Ancillary Probate in Florida: Who Can Serve and the $150,000 Rule

Someone died in New York, Ohio, Ontario or Buenos Aires and owned a condo, a house, a vacant lot or a mortgage note in Florida. The estate is already open where they lived. Florida still wants its own case before that property can be sold or transferred, and that second case is ancillary probate.

Two things decide how this goes, and most pages on the subject cover neither properly. The first is whether the executor named in the will is even allowed to serve in Florida — often they are not. The second is the value ceiling for the short version of the process, which doubled to $150,000 on 1 July 2026.

This page covers both, along with what to file, what it costs, how long it takes, and how families avoid the whole thing next time.

What ancillary probate in Florida means

Ancillary probate — also called ancillary administration or, informally, secondary probate — is a Florida court proceeding opened alongside the main probate in the state or country where the decedent actually lived. That main case is the domiciliary administration, and the person running it is the domiciliary personal representative (in many states, the executor).

The reason a second case exists is old and simple: real property is governed by the law of the state where it sits. An Ohio court order does not move Florida land. Only a Florida court can, which is why an ancillary estate has to be opened here.

Ancillary administration is governed by §734.102, Florida Statutes. The proceeding runs on procedures “as similar to those in original administrations as possible” — same Florida Probate Rules, same creditor process, same court — but limited to the Florida assets.

When Florida requires ancillary administration

Florida ancillary probate is required when a non-resident decedent died owning, in Florida:

• Real property — a house, condominium, vacant land, a timeshare interest, or an interest in any of these held as tenants in common;
• A mortgage or note secured by Florida property, or a lien on Florida property; or
• Credits — money or personal property located here that no one can release without court authority.

It is required whether or not there is a will. If the decedent died intestate, the ancillary case follows Florida’s intestate succession rules for the Florida property while the home state handles the rest, and the preference rules in chapter 733 decide who gets appointed.

It is not required for assets that never pass through probate at all. A Florida property held jointly with right of survivorship, or with a valid enhanced life estate deed (a lady bird deed), or titled in a living trust, transfers outside probate and needs no case here. Neither do payable-on-death accounts or life insurance with a named beneficiary. Sorting the probate from the non-probate assets is the first thing to do, because it decides whether a Florida case is needed at all — and, if it is, whether it fits the short route.

The rule that stops most estates: who can serve as personal representative

This is where out-of-state estates get stuck, and it is worth understanding before anything else is filed.

Section 734.102(1) says the foreign personal representative is entitled to Florida ancillary letters “if qualified to act in Florida.” Everything turns on that clause, because Florida restricts who may serve.

Under §733.304, a nonresident may serve as personal representative only if they are:

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

Read the list again and notice who is missing. A friend. A business partner. An accountant. The family lawyer. A bank or trust company that is not a Florida-authorised fiduciary. A stepchild who was never legally adopted. An unmarried partner.

Any of those people can be a perfectly valid executor in New York or Illinois or Ontario. None of them can be appointed personal representative in Florida. The will saying so does not change it. The home-state court having already appointed them does not change it.

When the named executor cannot serve as Florida personal representative

Section 734.102(1) sets out the fallback in order. If the personal representative designated in the will for the Florida property is not qualified, then an alternate or successor named in the will who is qualified may be appointed. If there is no such person, those holding the majority interest in the Florida property may select a qualified personal representative. Where the decedent died intestate and the foreign representative is not qualified, the ordinary chapter 733 preference rules apply.

The domiciliary personal representative must be given prior notice if someone else seeks ancillary letters.

In practice this is why the call happens. An executor in Toronto or Cleveland discovers the Florida closing cannot proceed, learns they personally cannot be appointed here, and needs someone qualified — usually a Florida relative, sometimes a Florida attorney serving in that role — plus a petition that gets it right the first time.

The $150,000 rule and ancillary summary administration

Florida’s shortened probate route is summary administration, and it is available in an ancillary case. §735.201 says so in terms: summary administration “may be had in the administration of either a resident or nonresident decedent’s estate.”

