Kissimmee Probate Lawyer

A Kissimmee probate lawyer handles estates filed in the probate division of the Circuit Court for Osceola County, part of the Ninth Judicial Circuit, at the Judge Jon B. Morgan Courthouse, 2 Courthouse Square, Kissimmee, FL 34741. If someone has died in Kissimmee, St. Cloud, Poinciana, Buenaventura Lakes or Harmony, that is where the case belongs — and what happens next turns on three answers: where the person was domiciled, what is in the estate, and whether any of it is in Puerto Rico.

Lorenzo Law is an Osceola County probate law firm. We handle summary administration, formal administration, ancillary administration for out-of-state and Puerto Rico decedents, and contested estates. Atendemos en español.

People reach this page from very different situations. Some need a Kissimmee probate attorney to open an estate and get letters of administration issued so somebody can finally sign for the bank. Some need a Kissimmee small estate attorney, because the estate may be small enough to avoid formal administration altogether. Some need an Osceola County probate attorney to clear title on an inherited house before a closing date that is already set. Some need an Osceola County estate lawyer for a will, a trust or a beneficiary designation that no longer matches the family. And some need a Kissimmee probate litigation attorney because the heirs do not agree and the deadlines are already running.

The sections below walk through the whole probate process in Osceola County and sort out which of those situations you are in. Start with what it costs, because that is what everybody wants to know first and almost nobody publishes.

What probate costs in Osceola County

This is the first question almost everyone asks a probate attorney Osceola County families call, so here is the answer before anything else. A Florida probate has three separate costs: the clerk’s filing fee, the cost of publishing the notice to creditors in a newspaper of general circulation in Osceola County, and the attorney’s fee — which is by far the largest of the three.

Osceola County clerk filing fees

Filing	Fee
Formal administration	$395
Ancillary administration	$395
Summary administration — estate valued at $1,000 or more	$340
Summary administration — estate valued under $1,000	$230
Disposition of personal property without administration	$231
Admitting a foreign will to record	$230
Caveat	$40
Certified copies	$2 per document plus $1 per page

Attorney’s fees, and what the 2026 change means

Section 733.6171, Florida Statutes, sets out a schedule of fees that are presumed to be reasonable for ordinary services in a formal administration. It is important to understand what that is and what it is not.

Estate value	Presumed reasonable fee
Up to $40,000	$1,500
$40,000 to $70,000	add $750
$70,000 to $100,000	add $750
Next $900,000 (to $1 million)	3%
$1 million to $3 million	2.5%
$3 million to $5 million	2%
$5 million to $10 million	1.5%
Above $10 million	1%

Chapter 2026-57, Laws of Florida, effective 1 July 2026, added something families should know about. An attorney who intends to charge on that schedule must now give the personal representative written disclosures — and get a signed acknowledgment — stating plainly that there is no mandatory statutory attorney fee for estate administration, that the fee is negotiable and need not be based on the size of the estate, that the personal representative may choose any attorney, and that the personal representative is entitled to a summary of the hours or services provided. Without those disclosures the attorney may not be paid without prior court approval.

The plain translation: anyone describing the section 733.6171 figures to you as “the statutory fee” is describing them wrongly. It is a presumption, not a price. An agreed fee is common and is frequently lower than the schedule.

How we approach fees

We are not going to quote you a number on a web page, because we do not think that would be honest. What a probate actually costs turns on things nobody can know before we talk: whether the estate qualifies for summary administration or needs a formal one, whether there is a house, how many beneficiaries there are and whether they agree with each other, whether there are creditors, and whether anything sits outside Florida.

What we can tell you is how we work.

We listen first, and we listen in detail, before we quote anything. That is not a courtesy — it is where the money actually is. The largest savings in a probate almost always come from choosing the right procedure at the very beginning, not from shaving an hourly rate later on.

We offer flat fees wherever the scope of a matter allows it, so you know what the case costs before it starts instead of watching a bill accumulate and wondering. Where a matter genuinely cannot be scoped that way, we will explain why before you commit to anything.

Our goal on every Osceola County file is to be as efficient and as cost-friendly to the family as the case honestly allows. If a summary administration will do, we will say so. If the estate does not need probate at all, we will tell you that too — even though it is worth less to us. That conversation is often the most valuable one we have with anybody.

Two things that reassure most families. Fees are ordinarily paid from the estate, not out of your own pocket, before anything is distributed to the beneficiaries. And the personal representative is separately entitled to a commission under section 733.617, though a family member serving in that role very often waives it.

The first conversation costs nothing and carries no obligation. For general background see our guide to the cost of probate in Florida.

Which procedure are you in? Five paths, not two

Most pages describe two options. Florida actually has five, and picking the right one changes the cost by thousands and the timeline by months. This is the single most valuable half hour of a probate lawyer’s work on a Kissimmee estate.

Procedure	When it is available	Personal representative appointed?	Typical duration
Formal administration	The default. Required where the estate exceeds the summary threshold, where creditors must be handled, or where someone needs real authority to sign.	Yes — letters of administration issue	Six months at an absolute minimum; nine to eighteen months is more typical where a house is sold
Summary administration Section 735.201	Either the estate subject to administration in Florida, less property exempt from creditors’ claims, does not exceed $150,000; or the decedent has been dead more than two years — and that second route carries no value limit at all.	No	Weeks to a couple of months on a clean file
Disposition of personal property without administration Section 735.301	Personal property only, no real estate. There is no dollar cap — the ceiling is a formula: preferred funeral expenses plus reasonable and necessary medical and hospital expenses of the last 60 days of the last illness.	No	Often a single filing
Small-estate disposition Section 735.304	Intestate only, decedent dead more than one year, up to $20,000 of non-exempt personal property, after a diligent creditor search, with formal notice to non-joining heirs and creditors — and to AHCA if the decedent was over 55.	No	Weeks
Bank payout to a family member Section 735.303	No court proceeding at all. A Florida financial institution may pay a family member up to $2,000 aggregate from the decedent’s sole-name accounts, no earlier than six months after death, on the statutory affidavit.	No	Days

Summary administration in Osceola County, and the myth about creditors

The $150,000 figure is new. It was raised from $75,000 by House Bill 1337, chapter 2026-57, Laws of Florida, approved 29 April 2026 and effective 1 July 2026. You can read the current text of section 735.201 yourself. The Florida Supreme Court conformed the corresponding probate rule two weeks later. Most law firm pages, and a good deal of published consumer material, still show $75,000.

Two points that matter more than the number:

The value test is a subtraction, not a gross-estate test. The statute measures the entire estate subject to administration in Florida less the value of property exempt from the claims of creditors. Protected homestead is exempt. A Kissimmee house that qualifies as protected homestead therefore does not automatically push an estate over the limit, however much it is worth — which is why estates that look far too large for summary administration frequently qualify.

