Orlando Probate Lawyer: What an Orange County Probate Costs, How Long It Takes, and When You Do Not Need One

An Orlando probate lawyer is the person who moves a dead person’s property to the living people entitled to it, through the Probate Division of the Ninth Judicial Circuit in Orange County. This page answers the four questions people actually call about — what it costs, how long it takes, whether you need a lawyer at all, and how it works if you do not live in Florida. I am Jose M. Lorenzo, Jr., Florida Bar No. 107002, and I handle Orange County probate matters from offices in Coral Gables and Fort Lauderdale. I will explain below exactly why that is not the disadvantage you might assume, and where it genuinely is one.

If you want the court’s own rules, hours, buildings, filing counters and hearing procedures, those live on a separate page: the Orange County probate court. If someone is contesting a will, a trust, an accounting or a personal representative, that is Orlando probate litigation and it is a different practice with a different economics. This page is about hiring a probate attorney in Orlando for an ordinary Orange County estate administration — probate administration, the probate alternatives that avoid it, and knowing which one your facts allow. Orlando probate law is not a separate body of law; chapter 733 is statewide. What is local, and what an attorney has to know here, is the county’s machinery.

What does a probate lawyer cost in Orlando?

This is the first question and almost nobody answers it, so let me answer it properly — starting with the part that costs Orlando families the most money, which is a misunderstanding about the word “statutory.”

There is no mandatory statutory attorney fee in a Florida probate

You will hear that Florida has “statutory probate fees.” That is not what the statute says — and a lawyer who charges on that schedule is required by law to tell you so, in writing, before you agree to anything.

Section 733.6171(3), Florida Statutes, sets out a schedule of fees that are presumed to be reasonable for ordinary services in a formal administration. Presumed reasonable is not the same as required, or standard, or fixed. Compensation in a Florida probate is what the personal representative and the attorney agree it will be. The schedule is a benchmark a court can fall back on, not a price list. Every probate attorney Orlando families interview should be able to say that in one sentence, and put it in writing before you sign anything.

Two things about that schedule matter more than the numbers. It runs on the compensable value of the estate, which the statute defines as the inventory value of the probate assets plus income the estate earns during administration — so jointly held property, accounts with a named beneficiary and anything already in a trust are not in the base at all. And it covers ordinary services only; extraordinary work is billed separately and can add a great deal.

Here is the schedule, so you can compute it yourself:

Compensable value of the estate	Fee presumed reasonable under § 733.6171(3)
Up to $40,000	$1,500
$40,000 – $70,000	add $750
$70,000 – $100,000	add $750
$100,000 – $1,000,000	add 3% of the value over $100,000
$1,000,000 – $3,000,000	add 2.5% of the value over $1,000,000
$3,000,000 – $5,000,000	add 2% of the value over $3,000,000
$5,000,000 – $10,000,000	add 1.5% of the value over $5,000,000
Over $10,000,000	add 1% of the value over $10,000,000

Work it on a real Orlando estate. A house near Lake Nona worth $400,000 with a small bank account behind it: $1,500, plus $750, plus $750, plus 3% of the $300,000 above $100,000, which is $9,000. Total $12,000.

Now notice something the marketing pages get wrong. The percentages decline as the estate grows. A firm advertising that percentage-based lawyers charge “3%” of a two-million-dollar estate is quoting a rate the statute does not apply at that level. Run the schedule on $2,000,000 and it comes to $55,000, not $60,000 — because everything above the first million is billed at 2.5%. If a competitor’s comparison chart is wrong by five thousand dollars in its own favor, read the rest of the chart carefully.

The disclosure your lawyer has to give you, in writing

Since 1 October 2021, an attorney who intends to charge on the subsection (3) schedule has been required by § 733.6171(2)(b) to make five disclosures to the personal representative in writing:

• there is not a mandatory statutory attorney fee for estate administration;
• the fee is negotiable and does not have to be based on the size of the estate;
• selecting the attorney is the personal representative’s decision, and the personal representative is not required to use the attorney who prepared the will; and
• the personal representative is entitled, at the end of the representation, to a summary of the ordinary and extraordinary services rendered — either the total hours devoted to the matter or a detailed summary of the work done.

The attorney must also obtain the personal representative’s signature acknowledging the disclosures. And there is a real sanction attached: without them, the attorney may not be paid for legal services without either prior court approval of the fees or the written consent of everyone bearing the impact of them.

If you are interviewing Orlando probate attorneys right now, that paragraph is worth more to you than anything else on this page. Ask each of them for the disclosure. The answer tells you what kind of engagement you are about to sign.

How I handle fees for an Orange County probate

I am not going to quote you a number before I have listened to you, and I would be a little wary of anyone who does.

What a probate costs genuinely depends on the case. A single house and one bank account, with one child who is the only person involved, is a different piece of work from an estate with a business, an out-of-state parcel, an heir nobody can find, or five beneficiaries who do not agree about anything. Complexity drives cost. So does how many people have to be notified, served and kept informed. So does whether anyone objects.

So the first conversation is me listening in detail — what the person owned, how it was titled, who is involved, and what everyone wants to happen. Only after that do I lay out your options and what each one would cost, in writing, before anything is filed. Sometimes the options include one where you do not hire me at all, and I will tell you that too.