The test is whether “the value of the entire estate subject to administration in this state, less the value of property exempt from the claims of creditors,” exceeds the ceiling. On 1 July 2026 that ceiling went from $75,000 to $150,000, under Chapter 2026-57, Laws of Florida (CS/HB 1337), approved 29 April 2026. The Supreme Court of Florida amended Florida Probate Rule 5.530(a)(7) to match. There is no applicability clause tied to date of death — the act simply takes effect on 1 July.

This change is worth more in an ancillary case than anywhere else, and here is why.

The statute measures the estate subject to administration in this state. In an ancillary proceeding that is the Florida property and nothing else. The decedent’s worldwide estate is irrelevant to the arithmetic. A family in Toronto whose parent left an $8 million estate and a $140,000 condo in Cape Coral is testing $140,000 against the ceiling, not $8 million.

That $140,000 condo required full formal ancillary administration in June 2026. In July it fits summary administration — no personal representative appointed, no letters, no year-long file, an order distributing the property directly.

The second route into §735.201 also survives: if the decedent has been dead more than two years, the value ceiling disappears entirely. For the Florida house nobody dealt with — a parent died in Michigan in 2019, the family kept paying the taxes, and now a buyer wants clear title — that is usually the door.

The homestead subtraction does not rescue a snowbird estate

If you have read about summary administration for a Florida resident, you will have seen that the protected homestead generally comes out of the calculation before you test the ceiling, which is what lets large-sounding estates qualify. See our page on summary administration in Florida for how that works.

It usually does not help here. Protected homestead status depends on the property being the owner’s permanent residence. A vacation condo owned by someone who lived and died in Ontario or New Jersey is generally not protected homestead, so there is nothing to subtract and the full value of the property counts against the $150,000.

This is the single most common misunderstanding among families who have read about the resident rules and assumed they carry over. They do not. Snowbird property is measured at full value.

Three routes for a nonresident’s Florida property, compared

	No administration — §734.1025	Ancillary summary administration	Formal ancillary administration
Governing law	§734.1025	§735.201 with §734.102	§734.102, chapter 733
Value limit	$50,000 in Florida property	$150,000, or dead more than 2 years	None
Will required	Yes — testate estates only	No	No
Personal representative appointed	No	No	Yes
Who must qualify under §733.304	No appointment needed	Not applicable	Yes — this is the sticking point
Deadline	Within 2 years of death	—	—
What you file	Authenticated transcript of the foreign proceedings showing the will and beneficiaries	Verified petition	Petition for ancillary administration
What you get	Will admitted; claims barred per §733.702	An order distributing the Florida property	Ancillary letters, then administration

One asymmetry worth noticing. Chapter 2026-57 raised the §735.201 ceiling to $150,000 but left §734.1025 alone at $50,000. The two used to sit closer together. As of July 2026 the summary administration route is materially more useful for nonresident estates than the §734.1025 short cut, and it does not require a will. If someone quotes you the $50,000 figure as though it were the only shortcut available, they are working from an incomplete picture.

Wills executed in another state — and the holographic trap

A will made in another state or another country generally works here. Under §732.502(2), a will “executed by a nonresident of Florida, either before or after this law takes effect, is valid as a will in this state if valid under the laws of the state or country where the will was executed.”

Then comes the exception, and it catches people every year. That provision reads “any will, other than a holographic or nuncupative will.”

A holographic will is one written and signed by the testator without the witnesses Florida requires. A nuncupative will is an oral one. Several US states recognise holographic wills. So do several Canadian provinces — Quebec, and the prairie provinces among them. Florida does not honour any of them, even when they are unquestionably valid where they were made.

If the Florida property is governed by a handwritten will from a jurisdiction that permits them, Florida will treat the estate as intestate as to that property, and it will pass under Florida’s intestate succession statute to whoever it names — which may be nobody the will mentions.

One narrowing point in Florida’s favour: a will in the testator’s own handwriting that was executed with the formalities of §732.502(1) — signed at the end, in the presence of two attesting witnesses who signed in the presence of the testator and each other — is not a holographic will. Handwriting alone is not the problem. Missing witnesses are.

Where there is a will, the original has to reach the Florida clerk, and the foreign proceedings usually need to arrive as an authenticated (exemplified) copy, not a plain photocopy.