Summary administration is not a creditor-free shortcut. This is the most common misconception about it, and it is repeated almost everywhere. Summary administration is still a probate proceeding: the will is proved and admitted, a diligent search for creditors is required and they have to be served, and the people who receive the assets are personally liable for claims up to what they received. What it removes is the personal representative, the letters, the inventory and the three-month claim window — not the obligation to deal with creditors.

Does Florida have a small estate affidavit? What a Kissimmee small estate attorney will check first

Yes and no, and the distinction costs families money. Florida has no general small-estate affidavit of the kind many states use to transfer any asset under a threshold. It does have one narrow small-estate procedure — intestate estates only, more than a year after death, up to $20,000 of non-exempt personal property, and only after a diligent creditor search and formal notice. Anyone telling you flatly that “Florida has no small estate affidavit” is wrong; anyone telling you it will solve a house is also wrong.

The Osceola County probate court: where your case is filed

Florida has no separate probate court. What people mean by the Osceola County probate court is the probate division of the Circuit Court, and a probate proceeding belongs in the county where the person was domiciled when they died. For Osceola County residents that is Kissimmee. Filing in the wrong county is fixable rather than fatal — but a transfer means a re-notice and a delay measured in months, so it is worth getting right the first time.

Courthouse	Judge Jon B. Morgan Courthouse, 2 Courthouse Square, Kissimmee, FL 34741
Probate filings	Suite 2600, Attn: Probate (second floor)
Circuit	Ninth Judicial Circuit (Orange and Osceola counties)
Clerk	Osceola Clerk of the Circuit Court & County Comptroller, (407) 742-3500, option 7 for probate
Public counter hours	Monday–Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.; recording taken until 4:30 p.m.
Recording Division	(407) 742-3517
Branch courthouse	Poinciana Branch Courthouse, 4547 Pleasant Hill Road, Kissimmee, FL 34759

Osceola probate matters are heard in the circuit’s probate division. Judicial assignments and division numbers rotate, so confirm the current assignment with the clerk rather than relying on any published list.

Filing is electronic, through the Florida Courts E-Filing Portal. The original paper will is the exception — the clerk has to keep it in its original form, so it is physically deposited rather than uploaded.

Poinciana, ZIP 34758 and the Osceola–Polk county line

Poinciana straddles two counties, and the mailing address will not tell you which one you are in. This trips up more Central Florida probate filings than any other single fact.

ZIP	County	Where probate is filed
34758	Osceola	Kissimmee — Ninth Judicial Circuit
34759	Mostly Polk	Bartow — Tenth Judicial Circuit; deeds record with the Polk County Clerk

The same problem exists in ZIP 34747 (Four Corners), which overlaps Lake, Orange, Osceola and Polk counties. Where a family has property on both sides of a county line, the deed records and the probate file can end up in two different circuits.

Osceola County ZIP codes and which court hears the case

ZIP	Area	County
34741	Downtown and central Kissimmee — courthouse, Kissimmee Gateway Airport, Lakefront Park	Osceola
34743	Buenaventura Lakes	Osceola
34744	East Kissimmee — Osceola Heritage Park, Fortune Road	Osceola
34746	South Kissimmee and the west US 192 corridor, Old Town	Osceola
34747	Celebration, Reunion, Emerald Island, Four Corners overlap	Osceola
34758	Poinciana, Osceola side	Osceola
34759	Poinciana, mostly Polk side	Polk
34769, 34771, 34772, 34773	St. Cloud	Osceola
34742, 34745	PO Box only — neither establishes residency	—
—	Hunter’s Creek and Lake Nona	Orange

Osceola County has only two incorporated cities, Kissimmee and St. Cloud. Buenaventura Lakes, Poinciana, Celebration, Campbell and Four Corners are census-designated places without city governments — which is why “city of Kissimmee” search results are often the wrong unit of geography for a probate question.

The first two weeks after a death in Osceola County

Ordering certified death certificates

Order more than you think you need — six to ten. Every bank, insurer, pension administrator and title company will want its own certified copy, and reordering later costs weeks.

Agency	Florida Department of Health in Osceola County
Address	1875 Fortune Road, Kissimmee, FL 34744
Vital records	(407) 343-2009
Hours	Monday–Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Coverage	Florida deaths from 2009 to present; older records from the state office in Jacksonville
Fees	$10 first certified copy, $10 each additional, $2.50 standard mail

You will need valid photo identification. Cause of death is restricted to a spouse, parent, adult child, grandchild, sibling, legal representative, or someone with an interest in the estate. Order most of your copies without cause of death — most institutions do not require it and will not ask.

Most Kissimmee-area deaths are certified at HCA Florida Osceola Hospital (700 W. Oak Street, 34741), AdventHealth Kissimmee (2450 N. Orange Blossom Trail, 34744), HCA Florida Poinciana Hospital (325 Cypress Parkway, 34758) or AdventHealth Celebration (400 Celebration Place, 34747).

For a death in Puerto Rico you will need the island certificate from the Registro Demográfico, and usually a certified translation and an apostille. Start that early; it is the step that most often holds up a Florida filing.

Depositing the original will with the Osceola County clerk — the 10-day rule

If you are holding the signed original will, it must be deposited with the clerk of the court — the original, not a copy, and not kept at home while the family decides what to do. Section 732.901 gives the custodian 10 days after learning of the death to deposit it.

There is no criminal penalty for missing that deadline. What section 732.901(2) does provide is that a custodian who fails to deposit the will without just or reasonable cause may be liable for costs, damages and a reasonable attorney’s fee. Depositing a will is not the same thing as opening a probate case, and it does not make you the personal representative.

Frozen bank accounts after a death

Banks restrict accounts as soon as they learn of a death. Joint accounts with right of survivorship and payable-on-death accounts generally pass to the survivor outside probate. A solely held account normally requires letters of administration — unless the balance is small enough for the section 735.303 route described above.

Meanwhile the mortgage, taxes, insurance and utilities on the Kissimmee house keep falling due. Decide early who covers them and keep every receipt; those advances are usually reimbursable from the estate, but only if they are documented.

An Osceola County probate checklist: what to gather before you file

Almost every delay at the start of a case is a missing document rather than a legal problem. This is the Osceola County probate checklist we work from, and having these in hand before the first meeting usually saves a few weeks.

