict each other. Several firms are telling families that a death before July 1, 2026 is locked to the old $75,000 ceiling. Nothing in the enacted law says that.

The act says one thing about timing, and only one thing. Section 14 of Ch. 2026-57 reads, in its entirety: “This act shall take effect July 1, 2026.” There is no applicability clause. There is no savings clause. There is no sentence anywhere in the act tying the new ceiling to when the decedent died.

And a separate statute says when eligibility is measured. §735.2055 provides that a petition for summary administration “may be filed at any stage of the administration of an estate if it appears that at the time of filing the estate would qualify.” At the time of filing. Not at the date of death.

Read together, those two provisions point the same way: for a petition filed on or after July 1, 2026, the ceiling that applies is the one in force when you file — $150,000 — whether the person died last month or in 2023. Sources describing the new ceiling as reaching only deaths on or after July 1 are adding a limitation the statute does not contain.

Being straight with you about how new this is. The amendment took effect in July. No Florida appellate court has construed its reach, and until one does, judicial divisions can take different views — particularly on whether a change like this is procedural or substantive. What I can tell you is that the argument for the higher ceiling rests on the text of two statutes, and the argument against it rests on an applicability clause the Legislature did not write. If an estate you were told was too large sits between $75,000 and $150,000, that answer was given under the old law and is worth revisiting rather than assumed.

If you were quoted a formal administration in 2024 or 2025 for an estate in that band, bring me the date of death and a current list of assets. It takes very little time to work out which side of the line the estate falls on now, and the difference between the two proceedings is months and several thousand dollars.

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 — run through the three buckets above before you compare anything to $150,000.

There is also a second eligibility requirement that catches people out. Under §735.201(1), a testate estate does not qualify if the decedent’s will directs administration as required by chapter 733. Boilerplate language requiring a full formal administration appears in a surprising number of wills, and where it does, it forecloses the short route no matter how small the estate is. Read the will before you do the arithmetic.

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

This is the single biggest reason estates qualify that people assume will not. And the mechanism is worth setting out properly, because it is four steps and the fourth one settles it:

1. The statute subtracts exempt property. §735.201(2) measures “the value of the entire estate subject to administration in this state, less the value of property exempt from the claims of creditors.”
2. Protected homestead is exempt from creditors’ claims. Not by statute — by Article X, Section 4 of the Florida Constitution, which places homestead beyond the reach of forced sale by creditors.
3. So it comes out before the $150,000 test. That is the whole mechanism.
4. And the petition form says so on its face. Florida Probate Rule 5.530(a)(8) requires the petition to give “a description of all assets in the estate and the estimated value of each, and a separate description of any protected homestead and exempt property.” The rule makes you list homestead in its own place, apart from the assets being counted. You can see the answer in the structure of the form you are filling out.

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. See homestead and a surviving spouse’s rights.

The two-year route: no dollar limit at all

The second door into §735.201 gets treated as a footnote and deserves better.

If the decedent has been dead more than two years, summary administration is available no matter what the estate is worth. Not $150,000. Not $500,000. There is no figure. §735.201(2) states the value test and the two-year test as alternatives, and satisfying either one qualifies the estate.

The reason the statute can be that generous is that the creditor problem has already solved itself. §733.710 bars claims against a Florida estate two years after death whether or not anyone published a notice to creditors, and §735.206(4)(f) says the same about the people who receive the assets. By the time this route opens, the window creditors needed has closed. More on creditor claims in Florida probate.

Where this comes up. 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 a formal administration however valuable the property is. It needs a petition establishing the date of death and the heirs. Families in that position often assume they have missed their chance, or that the property is now too valuable for the short route. Usually the opposite is true: waiting made the cheaper proceeding available.

What the two-year route does not do. It removes the value ceiling. It removes nothing else. You still file a verified petition. The surviving spouse and beneficiaries still have to sign it or be served with formal notice. A will still has to be proved and admitted. Every asset still has to be described with date-of-death values, and there still has to be a schedule of proposed distribution. Rule 5.530(a)(7) simply lets you plead the two-year ground instead of the value ground — the other eleven requirements in that rule are unchanged.