Ancillary probate in Florida for Canadian and other foreign estates

Southwest Florida — Fort Myers, Cape Coral, Naples, Bonita Springs — along with Broward and Palm Beach, holds an enormous amount of property owned by Canadians and by nationals of other countries. When those owners die, the estate is administered at home and the Florida property still needs a Florida order.

The procedure is the same one described above. Four points come up in nearly every one of these files.

The Canadian executor usually cannot be appointed here. Section 733.304 makes no exception for foreign nationals, but it makes none against them either — the test is relationship, not citizenship or residence abroad. A Canadian son or daughter of the decedent qualifies. A Canadian estate trustee who is a family friend, a solicitor, or a trust company does not.

A holographic will made in a province that allows them is not valid here. See the section above. This is the most frequent unpleasant surprise in Canadian files.

The vacation property is almost never protected homestead, so its full value counts toward the $150,000 test — but at $150,000 rather than $75,000, a large share of Canadian-owned condos now clear it.

Estate tax is a separate question from probate, and a real one. A non-US-citizen, non-domiciliary decedent’s US-situs assets get a much smaller federal estate tax exclusion than a US person’s, and Florida real estate is US-situs property. That is a tax matter, not a probate matter, and it is covered on our page on ancillary administration and non-citizen estate tax. Do not let a clean probate plan proceed without someone having looked at it.

How to file ancillary probate in Florida, step by step

Ancillary administration is “commenced as provided by the Florida Probate Rules” under §734.102(2). In outline:

1. Establish where to file. Venue is the county where the Florida property is located. If the decedent owned property in more than one county, that is a decision to make deliberately rather than by default.
2. Determine which route applies — §734.1025, ancillary summary administration, or formal ancillary administration. This depends on the Florida-only value, whether there is a will, and how long ago the death occurred.
3. Confirm who can serve. Run the §733.304 test on the named executor before drafting anything. If they do not qualify, identify the alternate in the will, or the majority interest holders who will select someone.
4. Obtain authenticated copies of the foreign proceedings — the will as admitted, the order appointing the domiciliary personal representative, and the letters. Plain copies are routinely rejected.
5. File the petition for ancillary administration, with a certified copy of the death certificate and the authenticated transcript. The petition must describe the Florida property accurately.
6. Give notice. The domiciliary personal representative gets prior notice where someone else seeks the letters, and interested persons are noticed under the rules.
7. Post bond and take out ancillary letters, in a formal administration. Section 734.102(4) requires bond unless the court dispenses with it.
8. Serve and publish notice to creditors. Section 734.102(5) requires it — see below.
9. Deal with the property — sell, transfer, or hold — using the powers in §734.102(7).
10. Close. Under §734.102(6), after administration expenses and claims are paid, the court may order the remaining property transferred to the domiciliary personal representative or distributed to the beneficiaries directly.

Everything after step 3 is mechanical. Steps 2 and 3 are where cases are won or lost.

Florida ancillary probate checklist: what to gather before you file

• Certified copy of the death certificate.
• Authenticated (exemplified) copies of the foreign probate: the will as admitted, the order of appointment, and the letters.
• The original will, where Florida is the first court to see it.
• The recorded deed to the Florida property — take the legal description from the deed, never from the tax bill.
• The property’s date-of-death value, and the value of any other Florida asset.
• Whether the property is subject to a mortgage, HOA or condominium assessments, or a code lien.
• Names, addresses and relationships of the surviving spouse and every beneficiary — and, for the §733.304 test, the exact relationship of the proposed personal representative to the decedent.
• Known Florida creditors, and the diligent search made to find unknown ones.
• Whether anyone has been paying the taxes, insurance or association dues since the death and expects reimbursement.
• Whether the plan is to sell. Say so at the start; it shapes how the petition is drafted.

Creditor notice in Florida ancillary administration

Section 734.102(5) is direct. The ancillary personal representative shall cause a notice to creditors to be served and published according to the requirements of chapter 733. Unlike summary administration for a resident estate, where publication is optional, this is not a choice in a formal ancillary administration.

The reason to want it anyway: publication starts the clock. Under §733.702, a claim is barred unless filed by the later of three months after first publication of the notice to creditors, or 30 days after service on a creditor entitled to be served.