• Certified death certificates — six to ten, most of them without cause of death.
• The original will, if there is one, plus any codicils. The original, not a copy, and it has to be deposited with the clerk within 10 days of learning of the death.
• Any trust documents, including amendments and restatements.
• A list of everything the person owned and roughly what it was worth on the date of death — accounts, vehicles, the house, life insurance, retirement accounts, a business interest, a timeshare.
• How each asset is titled, and whether it names a beneficiary. This is the single most important item on the list, because it decides which assets go through probate at all.
• The deed to any Florida real property, and the address and county of anything outside Florida.
• Names, addresses and email addresses for the surviving spouse, every child and every beneficiary named in the will.
• Recent statements for the mortgage, taxes, insurance, HOA and any CDD assessment on the house.
• Known debts — credit cards, medical bills, funeral expenses, anything in collections.

Two things people are surprised to learn they do not need. You do not need to know the value of everything precisely; estimates are fine at the start and the formal numbers come later. And you do not need to have paid anything — do not start settling the person’s debts out of your own pocket before anyone has looked at the file, because the order in which Florida requires debts to be paid is not the order most families would guess.

The steps in a Florida probate administration, and how long each one takes

Step	What happens	Timing
1. Petition and appointment	Petition filed with the death certificate and the will. The court admits the will and issues letters of administration, which is the document that gives the personal representative authority to act.	Weeks, depending on the division’s calendar
2. Notice of administration	Served on the beneficiaries and other interested persons. Starts a three-month clock to object to the validity of the will, the venue or the court’s jurisdiction — after which those objections are forever barred.	3 months to object
3. Notice to creditors	Published in an Osceola County newspaper and served on any creditor you know about or could reasonably find.	Later of 3 months after first publication or 30 days after service
4. Inventory	Filed with date-of-death values. The inventory is confidential, even though the rest of the probate file is public.	60 days after letters issue
5. Claims period	The part nobody can compress, and the reason the timeline is what it is.	3 months
6. Dealing with the assets	Selling the house, closing accounts, collecting the pension, determining homestead. Most of the real work sits here.	Varies — usually the longest phase
7. Accounting, distribution and discharge	Final accounting, beneficiary receipts, and the order of discharge that ends the personal representative’s exposure.	A 12-month closing target, extendable

Florida sets no cap on how long an administration may last, and no deadline by which probate has to be started after a death. The practical backstop is the two-year bar in section 733.710. A will discovered later can still be offered, right up until the administration is complete.

How to become executor, or personal representative, of a Kissimmee estate

Florida calls the executor a personal representative, and calls the document appointing them letters of administration whether or not there is a will — Florida law folds executor and administrator into that one term, and calls the appointing document letters of administration whether or not there is a will — so “letters testamentary” is not a term of current Florida practice. If you were named executor in a parent’s will and are trying to work out what to do next, this is the section you want, and a Kissimmee probate administration lawyer spends more time on this step than on any other.

Who has preference. Where there is a will, the person named in it has preference. Where there is not, the surviving spouse comes first, then the person selected by a majority in interest of the heirs.

Who cannot serve. A person convicted of a felony cannot serve. Nor can someone mentally or physically unable to perform the duties, or a minor.

The nonresident rule — section 733.304. This is the one that surprises Osceola families. A person who does not live in Florida may serve only if they are related to the decedent in one of the ways the statute lists — broadly, close family. A sibling still living in Puerto Rico is a qualifying relative and can serve. A trusted family friend in San Juan, a business partner, or a more distant relative cannot, no matter what the will says. Courts read that list strictly — a “nephew,” for instance, has been held to mean an actual blood relative of the person who died. Finding this out after the petition is filed costs a month.

Is a bond required?

This is stated backwards nearly everywhere, so read it carefully. Bond is the default in Florida for every personal representative granted letters, unless it is waived by the will or by the court. The amount reflects the size of the estate, the personal representative’s relationship to the beneficiaries, the type of assets, and any known creditors.

And a will’s bond waiver does not bind the court. A judge can still require a bond notwithstanding a waiver . On a contested Osceola file with an out-of-state personal representative, expect the question to be asked.

Creditor claims and how long probate takes in Osceola County

In a formal administration, notice to creditors is published and served after the personal representative is appointed. Creditors have the later of three months from first publication or 30 days from being served. Separately, section 733.710 imposes a hard two-year bar after death that applies regardless of notice.

This is the single biggest driver of timing. A simple formal administration cannot close until the claims period has run, which is why six months is the honest minimum and nine to eighteen months is more typical where a house is being sold. Summary administration skips the claim window, which is most of why it is faster — though, as above, it does not skip creditors altogether.

Two other documents carry their own clocks and are frequently confused with each other. Formal notice requires written defenses within 20 days of service. Failing to respond does not produce a default money judgment against you, but the court may then proceed without hearing from you. Informal notice needs no response at all, and it is the default — unless a document says “formal notice,” it is the informal kind.

Florida homestead and the Kissimmee family home

If the Kissimmee house was protected homestead, it is generally not an asset of the probate estate at all. The Florida Constitution shields it from most creditors, and Florida law — not the will — determines who inherits it, which is not always the person the will names.

Two consequences follow, and families are usually pleased by the first and blindsided by the second:

1. Credit card companies and hospitals generally cannot reach the house.
2. The personal representative cannot simply sell it and distribute the proceeds. The estate must petition the court to determine homestead status, and that order is what a title company requires before it will insure a sale. Marketing the house before the order exists produces a contract nobody can close.

Exempt property, and the deadline that waives it

Section 732.402 exempts certain property from creditors’ claims for the surviving spouse and children. The figures are specific:

• Household furniture, furnishings and appliances up to $20,000 net value at the date of death
• Two motor vehicles under 15,000 lb gross vehicle weight
• All section 529 qualified tuition programs, including Florida Prepaid
• Certain public-employee death benefits

The right is waived unless it is claimed. A petition to determine exempt property has to be filed within a few months of the notice of administration, and families lose this every year simply by not asking.

A separate family allowance of $18,000 is also available to a surviving spouse and dependent children.

The homestead tax exemption after the owner dies

The constitutional homestead protection above and the property tax homestead exemption are two different things with the same name, and confusing them is expensive. The tax exemption is administered by the Osceola County Property Appraiser, 2505 E. Irlo Bronson Memorial Highway, Kissimmee, FL 34744, (407) 742-5000. Applications are due by March 1 of the year claimed on Form DR-501; missing it waives the exemption for that year.

The exemption belonged to the person who died, and it does not follow the house automatically. Whether the Save Our Homes cap survives depends entirely on who inherits, and this is where families get the wrong answer.