Most of my quotes include a flat fee, because families in the middle of a loss should not have to watch a clock or wonder what the next phone call is going to cost. But I would rather understand your situation properly before I put a number on it than hand you a price off a menu that turns out to be wrong for your case in either direction. Listening first is how the number ends up being the right one.

My aim on every file is simple: get the estate through as efficiently as possible and keep the cost to your family as low as the case allows. That means choosing the lightest procedure your facts permit, not the most expensive one — which is why the summary administration and homestead sections below matter so much, and why I would rather spend fifteen minutes on the phone working out what you actually need than sign you up for something you do not.

Do you pay the probate lawyer, or does the estate?

The estate pays. That is the single most common misunderstanding I correct on first calls, and it changes people’s decisions. The attorney’s compensation is an administration expense paid out of estate assets, not a bill the personal representative pays personally out of their own money and hopes to recover.

Two qualifications. First, the estate has to actually have something to pay with — see the next section. Second, the personal representative can be personally exposed if they pay the wrong people in the wrong order, which is one of the practical reasons the job is riskier than it looks.

What if the only asset is the house and there is no cash?

This is the most common shape of an Orlando estate, and it is why so many Orange County families put probate off for years. The house is worth $350,000 and there is $900 in a checking account. Nobody has $12,000 to hand a lawyer.

The answer is usually that the fee is paid at closing when the house sells, or on distribution, rather than up front — and that the clerk’s filing fee and the newspaper publication are the only real out-of-pocket costs at the front of the case. Those together are usually under $500 in Orange County, and the exact figures are in the table below. Before you decide the estate cannot afford a lawyer, get the arithmetic done. It is often smaller than the number in your head.

The personal representative’s own commission

Worth knowing, because it is a second fee and families rarely see it coming. Section 733.617(2) sets a separate schedule for the personal representative’s own compensation, presumed reasonable at 3% of the first $1,000,000 of estate value, 2.5% from $1,000,000 to $5,000,000, 2% from $5,000,000 to $10,000,000, and 1.5% above that. Chapter 2026-57 did not touch it.

On that $400,000 Lake Nona estate, that is another $12,000. A family member serving as personal representative frequently waives it. A professional or a distant relative frequently does not, and nobody tells the beneficiaries until the accounting arrives. If you are a beneficiary rather than the personal representative, this is the line item to ask about early.

If the numbers on an accounting look wrong to you, Florida law lets the court review both the propriety of the employment and the reasonableness of the compensation — and the burden of proof sits on the personal representative and the person employed, not on you. Excessive compensation can be ordered refunded.

What an Orange County probate costs before anyone pays a lawyer

These are the hard costs. No firm in the Orlando search results publishes them, which is strange, because they are public and they are the numbers that decide whether a family can start the case this month.

Cost	Statewide base (§ 28.2401)	Orange County Clerk actually charges
Petition for formal administration	$395	$400
Petition for summary administration, estate over $1,000	$340	$345
Petition for summary administration, estate $1,000 or less	$230	$235
Disposition of personal property without administration	$230	$231
Caveat	$40	$41
Notice of trust	—	$41
Trust proceeding	—	$400
Counter petition	—	$395
Approval of bond	—	$8.50
Reopening a closed estate	—	$50
Money deposited into the court registry	—	3% of the first $500, then 1.5%

A $4 additional service charge applies to summary, formal, ancillary and guardianship petitions, which is where the one-dollar difference between the two columns comes from. That schedule was last amended in 2023 and was not touched in 2025 or 2026.

Then the costs that are not the clerk’s:

• Publishing the Notice to Creditors. A Florida probate notice runs once a week for two consecutive weeks in a newspaper qualified to publish legal notices in the county. Orange County legal-advertising rate cards for 2026 run around $5.15 per column inch per insertion with a $30 minimum per insertion, with the proof-of-publication affidavit delivered electronically and included. A short probate notice run twice therefore lands in the region of $60 to $150 depending on the publication you use. The Orlando Sentinel is not the only qualified paper in Orange County and it is not the cheapest.
• Certified death certificates. Orange County Vital Statistics, Central Health Center Building 2, 807 West Church Street, Orlando 32805, (407) 858-1460. As published, $10.00 per certificate. Order more than you think — a bank, a title company, a pension administrator and the court may each want one. The county office holds Florida deaths from 2009 forward; anything earlier comes from the Bureau of Vital Statistics in Jacksonville.
• Recording the deed or the order. Recording runs $10.00 for the first page and $8.50 for each additional page. In Orange County this is paid to the Comptroller, not the Clerk — see below, because that split costs people weeks.
• Bond. A bond is the default for every fiduciary granted letters unless it is waived by the will or by the court, and the amount is set by the court on the estate’s gross value, the relationship to the beneficiaries, the assets involved and the known creditors. A waiver in the will does not bind the court, which can require a bond on its own motion anyway. The premium is a percentage of the bond amount, paid to a surety, and it is an estate expense rather than something you pay out of your own pocket. Plenty of family administrations never need one.

The Orange County split that costs families weeks

Orange County is one of a small number of Florida counties with a separately elected Comptroller, and the two offices divide work that most counties keep under one roof.