And §733.710 sets the outer boundary: two years after death, neither the estate, the personal representative, nor the beneficiaries are liable for claims against the decedent — with exceptions for claims already filed and for recorded mortgages and other liens, which survive regardless.

That last exception matters here more than in most estates. Ancillary cases are usually about real property, and a mortgage on that property is not cleared by the passage of time.

Clearing title to Florida property with an ancillary order

For most families this proceeding exists for one reason: nobody can sell the property.

The Florida order is what a title examiner reads. In a formal ancillary administration it is the ancillary letters plus a personal representative’s deed. In an ancillary summary administration it is the order of summary administration itself, doing the same work in a single instrument — moving title from the decedent to named people so that marketable title can pass to a buyer.

Which puts all the weight on the property description. Take the legal description from the recorded deed. An abbreviated or inaccurate description produces an order that does not cleanly convey, and the defect surfaces years later when someone tries to sell — at which point curing it costs several times what the administration did.

If you intend to sell the property, tell your attorney at the first meeting. A title agent will usually tell you exactly what they need to insure the transaction, and it is far cheaper to draft to that standard than to fix it afterwards.

How long ancillary probate takes, and what it costs

Timing. An ancillary summary administration in a clean case runs weeks rather than months. A formal ancillary administration is generally comparable to a formal administration for a resident — commonly six months to a year, and longer where the creditor period, a contested claim, or a sale is involved.

The variables are the clerk’s queue in the county where you file, how quickly the home-state court produces authenticated copies (frequently the slowest single step), whether the personal representative question has to be resolved, and whether the property sells during administration.

Cost. Court filing fees, publication of the notice to creditors, certified and authenticated copies, and attorney’s fees. Formal administration also carries bond unless waived. The honest answer beyond that is that it depends on the estate: a single unencumbered lot passing to one child is a different piece of work from a mortgaged condo with association arrears, four beneficiaries in three countries, and a buyer under contract.

What moves the number most is not the size of the property. It is whether the paperwork from the home state arrives clean, and whether there is a qualified person available to serve.

How to avoid ancillary probate on Florida property

Worth knowing for the family reading this after the fact, and worth acting on if you own Florida property and live elsewhere. Ancillary probate is avoidable, and the tools are ordinary:

• A revocable living trust holding the Florida property. The trust owns it; there is nothing to probate here. This is the standard answer for out-of-state and foreign owners.
• An enhanced life estate deed — a lady bird deed — which passes the property at death while the owner keeps full control during life.
• Joint ownership with right of survivorship, where that suits the family. It has real drawbacks; it is not automatically the right choice.
• Correct titling generally, reviewed whenever the family situation changes.

There is a second reason to plan, beyond saving a proceeding. Doing it deliberately means choosing your own personal representative and confirming they can actually serve in Florida — rather than leaving your family to discover the §733.304 problem at the worst possible moment.

Where a Florida ancillary probate case is filed

Ancillary administration is filed in the circuit court of the county where the Florida property sits. We handle these across the state, and the concentrations are predictable: Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach on the east coast; Lee and Collier — Fort Myers, Cape Coral, Naples and Bonita Springs on the southwest coast, where Canadian and midwestern ownership is heaviest; Sarasota and Manatee; and Orange and Osceola around Orlando.

Circuits publish their own probate checklists on top of the statute, and they differ. Get the checklist for the circuit where the property is located before drafting — a packet published by one county’s clerk is a useful model, not a statewide form.

Florida ancillary probate FAQs

What is ancillary probate, and when is it required in Florida?

Ancillary probate is a secondary Florida court proceeding opened when someone who lived in another state or country dies owning Florida real property, a mortgage or note on Florida property, or other credits here. The main probate happens where they lived; Florida still needs its own case, because only a Florida court can move Florida land. It is required whether or not there is a will, and it is not required for assets that avoid probate — jointly held property with survivorship, a lady bird deed, or property in a living trust.

Can the out-of-state executor serve as personal representative in Florida?

Frequently not. Section 734.102(1) entitles the foreign personal representative to ancillary letters only “if qualified to act in Florida,” and §733.304 lets a nonresident serve only if they are an adopted child or adoptive parent, related by lineal consanguinity, a spouse, brother, sister, uncle, aunt, nephew or niece — or someone in the lineal line of one of those — or the spouse of a qualified person. A friend, business partner, accountant, attorney, unmarried partner, or unadopted stepchild cannot be appointed, no matter what the will says or what the home-state court ordered. The fallback is a qualified alternate named in the will, or a personal representative selected by those holding the majority interest in the Florida property.

Can foreign nationals or Canadian citizens complete ancillary probate in Florida?

Yes. Section 733.304 tests relationship, not citizenship — a Canadian son or daughter of the decedent can be appointed; a Canadian estate trustee who is a friend, solicitor or trust company cannot. Two things catch foreign estates in particular: a holographic will valid in the home jurisdiction is not valid in Florida under §732.502(2), and the vacation property is generally not protected homestead, so its full value counts toward the $150,000 summary administration ceiling. Federal estate tax for a non-citizen, non-domiciliary decedent is a separate issue and needs its own review.

Do I need ancillary probate if the will was already probated in another state?

Usually yes, if the Florida asset is real property. The other state’s order does not transfer Florida land. What the completed home-state case does give you is the paperwork Florida needs — authenticated copies of the will as admitted, the order of appointment, and the letters — which is why the two proceedings run in sequence rather than in parallel.

How do I file ancillary probate in Florida from another state?

You do not have to travel. File in the circuit court of the county where the property is located, through a Florida attorney who appears for the estate. Practically: confirm whether the named executor qualifies under §733.304; decide between §734.1025, ancillary summary administration and formal ancillary administration; obtain authenticated copies from the home-state court; then file the petition with the death certificate and the transcript of the foreign proceedings. The authenticated copies are usually the long pole — request them early.

What documents are required for Florida ancillary probate?

A certified death certificate; authenticated copies of the foreign probate proceedings, including the will as admitted, the order of appointment and the letters; the original will where Florida is the first court to see it; the recorded deed to the Florida property, with the legal description taken from the deed itself; a date-of-death value for each Florida asset; and the names, addresses and relationships of the surviving spouse and beneficiaries. Circuits publish their own checklists that add to this — get the one for your county before drafting.

How much does ancillary probate cost in Florida?

It depends on the route and the property. There are court filing fees, the cost of publishing notice to creditors, certified and authenticated copies, and attorney’s fees; a formal ancillary administration also carries bond unless the court dispenses with it. An ancillary summary administration on one unencumbered parcel is a modest matter. A mortgaged condominium with association arrears, beneficiaries in several countries and a pending sale is not. Tell us what the property and the family look like and we will tell you what it takes before you commit to anything.

How long does ancillary probate take in Florida?

An ancillary summary administration usually takes weeks. A formal ancillary administration commonly runs six months to a year, and longer if a claim is contested or the property is being sold during administration. The most common delay is not the Florida court — it is waiting on authenticated copies from the home-state court, so order those the moment the route is decided.

What happens if we do not do ancillary probate on the Florida property?

Nothing, until someone needs to do something with it. Title stays in the decedent’s name, so the property cannot be sold, refinanced or insured in anyone else’s name, while taxes, insurance and association dues keep running. It also gets harder rather than easier: witnesses and documents scatter, heirs die or become difficult to locate, and liens accumulate. The one thing time does help with is the §735.201 two-year route, which removes the value ceiling — but that is a reason to file after two years, not a reason to wait.

How do I transfer title after ancillary probate is complete?

In a formal ancillary administration, the ancillary personal representative conveys by personal representative’s deed under the authority of the letters, and that deed is recorded in the county where the property sits. In an ancillary summary administration the order of summary administration does the work itself — it is recorded and stands as the instrument moving title to the people named in it. Either way, a title agent should review the description before recording; an error there is far cheaper to fix now than at a future closing.

Talk to a Florida ancillary probate attorney

If someone in your family died out of state or abroad and left property in Florida, the two questions to answer first are whether the estate fits the $150,000 summary route and whether your executor can serve here at all. Both can be answered in a short conversation, and both change what the case costs.

Call (305) 224-6811 or send a message through the contact page. We handle ancillary administration for families and executors in other states and other countries, and there is no charge for working out which route your situation needs.