A surviving spouse keeps the cap. Florida does not treat a transfer to a surviving spouse as a change of ownership, so the accumulated Save Our Homes benefit carries over and the property is not reassessed to just value. For anyone else — adult children, siblings, a trust — it does not. The cap is released, the assessed value resets toward market, and on a Kissimmee house held by the same family since the 1990s that reset is frequently the largest unexpected cost of the whole administration. We cover this and the surviving spouse’s wider position in our guide to Florida homestead property in probate.

What that guide does not give you is the part families actually get wrong, so here it is. If an heir or surviving spouse is going to live in the house, the exemption has to be applied for again, in their own name. It is not transferred and it is not automatic. In Osceola County the application is Form DR-501, filed with the Osceola County Property Appraiser, and the deadline is March 1 of the year being claimed.

That applies to a surviving spouse too. The cap carries over, but only if the application is made — there is no self-executing right to it.

Miss March 1 and you are relying on a narrow late-filing route: section 196.011 allows the property appraiser to grant a late application on a showing of extenuating circumstances, filed within 25 days after the TRIM notices go out, and separately covers a postal error. Some property appraisers will also accept an initial application after March 1 at their option. None of that is something to plan around. Because probate routinely runs nine to eighteen months, a March 1 deadline often lands in the middle of the administration when nobody is thinking about property taxes, and the first uncapped tax bill arrives months later as a surprise.

Two practical consequences. If someone is moving into the house, calendar the March 1 application the week the estate opens. And if the house is going to be sold instead, the tax reset is a real argument for moving promptly rather than letting the file drift, because an estate that sits for eighteen months pays the uncapped rate for most of them.

Property taxes are collected by the Osceola County Tax Collector at 2501 E. Irlo Bronson Memorial Highway, with branches at 2595 Simpson Road (Buenaventura Lakes), 4730 S. Orange Blossom Trail (Campbell City) and 1300 9th Street (St. Cloud), (407) 742-4000.

Selling an inherited Kissimmee house, step by step

Court authority to sell

A personal representative sells either under authority granted in the will or under a court order. Where protected homestead is involved, the homestead determination order normally has to come first. A buyer’s title company checks for exactly those documents, which is why the sequence matters more than the asking price.

Date-of-death value, stepped-up basis and capital gains

Inherited property is taxed on sale from its date-of-death value rather than what the decedent originally paid. On a Kissimmee house held for decades, that step-up removes most or all of the taxable gain on a prompt sale — which is why families who sell soon after death frequently owe nothing, and families who hold the property for years and then sell owe tax on the appreciation since the date of death.

Get a date-of-death appraisal. It establishes the basis, it supports the inventory, and it is far easier to obtain in month two than in year three. Florida imposes no state estate tax and no inheritance tax; see our guide to Florida inheritance tax for what does and does not apply.

Title problems that stall an Osceola County closing

These files go wrong at the title search far more often than in the courtroom. The recurring causes are deeds with uncorrected names, unknown or unlocated heirs, open permits, and undisclosed liens.

This is the part where people reach for an Osceola County property lawyer, and it is the right instinct — but on an inherited house the title problem and the probate problem are the same problem, and they get solved in the same file. Search the official records through the Osceola Clerk’s PERCH system before listing. It is free, and it surfaces the lien nobody mentioned. Recording costs at the clerk are $10 for the first page and $8.50 for each additional page, $1 per name indexed after the first four, and documentary stamp tax on deeds at $0.70 per $100 of consideration.

Inherited timeshares

Osceola County and the Four Corners area contain one of the densest concentrations of timeshare interests in the United States, and a timeshare is the one asset families routinely inherit that is worth less than nothing. The maintenance fee obligation does not stop at the owner’s death, does not pause while the estate is open, and does not go away because nobody is using the week.

The question a Kissimmee family actually has is not how to take an inherited timeshare. It is how to decline it.

Two things decide the answer. First, what was actually owned: a timeshare estate is a real property interest recorded by deed in the county where the resort sits, while a right-to-use product is not, and the difference changes how the interest is inventoried and transferred. Second, the maintenance assessment — which keeps running after the owner’s death, does not pause while the estate is open, and is usually why the interest is worth less than nothing. A beneficiary who does not want it can refuse it, but only by acting before doing anything that counts as accepting it.

This comes up constantly in Osceola County, so we have written it up in full separately: What happens to a timeshare when the owner dies covers the estate-versus-use distinction, which probate path fits, how the interest is valued, the assessment lien and the arrears question, foreclosure, disclaimers and how to refuse one, deed-back programs, and what the whole thing costs.

CDD assessments and HOA dues on an inherited Osceola County property

Osceola County contains roughly 56 community development districts — Celebration, ChampionsGate, Stoneybrook South, Reunion East, Reunion West, Remington, Harmony, Harmony West, Tohoqua, VillaSol, Windsor at Westside, Brighton Lakes, Storey Creek, Kindred, Shingle Creek and Anthem Park among them. A CDD is a unit of local government created under chapter 190, Florida Statutes, and its assessment appears as a separate line on the property tax bill rather than as an association invoice.

Separately, Poinciana’s Association of Poinciana Villages — a master association over ten village sub-associations — is reported to be the largest homeowners association in Florida.

The distinction between a CDD assessment and an HOA due matters more than families expect, and it is the reason a probate sale in Celebration or ChampionsGate goes sideways at the closing table.

A CDD assessment runs with the land. It is levied by a local government to repay the bonds that built the roads, drainage and amenities of the community, and it is secured against the parcel itself. It does not die with the owner, it does not pause while the estate is open, and it does not go away because nobody is living there. Because it is collected on the tax bill, it also carries the priority that comes with that — which is a very different position from an ordinary unsecured claim against an estate.

An HOA or master-association assessment is a different animal with its own lien rights. Poinciana’s Association of Poinciana Villages is the extreme case in this county: ten village sub-associations under one master, with dues continuing to run against a vacant inherited house for as long as the file stays open.

The practical shape of the problem is always the same. An estate sits for a year while the family decides what to do, or while an out-of-state heir is located, or while a will contest is resolved. Nobody is opening the mail at the Kissimmee house. The CDD line keeps posting to the tax bill and the HOA keeps invoicing, and the first anyone hears of it is when the title company produces an estoppel letter with four figures of arrears on it, days before a scheduled closing, with a buyer who will not extend.

Two things prevent this. Ask the association for an estoppel letter early, not when the property is under contract. And treat the assessments as a carrying cost to be budgeted from the first week alongside the mortgage, taxes and insurance — because that is what they are.

Two points a personal representative should understand about the difference. A CDD assessment is a lien on the property coequal with state, county, municipal and school board taxes — it is not an ordinary unsecured claim standing in line behind the estate’s other creditors, and it is a charge against the land rather than a personal debt of the person who died. An HOA lien works differently: it relates back to the recording of the community’s original declaration, and under chapter 720 a new owner is generally jointly and severally liable with the previous owner for assessments that came due before the transfer. An heir who takes title takes the arrears with it.