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 authorizing transfer	An order distributing assets	Letters of administration, then a final accounting

Florida has no small estate affidavit — here are the five things people mean

Other states let a family clear a modest estate with a single sworn form. Florida does not. A great many people search for a “Florida small estate affidavit,” download an out-of-state template, and find that no Florida bank or clerk will accept it. If someone hands you one, check what statute it cites before you rely on it — and then find your situation in this table instead.

Route	Ceiling	The conditions people miss
§735.303 — bank payment to a family member, no court	$2,000 total across all qualified accounts at that one institution	Nothing can be paid until 6 months after death. The account must be in the decedent’s name alone with no POD or survivor designation. Strict priority: surviving spouse, then adult child, then adult descendant, then parent. Whoever takes the money is personally liable for anything above their proper share.
§735.301 — disposition without administration	No fixed dollar figure. Nonexempt personal property must not exceed preferred funeral expenses plus the last 60 days of medical and hospital bills	Personal property only — no real estate, ever. Informal application by letter or affidavit; the court answers by letter, not by order.
§735.304 — disposition without administration, intestate small estates	$20,000 in nonexempt personal property (raised from $10,000 on July 1, 2026), plus funeral and last-60-days medical	Intestate only. The decedent must have been dead more than one year. No Florida administration may be pending. The affidavit must be served by formal notice on every non-joining heir, on every known or reasonably ascertainable creditor, and — if the decedent was over 55 — on the Agency for Health Care Administration.
Summary administration (§§735.201–735.2063)	$150,000, or dead more than 2 years at any value	Handles real estate. No personal representative appointed, so no letters of administration are issued — which matters more than it sounds. See below.
Formal administration (ch. 733)	None	The default. Required wherever someone needs court authority to act for the estate.

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.

The document a beneficiary signs to join is usually titled Joinder, Waiver and Consent — that is what most circuit packets call it, and it is the form to ask the clerk for.

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.

What Florida circuit courts require, and why it varies

Chapter 735 and Rule 5.530 set the requirements statewide. What varies is the paperwork each circuit wants around them, and there is no single statewide summary administration packet — every circuit numbers and formats its own.

Three practical consequences:

• Testate and intestate are usually separate packets. The Eleventh Judicial Circuit in Miami-Dade publishes different instructions and different numbered forms for an estate with a will and one without. Downloading the wrong set is the most common wasted afternoon in this process.
• The original will and the certified death certificate cannot be e-filed. The petition goes through the E-Filing Portal; the originals have to physically reach the clerk. Nearly every self-filer learns this after the fact.
• Some county packets are still on the old figure. A clerk working from a stale handout is not the final word on the statute. §735.201 is.

Get the current checklist for your circuit before drafting anything: Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach. A packet published by one clerk reflects that clerk’s practice — it is a useful model, not a statewide form.

How to file summary administration in Florida without a lawyer

Yes, you can file it yourself — and the reason is more specific than most pages make it sound.

Florida Probate Rule 5.030(a) reads: “Every guardian and every personal representative, unless the personal representative remains the sole interested person, shall be represented by an attorney admitted to practice in Florida.” That rule reaches two people — a guardian and a personal representative. Summary administration appoints neither. The petitioner is a beneficiary or the surviving spouse, and Rule 5.030 does not reach them by its terms. §454.18 separately preserves the right of any person to conduct his or her own cause in a Florida court.

That is why several circuits publish complete self-represented-litigant packets for summary administration and none publish one for formal administration. The Eleventh Judicial Circuit maintains an entire numbered form series for people filing these without counsel.

So the rule does not stop you. What should give you pause is two subsections of the distribution statute, because they do not run against the estate — they run against you.

Two ways signing this petition can cost you personally.

§735.206(4)(d) — a creditor who was known or reasonably ascertainable, who was not served and not provided for, may enforce the claim and, if it prevails, is awarded reasonable attorney’s fees as an element of costs against those who joined in the petition.

§735.206(4)(g) — an heir or devisee lawfully entitled to share in the estate who was left out of the order may enforce their rights against those who procured the order, and is awarded attorney’s fees the same way.

Not the estate. The people who signed. Both are fee-shifting, both run personally, and both are triggered by exactly the two steps a self-filer is most likely to shortcut: the diligent creditor search, and getting the list of heirs right.