What you need	Which office	Where
The probate case file, petitions, orders, certified copies of court documents	Clerk of Courts, Probate Division	425 N. Orange Avenue, Suite 335 (counter); Suite 350 (mailing), (407) 836-2057
Deeds, mortgages, judgments, recorded court orders, declarations of domicile, official records	Orange County Comptroller, Official Records	109 East Church Street, Suite 300, (407) 836-5115

So the order determining homestead comes out of the courthouse on Orange Avenue, and the deed that relies on it gets recorded three blocks away at Church Street. A lawyer who does not practice here will send the deed to the wrong counter, and you will find out when the title company asks for a recording reference that does not exist.

Which probate do you actually need? The $150,000 question

The single most valuable thing an Orlando probate lawyer does in the first fifteen minutes is work out which procedure your facts allow, because the difference between them is thousands of dollars and months of calendar. A probate lawyer Orlando families hire for a house and a bank account is doing very different work from one hired for a contested will, and what you pay should reflect which of the two you actually have.

Summary administration, and why an Orlando homestead estate often qualifies

Effective 1 July 2026, section 735.201(2) raised the summary administration ceiling from $75,000 to $150,000. Any page, checklist or firm still telling you $75,000 is out of date — including, at the time of writing, some official material.

But the ceiling is not the important part. Two things about that statute are worth more than the number:

First, the value test is not the gross estate. The statute measures “the entire estate subject to administration in this state, less the value of property exempt from the claims of creditors.” Property exempt from creditors’ claims is broader than the § 732.402 exempt-property list — it also captures constitutional homestead. Which means an Orange County estate whose main asset is the family home can qualify for summary administration even when the house is worth far more than $150,000. The Florida Supreme Court put the underlying principle plainly in McKean v. Warburton, 919 So. 2d 341, 347 (Fla. 2005): “the law is clear that the protected homestead is not a part of the decedent’s estate for purposes of distribution.”

The condition is that the house has to actually be protected homestead. That means it was the decedent’s primary residence and it passes to a qualifying heir or a surviving spouse. A home devised to someone outside that circle loses the protection, becomes an ordinary estate asset exposed to creditors, and counts in full toward the $150,000. Whether a particular Orange County property qualifies is a question of facts and of what the will says — it is the first thing I check, and it is not something to guess at from a Zillow estimate. If someone has told you that your mother’s $400,000 house in Conway or Pine Hills automatically means full formal administration, get a second opinion. That answer is frequently wrong, and it is the single most expensive wrong answer in Orlando probate.

Second, there are two independent doors. Section 735.201(2) allows summary administration where the value test is met or where the decedent has been dead more than two years — and the two-year door carries no value limit at all. Waiting, counterintuitively, can make probate cheaper. If a death happened in 2023 and nobody opened an estate, that is not necessarily the disaster you have been told it is.

Summary administration is still a probate proceeding. The will is proved and admitted, a diligent search for creditors is required, and the people who receive the assets are personally liable pro rata for claims. It is shorter, not weightless.

Formal administration

Formal administration is the full procedure: a personal representative is appointed and letters of administration issue, an inventory is filed, creditors are noticed and their claims resolved, assets are sold or transferred, and the estate is closed and the personal representative discharged. You need it when the estate is above the summary threshold on the net-of-exempt calculation, when the will directs administration under chapter 733, when someone has to be empowered to act — to sign a listing agreement, deal with an insurer, chase a pension, run a business or bring a claim — and whenever there is a dispute.

Disposition of personal property without administration

The cheapest route in Florida, and the one I most often tell people to do themselves. This route has no dollar figure at all. The ceiling is a formula: it reaches personal property only, and only where the value does not exceed the sum of preferred funeral expenses plus the reasonable and necessary medical and hospital expenses of the last sixty days of the last illness. It costs $231 at the Orange County counter.

If your facts fit this, you very likely do not need me, and I will tell you so on the phone.

The two smaller routes people never hear about

Florida does have a small-estate affidavit — and it is narrower than the version other states have. It is intestate only, requires the decedent to have been dead more than a year, caps nonexempt personal property at $20,000 (raised from $10,000 in 2026), and requires a diligent creditor search plus formal-notice service on non-joining heirs and creditors, and on the Agency for Health Care Administration if the decedent was over 55. So the common line that “Florida has no small estate affidavit” is wrong; the accurate statement is that Florida has no general small-estate affidavit.

And Florida law lets a financial institution pay a family member the funds in the decedent’s sole-name accounts with no court proceeding at all — $2,000 in the aggregate (raised from $1,000 in 2026), no earlier than six months after death, on the statutory affidavit form set out in the section. The affiant is personally liable to creditors and a knowingly false statement is a criminal offense, so it is not a loophole. But for a family that needs to close out a small account, it is a free answer nobody offers them.

Other 2026 figures worth having in front of you

Provision	Figure	2026 status
Summary administration ceiling, § 735.201(2)	$150,000 net of creditor-exempt property	Raised from $75,000, eff. 1 July 2026
Intestate small-estate affidavit, § 735.304(1)	$20,000 nonexempt personalty	Raised from $10,000
Bank payout without administration, § 735.303(2)	$2,000	Raised from $1,000
Federal income tax refund, § 735.302(1)	$5,000	Raised from $2,500
Exempt household furniture and appliances, § 732.402	$20,000 net value at death, plus two vehicles under 15,000 lb and all § 529 plans	Not changed
Family allowance, § 732.403	$18,000	Not changed
Nonresident testate short-form ancillary, § 734.1025	$50,000 gross Florida property	Not changed since 2003 — now well below the summary ceiling

One honest caveat you will not find elsewhere, and it may matter to you. The $150,000 ceiling took effect on 1 July 2026. Whether it reaches a death that happened before that date, or whether the old $75,000 figure still governs, is an open question — no Florida court has decided it. So if the person died before 1 July 2026, do not assume either number, and be wary of any firm that states one flatly. That is worth a phone call before anything is filed.

How long does an Orange County probate take, from hiring to distribution?

Florida sets no statutory cap on how long an administration may last, and no deadline by which probate must be commenced after a death. What actually drives the calendar is a short list of fixed clocks and one variable — whether anyone objects.

Stage	Typical Orange County timing	What controls it
Original will deposited with the clerk	Within 10 days of learning of the death	A hard statutory deadline
Petition prepared and filed after you engage counsel	Days, if the documents are in hand	You. This is the stage families lose the most time on.
Letters of administration issue	Weeks — routine orders take roughly 2 to 4 weeks for judicial review after submission	The division’s calendar and whether the certification checklist is complete
Inventory filed	60 days after letters issue	Set by the Florida Probate Rules
Objections to the will’s validity, venue or jurisdiction	3 months from service of the notice of administration, then barred forever	A hard deadline — miss it and the right is gone
Creditor claims period	The later of 3 months after first publication or 30 days after service on that creditor — but see below on creditors who are never served	Runs from publication and from service
Uncontested summary administration, start to order	Commonly a few months	Clerk and division throughput
Uncontested formal administration, start to discharge	Commonly six months to a year	The creditor period is the floor; nothing closes before it runs
Absolute backstop on unfiled claims	2 years from the date of death	A two-year statutory backstop

One warning that matters more than anything else in this table, and that no competing Orlando page states. Publishing the notice does not bar a creditor the personal representative knew about, or reasonably should have found, and never actually served. In Jones v. Golden, 176 So. 3d 242 (Fla. 2015), the Florida Supreme Court held that for a known or reasonably ascertainable creditor who is never served, the claims period never begins to run at all — leaving only the two-year backstop. A personal representative who publishes, waits three months, closes the estate and distributes can be personally exposed. A diligent search for creditors is not a formality. The one hard stop is the two-year period that runs from the date of death — that one is a statute of nonclaim, it is jurisdictional, and it cannot be waived or extended by anyone, so it bars even a known creditor who was never served.

Two practical points. The creditor period is a floor you cannot buy your way past, so a formal administration is not going to close in ninety days no matter who you hire or what you pay. And the stage that genuinely moves — the one where a good lawyer earns the fee — is the front end: getting a complete, correctly certified petition in on the first attempt rather than being rejected and refiling. Orange County requires a certification checklist with each of the four main filings, and a submission without one may be rejected outright.

When you do not need an Orlando probate lawyer

The cheapest probate is the one that never opens. Where the house is the main asset, a lady bird deed keeps it out of the Orange County probate court entirely, and an Orlando lady bird deed attorney can tell you in one call whether the parcel qualifies.

Most firms will not put this on a page. It is the section that has produced the most business for me, so here it is.

You very likely do not need to hire anyone if:

• Everything passed outside probate. 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 anything already titled in a funded trust. If that is the whole estate, there is nothing to administer.
• Your facts fit the disposition-without-administration route. Personal property only, within the funeral-and-last-illness formula. File it yourself for $231.
• You only need a bank account closed and it is under $2,000. Use the statutory affidavit route, six months after the death.
• It is only a car. Florida’s vehicle title law handles a great deal without any probate court order at all — an intestate decedent’s vehicle can be retitled on an affidavit of no indebtedness plus amicable division, and a surviving spouse can assign the certificate without retitling first.

You should not try to do it yourself if there is a personal representative to appoint. The Florida Probate Rules require counsel for a personal representative, with two narrow exceptions — a sole interested person, and a personal representative who is a member of The Florida Bar. And Orange County offers no help. The Clerk’s Self-Help Center and its “Ask A Lawyer” sessions cover family law, small claims and residential evictions only. Not probate. The circuit lists no public law library. A pro se probate filer in Orange County has no free help desk to fall back on, which is the most honest argument for counsel that exists here.

The first two weeks after a death in Orlando

Before anyone files anything, in order:

1. Find the original will. Not a copy. The paper one, with the original signatures.
2. Deposit it with the Clerk within ten days of learning of the death — whether or not anyone intends to open an estate. Worth knowing: there is no criminal penalty for missing the ten days. The only sanction runs against a custodian who had no just or reasonable cause, for costs, damages and a reasonable attorney’s fee. So if you are already late, deposit it now and stop worrying about it.
3. Order certified death certificates. Ten dollars each. Order several.
4. Secure the property. Locks, insurance, and tell the insurer the house is now unoccupied — a vacancy clause can void coverage on an empty Orlando house faster than probate can transfer it.
5. Do not distribute anything. Not the car, not the jewelry, not the account. Well-meant early distributions are the most common source of personal liability for a personal representative.
6. Stop paying the decedent’s debts out of your own pocket. There is a statutory order of payment and it is not first-come-first-served.