That last rule can be modified by the community’s own declaration, so it is worth reading the governing documents rather than assuming. Either way, get an estoppel letter from both the district and the association before anything is distributed or sold.

Short-term rental and vacation homes in a Kissimmee estate

Osceola County has a dedicated Short Term Rental Planned Development zoning district, and inherited vacation properties carry obligations that do not pause for a death:

• A State of Florida vacation rental license from the Department of Business and Professional Regulation, which must be kept current
• A local business tax receipt from the Osceola County Tax Collector
• The 6% Tourist Development Tax on stays under 180 days — and Osceola County has no collection agreement with Airbnb or VRBO, so the owner remits it directly, meaning a return still falls due while the estate is open
• A management agreement, forward bookings and guest deposits, none of which transfer automatically

None of this is fatal. It simply has to be handled deliberately from week one rather than discovered at the closing table.

Mobile and manufactured homes in an Osceola County estate

The first question is whether the home is real property or titled personal property, because everything else follows from the answer. The Osceola County Property Appraiser makes that classification, and mobile homes are separately licensed by the state.

The test has two parts, and both have to be met: the owner of the home must also own the land it sits on, and the home must be permanently affixed — tied down and connected to the normal utilities. Meet both and the home is taxed as real property and carries an “RP” sticker. A home on a rented lot fails the first part, stays titled personal property, and transfers through the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles. Families regularly assume the first and find out at the park office that it is the second.

One trap worth knowing. Being taxed as real property is not the same as having the title retired. Retiring the HSMV title is a separate, optional step, and only once it is done does the home actually convey by deed with the land. A home carrying an RP sticker whose title was never retired still has a live certificate of title sitting at HSMV — which the estate has to deal with, and which surprises people at closing.

An affixed home on land the owner owned can qualify as constitutional protected homestead on the same terms as a site-built house. One on a rented lot cannot, though Florida does give it a narrower protection from forced sale under section 222.05.

	Real property	Titled personal property
Typical situation	Home permanently affixed to land the same owner holds, decal retired, “RP” series decal issued	Home on a rented lot in a mobile home park or on land owned by someone else
How it transfers at death	By deed, through the probate estate, recorded in the Osceola official records	By certificate of title through the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles
Can it be protected homestead?	Yes, if the residency and ownership requirements are met	No
Counted toward the $150,000 summary administration test?	Not if it qualifies as protected homestead	Yes, as personal property

Check this before you file anything, because it determines which procedure you are in. A family that assumes the home is real property, files a summary administration on that basis, and then learns at the park office that the lot is rented and the home is titled personal property has filed the wrong petition and starts again.

There is one genuinely useful thing to know here. For ordinary vehicles, section 319.28 provides routes that avoid probate entirely — an intestate decedent’s car can be retitled with no court order at all on an affidavit plus an amicable division among the heirs, and a surviving spouse can assign the certificate without retitling it first. Combined with the two-vehicle exemption above, the family car is usually a much smaller problem than people fear. The statute speaks throughout of “a motor vehicle or mobile home,” and the title mechanics for both are in our guide to selling or transferring a deceased person’s car in Florida, which covers the HSMV forms in detail.

When the will, the heirs or the property are in Puerto Rico

Kissimmee and Osceola County are home to one of the largest stateside Puerto Rican populations in the country. Kissimmee is 68.8% Hispanic or Latino and 69.2% of residents speak a language other than English at home; Osceola County is 58.2% Hispanic or Latino. Buenaventura Lakes is 75.1% Hispanic. University of Florida research estimated that 30,000 to 50,000 Puerto Ricans moved to Florida after Hurricane María, with Central Florida absorbing the majority of the displaced school-age children.

Families move between the island and Central Florida across generations, and they arrive holding a testamento signed in Puerto Rico, a declaratoria de herederos, a Puerto Rico deed, or an account on the island — alongside a house in Kissimmee or St. Cloud.

What that usually means in practical terms is an ancillary proceeding here in Osceola County. That is the point of this section, and it is the whole of what we are telling you.

What we do and do not advise on

We are Florida counsel. We are not admitted in Puerto Rico and we do not advise on Puerto Rico law. Nothing on this page states what the law of Puerto Rico is, how an estate is inherited under it, who is entitled to what share on the island, or what any Puerto Rico document means as a matter of Puerto Rico law. Those are questions for a lawyer admitted there, and we will tell you so.

What we do is the Florida side: determining whether the Florida assets require a domiciliary administration or an ancillary administration in Osceola County, opening and running that proceeding, and coordinating its sequence with whatever is happening on the island. Where a case needs island advice, you will need a lawyer admitted in Puerto Rico for that part — and we have coordinated with island counsel retained by our clients before, so that the two proceedings run in the right order instead of working against each other.

Will a will signed in Puerto Rico work in Florida?

This is a question of Florida law, and it is one we can answer. Florida generally recognizes a will that was validly executed in another jurisdiction if it was executed in accordance with the law of the place where it was made — with one hard exception. Florida does not accept a holographic will, one handwritten and unwitnessed, even where it was perfectly valid where it was signed.

Whether a particular Puerto Rico instrument satisfies that test is a question about the law of the place it was signed, which is why an island opinion is sometimes needed before a Florida court will admit it. What we can tell you at the outset is which Florida proceeding the Florida assets belong in, and what the Florida court will want to see.

Ancillary administration under section 734.102

Florida real estate is administered here regardless of where the owner lived. What changes with domicile is whether the Florida case is the main proceeding or a secondary one — and domicile at death is a question of fact, and it is occasionally contested.

If the decedent was domiciled in…	Florida proceeding	What else is needed
Florida, owning real property in Puerto Rico	Domiciliary administration in Osceola County — we handle this	The island property will need its own proceeding there, handled by Puerto Rico counsel
Puerto Rico, owning Osceola County property	Ancillary administration — we handle this	The island proceeding is the main one, handled by Puerto Rico counsel

Ancillary administration under section 734.102 is triggered whenever someone who lived elsewhere dies leaving assets in Florida — with or without a will.

The appointment ladder puts the foreign personal representative second, not first. In order: a personal representative specifically designated in the will to administer the Florida property; otherwise the foreign personal representative; then a qualified alternate or successor named in the will; then a personal representative selected by those entitled to a majority interest of the Florida property; and finally the ordinary intestate order of preference. Every rung is conditioned on being qualified to act in Florida, so the nonresident rule below applies in full to ancillary appointments — a friend or a distant relative cannot serve.

An ancillary administration otherwise runs much like an ordinary one: bond, notice to creditors, and the same duties. Florida expenses and claims have to be paid before anything is transferred or distributed off the island — a personal representative who distributes first can be held personally responsible for the shortfall.

What the Florida court will want is a verified petition plus an authenticated copy of the proceeding in the other jurisdiction, and formal notice to anyone with an equal or better claim to serve. Getting the authenticated copy is usually the long pole.

The short form for small Florida holdings

There is also an abbreviated route for small Florida holdings, with three conditions that all have to be met: the nonresident decedent must have been testate; the gross value of the Florida property must not exceed $50,000 at the date of death, measured gross rather than net of liens; and and the foreign personal representative must file before two years after the death. No ancillary personal representative is appointed unless a claim is filed.

Note the mismatch this creates. That $50,000 threshold did not move in 2026, so it now sits well below the $150,000 summary administration ceiling — and summary administration is available to nonresident estates too. For someone who died in Puerto Rico owning an Osceola County house, summary administration is frequently the better tool.

Working with Puerto Rico counsel

To repeat the point, because it matters: we do not practice Puerto Rico law and we will not advise you on it. We run the Florida proceeding — domiciliary or ancillary, whichever the facts require. Where a case has assets, heirs or a will on the island, you will need to retain a lawyer admitted in Puerto Rico for that side of it, and we will say so early rather than late.

The value we add is on the Florida end and in the coordination. The two cases have to be sequenced, not run blind: which one goes first, what the Florida court needs from the island proceeding, and which documents have to be translated and authenticated before a Florida judge will look at them. Those are decisions to make at the start rather than discover at a closing, and getting them wrong is what turns a six-month case into a two-year one.

Practically, expect the Florida court to want an authenticated copy of the island proceeding, and expect island records — including a death certificate from the Registro Demográfico — to need a certified translation and an apostille. Start that early. It is the step that most often holds up a Florida filing.

Will disputes and estate litigation: when you need a Kissimmee probate litigation attorney

Contested matters run on a separate track from administration, with different deadlines and a different rhythm. Families searching for a Kissimmee will dispute attorney or a Kissimmee estate litigation attorney are usually in one of four situations, and they are not the same case.

Will disputes challenge the document itself — undue influence, lack of testamentary capacity, or improper execution. The clock is unforgiving: the notice of administration gives three months to object to the validity of the will, the venue or the court’s jurisdiction, after which those grounds are gone. Note what that does not cover — an objection to the personal representative’s own qualifications runs by a different route, on a different timetable.

Estate litigation and probate litigation are the same work under two labels: accountings, removal of a fiduciary, surcharge, and disputes over what the personal representative has or has not done. A court can review whether professionals were properly employed and whether their compensation was reasonable, and the burden falls on the personal representative to justify it — excessive compensation can be ordered refunded.

A surviving spouse’s elective share is its own distinct claim — a spouse who is left less than Florida allows can elect against the will, but the election has a firm deadline and is lost if it is missed.

Trust litigation and trust administration run under Florida’s trust code with their own notice rules and limitation periods, frequently in parallel with a probate file. Much of the work a Kissimmee trust administration attorney does arises because a trustee was never properly instructed in the first place — a successor trustee who has never seen a trust accounting, or a revocable trust that was funded with the house but not the accounts.

A caveat is a filing by an interested person or a creditor asking the court not to admit a will or appoint a personal representative without notice to them. At $40 it is the cheapest protective step in Florida probate, and almost nobody knows it exists. See our guide to caveats in Florida probate.

A curator may be appointed to take possession of estate property before a personal representative is appointed — useful where a house is sitting empty and deteriorating, or where assets are being dissipated. Possession is enforceable by contempt; an inventory is due within 30 days.

Guardianship is a different proceeding entirely. Where a parent is still living but no longer able to manage their affairs, the petition is to determine incapacity rather than to administer an estate, the court appoints an examining committee, and the timetable bears no relation to probate. See our Florida guardianship guide.

We handle contested Osceola County matters through our Central Florida probate litigation practice.

Wills, trusts and lady bird deeds — avoiding the next one

Where the house is the asset you are trying to keep out of the next probate, an enhanced life estate deed is usually the cheapest route for an Osceola homestead. My lady bird deed page for Kissimmee and Osceola County works through what it does, what it costs, and the situations where it fails.

Most people meet an Osceola County estate attorney for the first time because of someone else’s paperwork. The failures we see most often in Osceola County are a revocable trust that exists on paper while the house was never deeded into it, and a will drafted twenty years ago that no longer matches the family. What a Kissimmee estate planning attorney is really selling is not a document, it is a funded structure — and a pour-over will still goes through probate, which is precisely what the trust was supposed to avoid.

Families who have just finished an administration are the ones who call an Osceola County estate planning lawyer next, and they ask better questions than anyone else: they have seen what a missing beneficiary designation costs. If you are looking for a Kissimmee will attorney, a Kissimmee trust attorney or a will and trust lawyer after settling a parent’s estate, that instinct is the right one.

The work people actually come to an Osceola County estate planning attorney for after a probate is narrower than it sounds, and it is usually one of five things: a will that names the right people and the right alternates; a revocable trust that is genuinely funded, which is what a Kissimmee trust formation attorney spends most of the time on; a pour-over will that catches whatever the trust missed — the reason a Kissimmee pour over will attorney exists at all; an enhanced life estate deed on the house; and current beneficiary designations on every account. A testamentary trust created inside a will is a sixth option where a beneficiary should not receive money outright, though it does not avoid probate.

Where a trust is already in place and the trustee needs guidance, that is trust administration rather than planning — a Kissimmee trust administration lawyer handles the accountings, the notices and the distributions. And where the question is really about moving property between generations rather than a single document, a Kissimmee wealth transfer attorney is what people mean. Estate planning Kissimmee families rely on is a structure, not a folder.

As an Osceola County estate planning law firm we handle all of it. If you are searching for an estate planning lawyer Osceola County FL residents can work with remotely, that is exactly how we run these matters.

An enhanced life estate deed, commonly called a lady bird deed, is one of the cleanest ways to keep a Florida house out of probate entirely, and it preserves homestead protection and the Save Our Homes cap while the owner is alive. See our guides to the Florida lady bird deed and the Florida trusts guide.

Three related questions come up constantly and belong elsewhere rather than here. Where a beneficiary receives means-tested benefits, an inheritance can disqualify them unless it is directed into the right vehicle, and that has to be in place before the money arrives — that is planning work, not probate work. Florida has no state estate tax and no inheritance tax, and the federal estate tax applies only above an exemption most estates never approach; see Florida inheritance tax. And a probate sale still needs an ordinary Florida real estate closing, which we coordinate as part of the administration rather than as a separate engagement.

Abogado de herencias en Kissimmee

Atendemos en español a las familias de Kissimmee, St. Cloud, Poinciana, Buenaventura Lakes y todo el condado de Osceola.

Si usted busca un abogado de herencias en Kissimmee, un abogado de sucesiones o un abogado de testamentos para bienes ubicados en Florida, eso es exactamente lo que hacemos.

Aclaración importante: somos abogados de Florida. No estamos admitidos en Puerto Rico y no asesoramos sobre la ley puertorriqueña. Si su caso involucra un testamento otorgado en la isla, una declaratoria de herederos, o bienes en Puerto Rico, trabajamos con abogados admitidos allá para esa parte, y nosotros llevamos el caso de Florida.

El proceso en Florida se llama probate y se presenta en la división de sucesiones del tribunal de circuito del condado de Osceola, en Kissimmee. Si el fallecido estaba domiciliado en Puerto Rico y dejó una propiedad en Osceola, lo que corresponde en Florida es normalmente una administración auxiliar (ancillary administration) bajo la sección 734.102 de las leyes de Florida — y el orden en que se tramitan los dos casos, el de la isla y el de Florida, determina cuánto tiempo y cuánto dinero cuesta todo. Esa coordinación es donde podemos ayudarle.

Vea nuestra guía completa en español: Abogado de Herencias en Kissimmee y Abogado de Herencias en Florida. La primera consulta no tiene costo. Llame al (305) 224-6811.

Frequently asked questions about probate in Kissimmee and Osceola County

What is probate in Florida?

Probate is the court process that transfers what a person owned at death to the people entitled to it, after debts and expenses are paid. For a Kissimmee resident it is filed in the probate division of the Circuit Court for Osceola County, part of the Ninth Judicial Circuit, at the Judge Jon B. Morgan Courthouse on Courthouse Square. It is supervised paperwork, not a trial, and most families never attend court.

How much does a probate lawyer cost in Florida?

There are three costs: the Osceola clerk’s filing fee ($395 formal, $340 summary), publication of the notice to creditors, and the attorney’s fee, which is the largest. Section 733.6171 sets out a schedule of fees presumed reasonable in a formal administration, but as of 1 July 2026 an attorney charging on that schedule must disclose in writing that there is no mandatory statutory attorney fee, that the fee is negotiable, and that you may choose any attorney. It is a presumption, not a price. An agreed fee is common and is often lower than the schedule, and we offer flat fees wherever a matter can be scoped that way. What any particular estate costs depends on the procedure it qualifies for, whether there is real estate, how many beneficiaries there are and whether they agree — which is why we listen to the whole situation before quoting anything. Always ask any lawyer for the fee agreement in writing before you sign.

Who pays probate attorney fees in Florida?

Ordinarily the estate, not the family personally. Administration fees are paid from estate assets before anything is distributed to beneficiaries. Where a beneficiary hires their own lawyer for their own benefit, that is usually their own cost unless the work benefited the estate as a whole.

Do I need a lawyer to go through probate in Florida, or can I do probate without a lawyer?

In a formal administration, almost always. A personal representative is required to be represented by an attorney under Florida Probate Rule 5.030, with only two exceptions: one who is the sole interested person, and one who is a member of The Florida Bar themselves. There is no exception for a small or simple estate. Handling a formal administration without an attorney is not an option most families have. Where no personal representative is appointed at all — summary administration, or disposition without administration — the rule does not apply, which is why those routes are sometimes handled without counsel. Once there is a house, protected homestead, more than one beneficiary or a creditor, proceeding alone tends to cost more than it saves.

How long does probate take in Osceola County?

Summary administration can finish in a few weeks to a couple of months. Formal administration takes at least six months because the creditor claim period must run, and nine to eighteen months is more typical when a house is being sold. An estate spanning Florida and Puerto Rico takes longer still, because the two proceedings have to be sequenced. Florida sets no outer limit on how long an administration may last.

What is the 10 day rule for probate in Florida?

Section 732.901 requires whoever holds an original will to deposit it with the clerk within 10 days after learning of the death. It applies to whoever has the signed original, whether or not they are named in it. There is no criminal penalty for missing the deadline — but a custodian who sits on a will without good reason can be made to pay the resulting costs and attorney’s fees. Depositing the will does not open a probate case and does not make you the personal representative.

How long do you have to file for probate after death in Florida?

There is no deadline by which probate must be commenced. The practical backstop is section 733.710, which bars most claims two years after death. A will found later can still be offered while the administration is open. Waiting does not clear title, though — it usually makes the paperwork harder and more expensive.

What assets are exempt from probate in Florida?

Anything passing by operation of law or beneficiary designation: jointly held property with right of survivorship, payable-on-death and transfer-on-death accounts, life insurance and retirement accounts with a named living beneficiary, and property already titled in a trust. Protected homestead is treated separately — generally not an estate asset, though a court order is usually still needed before the house can be sold. Property located in Puerto Rico is outside a Florida probate altogether and needs its own proceeding.

Is homestead property exempt from probate in Florida?

Protected homestead is not an asset of the probate estate and is beyond the reach of most creditors. That does not mean nothing has to be done. The homestead character normally has to be established by court order before a sale can close — that order is what the title company requires — and the property passes under the constitutional and statutory rules rather than freely under the will.

How to avoid probate in Florida

By owning things so they pass without a court order: a funded revocable trust, an enhanced life estate deed recorded in the county where the property sits, current payable-on-death and beneficiary designations, and joint ownership set up deliberately rather than by accident. A will does not avoid probate — it only tells the court who receives what.

What happens if you don’t file probate in Florida?

Assets stay stuck. Title cannot transfer, so the house cannot be sold or refinanced and stays in a dead person’s name, and banks will not release solely held accounts. Anyone holding an original will still has a duty to deposit it with the clerk. Section 733.710 bars most claims two years after death, but that does not clear title.

How do I avoid capital gains tax on inherited property in Florida?

Inherited property takes a stepped-up basis equal to its date-of-death value, so on a house held for decades most of the historical gain is eliminated. A sale reasonably soon after death therefore often produces little or no taxable gain. If the property is held for years afterwards, tax is owed on the appreciation since the date of death, not since the original purchase. Get a date-of-death appraisal early — it establishes the basis and it is far easier to obtain in month two than in year three. This is a tax question as much as a legal one; coordinate with your CPA.

What documents are needed for an ancillary probate in Florida?

A verified petition, plus an authenticated copy of the proceeding in the other jurisdiction, plus formal notice to anyone with an equal or better claim to serve as personal representative. Where the estate involves Puerto Rico, expect the island documents to need certified translations and apostilles as well — that is usually the step that takes longest, so start it early.

Can a will signed in Puerto Rico be probated in Florida?

Generally yes. As a matter of Florida law, a will validly executed in another jurisdiction is recognized here if it was executed in accordance with the law of the place where it was made. The exception is a holographic will — handwritten and unwitnessed — which Florida does not accept even where it was valid where signed. Whether the Florida case is a main administration or an ancillary one depends on where the person was domiciled at death, not on where the will was signed. We are Florida counsel and do not advise on Puerto Rico law; whether a particular island instrument met the requirements where it was signed is a question for a lawyer admitted there, and we work with one where a case needs it.

Can a relative living in Puerto Rico serve as personal representative?

Yes, if they are close family — section 733.304 lists exactly which relatives qualify. A sibling, child or parent living on the island qualifies. A trusted family friend, a business partner, or a more distant relative does not, no matter what the will says. Courts read the list strictly. The same rule applies to ancillary appointments.

I live in Poinciana — which county do I file in?

It depends on your ZIP code, not your mailing address. ZIP 34758 is the Osceola side and files in Kissimmee in the Ninth Judicial Circuit. ZIP 34759 is mostly the Polk side and files in Bartow in the Tenth Judicial Circuit, with deeds recording through the Polk County Clerk. Filing in the wrong circuit means a transfer, a re-notice and a delay measured in months. ZIP 34747 in the Four Corners area has the same problem across four counties.

Are Osceola County probate records public?

Yes, for the most part. Probate files are presumptively public and can be searched through the Osceola Clerk’s online case search. Two things are not public: estate inventories and accountings, which are confidential, and guardianship reports. Those are available to an interested person — broadly, someone with a stake in the estate — or by court order.

What happens to an inherited timeshare in Osceola County?

The annual maintenance assessment keeps running after the owner’s death and does not pause while the estate is open, which is why an inherited timeshare frequently has negative value. A beneficiary who does not want it can refuse it — but only by acting before doing anything that counts as accepting it, so do not pay the maintenance bill “just to keep it current,” book the week, or take rental income first. Deal with a timeshare early rather than late. Full detail in our guide to what happens to a timeshare when the owner dies.

What happens to a CDD assessment while the estate is open?

It keeps accruing. A community development district assessment under chapter 190 is levied by a unit of local government to repay the bonds that built the community’s infrastructure, it runs with the land, and it appears as a separate line on the property tax bill rather than as an association invoice. It does not stop at the owner’s death and it does not pause because the house is empty. Osceola County has roughly 56 CDDs, so this affects a large share of estates here. Ask for an association estoppel letter early rather than when the property is already under contract.

What happens to the homestead exemption when the owner dies?

The exemption belonged to the person who died and does not carry over on its own. Whoever now owns and occupies the home has to apply in their own name, on Form DR-501, by March 1 of the year claimed — a surviving spouse included. What differs is the Save Our Homes cap. A surviving spouse keeps it, because Florida does not treat the transfer to a spouse as a change of ownership. For any other heir the cap is released and the assessed value resets toward market, which on a long-held Kissimmee house is often the largest unexpected cost of the whole administration. Missing March 1 leaves only a narrow late-filing route for extenuating circumstances, so calendar it early.

Speak with a Kissimmee probate lawyer

If someone has died and there is a house, an account or a will involved, the useful first conversation is short. Where were they domiciled? What is in the estate? Is there an original will? Is any of it in Puerto Rico? Those four answers determine the procedure, the timeline and the cost, and we can usually give you all three on the phone.

There is no charge for that conversation and no obligation to hire a probate attorney Kissimmee families found online at the end of it. If a summary administration will do, we will tell you that. If the estate does not need probate at all, we will tell you that too — and that call is the one that saves people the most money.

That is what a free probate consultation should be. Plenty of firms advertise a probate lawyer free consultation and use it as a sales call; we use it to work out which procedure your estate belongs in, which is the decision that sets the cost of everything after it. If you are looking for a lawyer for inheritance questions, a lawyer near me for will problems, or a probate lawyer Kissimmee Florida families can actually reach, book the probate lawyer consultation and bring whatever paperwork you have.

We take Osceola County matters across the whole range: an Osceola County probate lawyer for an ordinary administration, a Kissimmee estate attorney where the question is really about a house or a beneficiary designation, a Kissimmee heirship attorney where the family tree itself is the dispute, and a Kissimmee probate law attorney for the contested files nobody else wants.

How we handle Osceola County cases

We are a Florida firm with offices in Coral Gables and Fort Lauderdale, and we take Osceola County probate matters remotely. It is worth saying plainly what that does and does not mean, because families reasonably wonder.

Florida probate is filed and litigated electronically. Petitions, inventories, accountings and orders all move through the Florida Courts E-Filing Portal, notices are served by email, and hearings in the Ninth Judicial Circuit are routinely held by video. Most families never set foot in the courthouse at all, whether their lawyer is in Kissimmee or Coral Gables. The two things that genuinely have to be physical — depositing the original will with the clerk, and recording a deed — are handled the same way from anywhere.

What actually decides an Osceola case is knowing the county: which procedure the estate belongs in, how the Ninth Circuit’s probate division runs, what the clerk requires, and where the local traps are — the Poinciana county line, the CDD arrears, the homestead order the title company will insist on. That knowledge does not depend on a street address, and neither does responsiveness. You will have a direct line to the attorney handling your file.

If you would rather work with someone whose office you can walk into, that is a completely fair preference and we will say so honestly on the first call.

Osceola County communities we serve

As an Osceola County probate law firm we handle estate administration, heirship and probate litigation throughout Osceola County, Florida — Kissimmee, St. Cloud, Poinciana, Buenaventura Lakes, Campbell, Harmony, Intercession City, Kenansville, Narcoossee, Yeehaw Junction and the Four Corners area — and across Central Florida in Orlando and Orange County, including Lake Nona, Hunter’s Creek, Winter Park, Windermere and Dr. Phillips. Statewide practice from our offices in Coral Gables and Fort Lauderdale.

Families in St. Cloud and Poinciana most often want a probate lawyer Kissimmee and Osceola residents can reach without driving into Orlando — a probate attorney Kissimmee FL families can actually get on the phone. Families whose parent died on the island need an Osceola County probate lawyer who has sequenced a Puerto Rico case before. We handle both.

If the estate involves a home in Celebration, Reunion or the ChampionsGate corridor — where vacation properties, short-term rentals, timeshares and CDD assessments change the shape of an administration — see our dedicated page for Celebration probate matters.