None of which means you need a lawyer for a straightforward estate. A surviving spouse who is the only beneficiary, with one bank account and no creditors, can generally handle this. Circuits also differ in what they expect from a self-represented petitioner — check the practice where the estate will be filed. The exposure above is why the honest answer is not “yes” or “no” but “it depends on the estate,” and the cases below are the ones where it goes wrong. See also whether you need a probate attorney.

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, and is awarded reasonable attorney’s fees as costs against those who joined in the petition.
• 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 bank says it needs Letters of Administration”

This is the most common thing to go wrong after the order is signed, and it usually is not the bank being difficult.

Summary administration appoints no personal representative, so the court issues no letters of administration. There is nothing to issue them to. So if you are trying to work out how to get a letter of administration in Florida for an estate like this, the answer is that you do not get one — and you do not need one. What you get instead is the order itself, which under §735.206(4)(a) entitles the people named in it to receive and collect what was assigned to them, and to sue to enforce that right if they have to. Bank and brokerage compliance departments are trained on letters. Many have never seen an order of summary administration and default to refusing it.

The fix is in the drafting, and it happens before the order is ever signed. §735.206(4)(b) protects those holding the decedent’s property when they comply with the order — it authorizes them to pay, deliver or transfer to the people the order names, and says they are then not accountable to anyone else. Read that clause the way a compliance officer reads it: their protection comes from doing what the order tells them. If the order does not identify the asset, it does not tell them anything, and they have nothing to rely on.

So the schedule of assets in the petition, and the proposed order that follows it, should carry the identifiers a stranger would need:

• Bank and brokerage accounts — institution name and the account number
• Vehicles and vessels — year, make, model and the full VIN or hull number
• Real property — the legal description taken from the recorded deed, plus the folio or parcel number
• Anything else — whatever number the institution holding it uses to find it

An order that says only “all assets of the decedent are distributed to Jane Doe” is technically correct and practically useless at a teller window. An order that names the account is honored. If an asset was left out, reaching it means going back to court for an amended order — straightforward, and considerably less pleasant than describing it properly the first time.

One thing the 2026 changes did not fix. The same act that raised the ceiling created §733.6125, which lets a personal representative recover attorney’s fees from an institution that refuses to honor their authority. That remedy runs to personal representatives enforcing letters. It does not reach summary administration, because there is no personal representative and there are no letters. Where an estate has a custodian known to be difficult, that is now a real point in favor of the longer proceeding — and it is worth weighing before choosing a route, not after.

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.

One document people confuse with this. A Notice to Creditors is not a Notice of Administration. The Notice of Administration under §733.212 is served on beneficiaries and interested persons in a formal administration, and it starts the clock for objecting to the will or to the personal representative. Summary administration has no Notice of Administration at all — there is no personal representative to give notice of. If a form or a checklist asks you for one in a Chapter 735 case, it is the wrong form.

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. More on selling a house during probate.

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. A petition to determine protected homestead status under Fla. Prob. R. 5.405 is permissive rather than mandatory — but title underwriters commonly want that order alongside the order of summary administration before they will insure, and many judges will enter both on petitions filed together. Serve it properly: a homestead determination binds only the parties who received formal notice, and a defective service list is a latent title defect that surfaces at a closing years later.

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 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. See Florida ancillary probate.

One point that is widely got wrong. §735.201 applies by its own terms to “either a resident or nonresident decedent’s estate.” Pages that tell a non-resident’s family they must use ancillary administration and cannot use summary administration are simply wrong. It matters commercially: Ch. 2026-57 left the short-form ancillary route in §734.1025 at $50,000, and that route additionally requires a testate estate, a foreign personal representative, an authenticated transcript of the foreign proceedings, and filing within two years of death. For most modest Florida holdings of a non-resident, summary administration is now the better tool by a factor of three.

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

• Certified copy of the death certificate.
• The original will, if there is one — it has to reach the clerk in paper.
• A list of every asset with a date-of-death value, separating probate from non-probate.
• The deed to any real property, and whether it was the decedent’s homestead.
• Names, addresses and relationships of the surviving spouse and every beneficiary.
• Where there is no will, an Affidavit of Heirs. It is not in the statute, but most circuits require one in every intestate summary administration, and a petition filed without it is commonly rejected.
• A diligent search for creditors — known debts, and the search you did to find unknown ones.
• Funeral expenses and any medical expenses from the last 60 days.
• 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.