Orange County probate when you do not live in Florida

A large share of Orlando estates belong to families who live somewhere else. This is the part of the practice that has changed most, and the honest answer is that geography matters far less than it did.

Can you serve as personal representative from out of state?

Only if you fall inside section 733.304, which is narrower than most people expect. A non-Florida resident may serve only if they are:

• a legally adopted child or adoptive parent of the decedent;
• related by lineal consanguinity to the decedent;
• a spouse, or a brother, sister, uncle, aunt, nephew or niece of the decedent, or someone related by lineal consanguinity to any of those; or
• the spouse of a person otherwise qualified above.

A close friend cannot serve. A cousin cannot serve. A step-child who was never adopted cannot serve. One thing often gets this backwards: Florida’s general rule requires a personal representative to be a Florida resident, and these categories are not an extra hurdle on top of that — they are the doorway that replaces it. A qualifying relative still has to clear the separate disqualifications that apply to everyone: a felony conviction, a finding of abuse, neglect or exploitation of an elderly or disabled adult, being mentally or physically unable to perform the duties, or being under 18. This trips up more out-of-state families than any other rule in the chapter, and it is better to find out now than after a petition is rejected.

If the person who died lived somewhere else but owned Orlando property

That is ancillary administration, triggered where a non-resident dies leaving assets in Florida, credits due from Florida residents, or liens on Florida property — testate and intestate alike. It is common here. Orlando is full of second homes, investment condos and timeshare interests owned by people domiciled in New Jersey, Ontario, São Paulo and Bogotá.

One structural point people get wrong: the person appointed here is not automatically the executor already serving in the home state. Florida has its own order of preference, and it puts anyone the will specifically named to handle the Florida property ahead of the out-of-state executor. Every position in that order also has to be someone qualified to serve in Florida, so the residency rules above apply here too.

There is a short-form route for a testate non-resident whose Florida property has a gross value of $50,000 or less at the date of death, where the out-of-state executor files within two years of the death. That threshold has not moved since 2003 and now sits well below the $150,000 summary administration ceiling — so for many non-resident estates ordinary summary administration is the better tool, and it expressly covers non-resident estates.

Do I need an Orlando office to handle your Orange County probate?

No — and I would rather say that plainly than pretend otherwise. A family in Ohio searching for a probate attorney Orlando Florida will get the same handful of names as a family in Winter Park; what the list does not tell either of them is which of those names files in the Ninth Circuit every week.

My offices are in Coral Gables and Fort Lauderdale, and I take Orange County matters as part of a statewide probate practice. Here is what that actually means for your case. Florida probate is e-filed through the statewide portal; filing happens from a keyboard, not a counter. Uncontested administrations rarely involve a hearing at all. Where a hearing is needed, the Ninth Circuit’s probate sub-divisions run short, uncontested matters by WebEx on a published calendar. What genuinely requires a physical presence in Orlando is an evidentiary hearing or a trial — which belongs to contested probate, is comparatively rare, and is work I appear for.

Where a local office genuinely helps is if you want to sit across a desk from your lawyer in Orlando. If that matters to you, hire someone with a desk in Orlando; it is a legitimate preference and I will say so on the phone rather than talk you out of it. What a local office does not do is make a petition get granted faster, and the firms currently ranking at the top of Orlando probate search results include ones based in Gainesville, two hours away, which tells you how much the market really turns on it.

The Orlando problems other Florida cities do not have

The timeshare

Orlando is the center of the American timeshare industry and estates here routinely include one. It is usually the asset the family least wants and the one that generates the most phone calls, because maintenance fees keep arriving after the death.

The first question is what kind of interest it is. A deeded fee-simple timeshare interest is real property and passes through the estate like any other Florida parcel. A right-to-use or points-club membership is contractual, and what happens to it is governed by the club documents, not by chapter 733. Read the deed and the club instrument before you assume either.

If nobody wants it, chapter 739 — Florida’s disclaimer statute — is the tool. A disclaimer must be in writing, must declare the disclaimer, must describe the interest, must be signed and witnessed as the chapter requires, and must be delivered to the right person, usually the personal representative. Timing matters, and so does conduct: accept any benefit from the interest and the right to disclaim is gone. A disclaimer also has consequences beyond the timeshare — it can affect who takes next, and it interacts with Medicaid eligibility. Do not sign one because a resort’s collections department suggested it.

Short-term rentals and vacation homes in an Orange County estate

A short-term rental in an estate is a business, not just a house. There are forward bookings, a management agreement, guest deposits held for other people’s money, sales and tourist development tax accounts, a homeowners’ association with its own rules about rentals, and insurance that may not survive a change in occupancy status. A personal representative who lets bookings continue without authority is operating a business with someone else’s asset. That is one of the clearest cases for formal administration rather than summary, because somebody needs the actual power to sign.

The five Orlando ZIP codes that are not in Orange County

Several ZIP codes with Orlando mailing addresses cross into neighboring counties. A property that says “Orlando, FL” on the envelope may sit in Seminole, Osceola or Lake County — a different court, a different clerk, and a different recording office. Venue follows the decedent’s domicile, but the parcel’s county governs where the deed records and where a homestead determination has effect on the tax roll.

Check the parcel with the Property Appraiser before you check the calendar. And note that Altamonte Springs and Lake Mary are in Seminole County, in the Eighteenth Judicial Circuit, not the Ninth — a distinction that most firms advertising “Orlando probate” quietly ignore.

Selling an inherited Orlando house

If the house was the decedent’s homestead, the usual sequence is an order determining homestead status from the probate court, then recording that order with the Comptroller, then closing. Title underwriters in Central Florida generally want the order, and an affidavit of heirship alone is rarely enough to insure a sale — which is the honest answer to a question I get constantly. That is underwriting practice rather than a rule of law, and requirements vary from one underwriter to the next, so ask yours early rather than assuming. An affidavit can support a chain of title and an underwriter may accept one alongside other evidence, but it is not a substitute for probate and anyone selling it to you as a one-page fix is selling you a problem for the closing table.

Homestead is not automatically an estate asset, which is why the procedure is a determination rather than a sale authorization. Where the personal representative does need authority to sell — non-homestead real property, or homestead in the circumstances where the power exists — that authority comes from the will or from a court order. This turns on what the will says. Where the will gives the personal representative a power of sale, no court authorization is needed. Where it gives none — or gives one too limited to be used — section 733.613(1) is blunt about the consequence: “No title shall pass until the court authorizes or confirms the sale.” Read the will before you sign a listing agreement, not after a contract falls through at closing.

The flip side is the part buyers and their lenders care about, and it is why doing this properly is worth the trouble: a purchaser or lender buying under a court order — or under a specific power of sale in the will — takes free of creditor claims against the estate and of the beneficiaries’ entitlements, with existing mortgages and other liens unaffected. That protection is not paperwork for its own sake; it is what makes the title clean.

Who I am, and how I work

Jose M. Lorenzo, Jr., Esquire — Florida Bar No. 107002. My practice is concentrated in probate, probate litigation, estate planning, guardianship and Florida homestead law, and I handle probate matters throughout the state — with regular activity in Orange, Osceola and Seminole counties as well as Miami-Dade, Broward and Pinellas.

Most people who call me have just lost someone. That is the part of this work I take most seriously. You are not going to get a hard sell, a menu of packages, or a paralegal reading from a script. You will get someone who listens to the whole situation first — including the parts that are about family rather than about law, because in probate those are usually the same thing.

What that means in practice on your file:

• You talk to a lawyer, not an intake queue. The first conversation is with me and it is free. You do not need a large Orlando probate law firm for most of what an Orange County estate requires — you need someone who will answer four questions honestly.
• You get told when you do not need me. That is not a marketing line — it is the fastest way to find out whether you have a $231 problem or a $12,000 one, and it is the first thing I work out.
• Fees in writing before anything is filed, including the statutory fee disclosures if the schedule is ever the basis of the engagement.
• Se habla español. More than a third of Orange County is Hispanic or Latino and nearly 40 percent of residents over five speak a language other than English at home. I practice in Spanish as well as English, and there is a full Spanish version of this material at abogado de herencias en Orlando.

¿Necesita un abogado de sucesiones en Orlando?

Atiendo casos de sucesiones y herencias en el Condado de Orange en español. Si el fallecido dejó una casa, una cuenta bancaria, un timeshare o una propiedad en Orlando, la primera consulta es gratuita y se la explico en español, sin compromiso. Puede leer toda esta información en español aquí: Abogado de Herencias en Orlando. También atiendo Kissimmee y Winter Park.

What I need from you on the first call

The useful first conversation is short. Four answers decide the procedure, the timeline and the cost:

1. Where was the person domiciled when they died? Not where they owned property — where they actually lived. This decides whether we are opening an estate in Orange County or an ancillary administration.
2. What is in the estate, and how is each thing titled? The parcel number of any real property, and whether accounts have named beneficiaries. Titling decides what is even in the estate.
3. Is there an original will, and where is it?
4. Is there anything anyone disagrees about? One unhappy beneficiary changes the answer to everything above.

Bring what you have. If you do not have it, we will work out how to get it. Nothing has to be perfect for the first call.

Where I handle probate in Central Florida

If you are looking for a probate lawyer in Orlando, Florida, or in any of the counties around it, this is where I file — and which circuit each one actually sits in, which is not always the one the mailing address suggests.

Orange County — Ninth Judicial Circuit: Orlando, Winter Park, Windermere, Dr. Phillips, Lake Nona, Baldwin Park, College Park, Conway, MetroWest, Millenia, Pine Hills, Apopka, Ocoee, Winter Garden, Maitland and Bay Lake.

Osceola County — also Ninth Judicial Circuit: Kissimmee, Celebration, St. Cloud and Poinciana.

Seminole County — Eighteenth Judicial Circuit: Altamonte Springs, Lake Mary, Longwood, Oviedo, Sanford and Winter Springs. Different circuit, different judges, different local procedures — worth knowing before you assume an “Orlando” firm files there routinely.

And statewide, from Miami-Dade and Broward through the Treasure Coast, Tampa Bay and Jacksonville.

Orlando probate FAQs

How much does a probate lawyer cost in Orlando?

There is no mandatory statutory fee. Section 733.6171(3) sets fees that are presumed reasonable — $1,500 up to $40,000 of estate value, plus $750 to $70,000, plus $750 to $100,000, plus 3% of everything from $100,000 to $1,000,000, with declining percentages above that. On a $400,000 Orlando estate that is $12,000. What a probate actually costs depends on the case — how the property is titled, how complex the estate is, how many beneficiaries are involved and whether anyone objects. Most of my quotes include a flat fee, but I listen to the whole situation before putting a number on it, and whatever we agree goes in writing before anything is filed.

Do I pay the probate attorney out of my own pocket?

No. Attorney’s compensation is an administration expense paid from estate assets. Where the estate has no ready cash, the fee is usually paid at the closing of a sale or on distribution rather than up front.

Is a probate lawyer worth the cost?

If a personal representative has to be appointed, the Florida Probate Rules require counsel anyway, with two narrow exceptions. If no personal representative is needed — a disposition of personal property, a small bank payout, a vehicle retitling — then frequently no. The honest test is whether anyone needs legal authority to act.

Do you charge a flat fee or a percentage?

Most of my quotes include a flat fee, so you know what the administration costs rather than watching a clock. What I will not do is put a number on your case before I understand it — the cost depends on how the property is titled, how complex the estate is, how many beneficiaries are involved and whether anyone objects. I listen to all of that first, then give you options in writing, and nothing is filed before the arrangement is agreed. Listening first is how I keep it as cost-effective as the case allows.

What does it cost to file probate in Orange County?

The Orange County Clerk charges $400 for a petition for formal administration, $345 for summary administration where the estate exceeds $1,000, $235 where it does not, $231 for disposition of personal property without administration and $41 for a caveat. Publishing the Notice to Creditors typically adds $60 to $150, and certified death certificates are $10 each.

What is the summary administration limit in Florida in 2026?

$150,000, raised from $75,000 effective 1 July 2026 by chapter 2026-57. The test is the estate subject to administration in Florida less property exempt from creditors’ claims — which includes constitutional homestead — so an Orange County estate whose main asset is the family home often qualifies even where the house is worth much more.

Can we use summary administration if Mom’s house is worth $400,000?

Frequently yes, if it was her protected homestead, because homestead is excluded from the § 735.201(2) calculation. This is the most valuable and most commonly missed point in Orlando probate. It needs the deed and the facts checked, not a phone estimate.

How long does probate take in Orange County?

An uncontested summary administration commonly takes a few months. An uncontested formal administration commonly runs six months to a year, with the three-month creditor claims period acting as a floor nothing closes before — and longer where a known creditor was never properly served. Routine orders take roughly two to four weeks for judicial review after they are submitted.

How quickly can you file after I hire you?

Days, if the original will, the death certificate and the titling information are in hand. The front end is where families lose the most time, and where a complete, correctly certified first filing is worth more than anything else.

What is the 10 day rule for probate in Florida?

Section 732.901 requires the custodian of an original will to deposit it with the clerk of the court within ten days of learning of the death — whether or not anyone intends to open an estate. There is no criminal penalty for missing it. The only sanction, under § 732.901(2), runs against a custodian who had no just or reasonable cause, for costs, damages and a reasonable attorney’s fee.

Do I need a lawyer for probate in Florida?

The Florida Probate Rules require a personal representative to be represented by counsel, with two exceptions: a sole interested person, and a personal representative who is a member of The Florida Bar. Where no personal representative is appointed — summary administration and disposition without administration — the rule does not by its terms compel counsel.

Is there free help with probate at the Orange County courthouse?

No. The Clerk’s Self-Help Center and its “Ask A Lawyer” sessions cover family law, small claims and residential evictions only, and the circuit lists no public law library. Orange County pro se probate filers have no free help desk.

What if the estate has no money to pay for probate?

The out-of-pocket cost at the front of the case is the clerk’s filing fee plus publication — usually under $500 in Orange County. Attorney’s fees are an estate expense and are commonly paid on sale or distribution. Illiquidity delays payment; it rarely prevents the case.

Can I be personal representative if I live out of state?

Only within § 733.304 — an adopted child or adoptive parent, someone related by lineal consanguinity, a spouse or a brother, sister, uncle, aunt, nephew or niece (or someone related by lineal consanguinity to one of those), or the spouse of a qualified person. A friend, a cousin or an unadopted step-child cannot serve.

Should I hire a probate lawyer near me, or does location not matter?

It matters less than almost anyone expects, and I would rather tell you that than pretend otherwise. Most people start by searching for a probate lawyer near me, or a probate lawyer Orlando FL, because that is how you find any professional — but Florida probate is filed electronically through a statewide portal, an ordinary uncontested administration rarely involves a hearing at all, and the Orange County file sits in the same place whoever opens it. What actually decides your outcome is whether the person handling it knows this county: that the Comptroller records the deed and the Clerk holds the case, that a homestead-heavy estate may qualify for summary administration, that a certification checklist has to go with the filing. A local probate attorney who does not do probate is worth less to you than one two hours away who does nothing else — an Orlando estate attorney whose practice is mostly closings or family law will be learning chapter 733 on your file, at your expense. Where proximity genuinely counts is if you want to sit across a desk — see below.

How do I choose between Orlando probate lawyers?

Ask each of them the same four questions and listen to who answers plainly. Does my estate qualify for summary administration, and why? Who actually does the work on my file? What is the fee, in writing, before anything is filed? And what changes if a beneficiary objects? Most people comparing probate lawyers in Orlando end up comparing prices, which is the least useful of the four. The more revealing test is whether the person on the phone will tell you when you do not need to hire anyone at all. What is not a signal is the title on the shingle — Orlando probate law attorney, estate attorney, probate counsel are all the same job description and none of them is a credential. One practical difference that does matter: at a probate law firm in Orlando with a floor of associates, the attorney you interview is often not the attorney who ends up handling your file. I am a solo practitioner, so the person who takes your first call is the person who signs the petition for discharge.

Can we do the whole probate without coming to Orlando?

Usually, yes. Filing is through the statewide e-filing portal, uncontested administrations rarely need a hearing, and short uncontested matters are heard by WebEx. Evidentiary hearings and trials must be in person, and those belong to contested matters.

Will I have to go to court?

In an ordinary uncontested Orange County administration, usually not at all. The probate court lawyer Orlando families picture — someone standing up at a podium on a docket call — is not what an uncontested administration needs. Most of an administration is filed, reviewed and ordered on paper, and the short uncontested matters that do need a judge are heard by WebEx.

What is ancillary probate in Orlando?

Ancillary administration is the Florida proceeding for a person who died domiciled elsewhere but owned Florida assets — very common with Orlando second homes, condos and timeshares. Note that the appointment ladder does not put the foreign personal representative first, and every rung requires the person to be qualified to act in Florida.

Can you refuse to inherit a timeshare?

Yes, by disclaiming under chapter 739 — in writing, declaring the disclaimer, describing the interest, signed and witnessed as the chapter requires, and delivered to the right person. But accept any benefit from the interest and the right is gone, and a disclaimer changes who takes next and can affect Medicaid eligibility. Get advice before signing one, particularly one a resort’s collections department suggested.

Is an affidavit of heirship enough to sell an Orlando house?

Rarely on its own. Central Florida title underwriters generally want an order determining homestead status from the probate court — though that is underwriting practice, not a statutory rule, and it varies by underwriter, so ask yours before you plan around it. An affidavit can support a chain of title alongside other evidence, but it is not a substitute for probate, and discovering that at the closing table is expensive.

Where do I record the deed after probate in Orange County?

With the Orange County Comptroller, Official Records, 109 East Church Street, Suite 300 — not with the Clerk of Courts at 425 N. Orange Avenue. Orange County’s charter splits the two functions and most Florida counties do not.

Does the personal representative get paid too?

Section 733.617(2) sets a separate presumed-reasonable commission — 3% of the first $1,000,000, then declining. That schedule is for ordinary services too — a personal representative may also be allowed additional compensation for extraordinary work such as selling real property, litigation, tax proceedings, running the decedent’s business or dealing with protected homestead. Family members often waive the commission entirely; professionals generally do not. If an accounting looks wrong, the court can review the compensation, with the burden of proof on the personal representative and the person employed.

Do I need a bond?

A bond is the default for every fiduciary granted letters unless waived by the will or the court. A waiver in the will does not bind the court, which may require one on its own motion anyway. The amount is set on gross value, relationships, asset type and known creditors.

Can I switch probate attorneys in the middle of a case?

Yes. The personal representative chooses the attorney and may change that choice — a point the statutory fee disclosures have required an attorney charging on the schedule to tell you in writing since 2021.

What happens if we never file probate at all?

Title stays where it was. The house cannot be sold or insured cleanly, accounts stay frozen, and a will that is never admitted is ineffective to prove title or right to possession. There is no deadline to commence probate, and a later-discovered will can be offered until administration is complete and the personal representative discharged — but nothing moves until someone starts.

¿Atienden en español?

Sí. Toda la práctica de sucesiones se atiende en español y en inglés. Vea Abogado de Herencias en Orlando.

Talk to an Orlando probate attorney — free consultation

If someone has died and there is a house, an account, a business or a timeshare in Orange County, the first conversation is short and free. I take you through the four questions above, and at the end of it you will know which procedure your facts allow, roughly what it will cost, roughly how long it will take, and whether you need to hire anyone at all.

Call (305) 224-6811 or send me your details and I will call you back. The consultation is free and there is no obligation at the end of it. People searching for a probate attorney in Orlando with a free consultation sometimes ask what the catch is. Sometimes the answer is that you should go and file a disposition of personal property yourself for $231 and keep the fee. If it turns out you do need an Orlando probate lawyer, you will at least know exactly why.

Jose M. Lorenzo, Jr., Esquire — Florida Bar No. 107002. Lorenzo Law, Coral Gables and Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Probate, probate litigation, estate planning, guardianship and Florida homestead law, throughout Florida including Orange, Osceola and Seminole counties.

This page describes general Florida law and Orange County practice as of September 2026. It is not legal advice and does not create an attorney-client relationship. Fee figures and filing fees are current as published and change; confirm before relying on them.