Describing assets loosely in the order. An order that does not name the account or the parcel is an order a bank can refuse.

To talk through whether an estate qualifies, call (305) 224-6811 or send a message through the contact page. If it turns out formal administration is the right route, I handle those too — Florida probate attorney.

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 July 1, 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.

My relative died in 2024 — can we still use the $150,000 limit?

Nothing in the enacted law ties the new ceiling to the date of death. Section 14 of Ch. 2026-57 says only that the act takes effect July 1, 2026, and the act contains no applicability or savings clause. Separately, §735.2055 provides that a petition may be filed at any stage if it appears that at the time of filing the estate would qualify — measuring eligibility at filing rather than at death. Read together, a petition filed on or after July 1, 2026 is tested against $150,000 regardless of when the decedent died. The amendment is recent and no Florida appellate court has construed its reach, so divisions may differ. Any estate with countable assets between $75,000 and $150,000 is worth evaluating rather than assuming ineligible.

Does the house count toward the $150,000?

Usually not. §735.201(2) measures the estate “less the value of property exempt from the claims of creditors,” and protected homestead is exempt from creditors’ claims under Article X, Section 4 of the Florida Constitution — so it comes out of the calculation before you test the ceiling. Florida Probate Rule 5.530(a)(8) confirms it structurally, by requiring the petition to describe protected homestead separately from the assets being counted. 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 authorizes 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.

Why does my bank refuse an Order of Summary Administration?

Because summary administration appoints no personal representative, so no letters of administration are issued, and institutions trained on letters often refuse the order. Under §735.206(4)(b) those holding a decedent’s property are authorized to comply with the order and are not accountable to anyone else for doing so — but that protection depends on the order identifying the asset. An order that does not name the account, the VIN or the legal description gives the institution nothing to comply with. The schedule of assets and the proposed order should carry account numbers, vehicle identification numbers, and legal descriptions taken from the recorded deed.

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. There is no single statewide summary administration packet.

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, which reaches guardians and personal representatives, does not reach a summary administration petitioner by its terms.

Can summary administration be used if there is a will?

Yes, provided the will does not direct administration as required by chapter 733 — §735.201(1) disqualifies the estate where it does, and that language appears in more wills than people expect. 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 reaches the assets described in the petition and nothing else. An asset nobody listed is not covered by it — which is also why a bank will not release an account the order never mentions.

Reaching it takes a further filing: either an amended petition and amended order describing the newly found asset, or a petition for subsequent administration under Fla. Prob. R. 5.460. The amended-order route is usually faster, and Rule 5.460 was drafted with closed formal estates in mind rather than Chapter 735 proceedings. Which one your division prefers is worth asking before you draft. The same mechanism covers an heir who was left out rather than an asset — in Wallace v. Watkins, 253 So. 3d 1204 (Fla. 5th DCA 2018), adopted children omitted from the original petition were able to reopen the summary administration.

Can an order of summary administration be set aside?

Sometimes — and there is a clock on it that catches people out.

A defective order is generally voidable, not void. In Jones-Bishop v. Estate of Sweeney, 27 So. 3d 176 (Fla. 5th DCA 2010), an order was held voidable rather than void even where the petitioner may have lacked standing, because the beneficiaries had consented. A voidable order stands until somebody successfully attacks it — which matters enormously if you are the one who bought property from a recipient.

The vehicle for attacking it is a motion under Fla. R. Civ. P. 1.540(b), and for most grounds that rule allows no more than one year from entry of the order. In In re Estate of Bunda, 268 So. 3d 255 (Fla. 1st DCA 2019), a trial court that spotted irregularities was held to have no authority to set the order aside on its own motion more than a year after entry. If you have found a problem with an order, the date on it is the first thing to check. An omitted heir has a separate route under §735.206(4)(g) that does not depend on Rule 1.540(b), which is often the better argument where it is available. A contest before the order is entered is a different procedure — see filing a caveat.

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. More on what Florida probate costs. Tell me what the estate looks like and I will tell you what it takes before you commit to anything.

Statutes, rules and dollar figures on this page were reviewed by Jose M. Lorenzo, Jr. on August 26, 2026. This page offers general information about Florida law and is not legal advice for a specific case; reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship.