The Cost of Probate in Florida: Fees, Rates, and 2026 Changes

A Florida probate costs the estate two things: fees paid to people, and costs paid to institutions. The people are the attorney and the personal representative, and Florida law gives each of them a presumptively reasonable percentage. The institutions are the clerk of court and the newspaper, and those charges are fixed and small. For a $500,000 estate the presumptive professional fees come to roughly $30,000 combined, while the court and publication costs together rarely exceed $600.

That is the honest headline. What follows is the arithmetic behind it, the parts of it that are negotiable, and the costs families almost never see coming.

Two things changed on July 1, 2026 that make older articles on this subject unreliable. Florida doubled the ceiling for summary administration — the fast, inexpensive version of probate — from $75,000 to $150,000. And the rules governing what a probate attorney must tell you in writing before charging a percentage fee now carry real consequences. Both changes are covered below.

The Four Things You Are Actually Paying For

Almost every dollar spent in a Florida probate falls into one of four buckets, and they behave very differently from one another.

Attorney compensation is the largest single line in most estates. Florida Statutes § 733.6171 sets out a sliding scale that is presumed reasonable, and that presumption is where most of the confusion in this area begins.

Personal representative compensation is a separate commission under § 733.617, payable to whoever administers the estate. In family administrations it is very often waived, and that single decision can cut the total cost of probate nearly in half.

Court and clerk charges are capped by statute and published by each county. They are the smallest bucket and the only one you can look up in advance to the dollar.

Third-party costs — publication of the notice to creditors, certified copies, appraisals, accountants, and occasionally a fiduciary bond — vary with the estate but are usually measured in hundreds rather than thousands.

How Much Does Probate Cost in Florida?

For a straightforward formal administration, expect the estate to pay roughly 3 percent of its value in attorney fees once it clears $100,000, plus another 3 percent if the personal representative takes a commission, plus $400 to $600 in court and publication costs. On a $500,000 estate that is about $30,000 if both professionals are paid at the statutory rate, and about $15,000 if a family member serves as personal representative without compensation. A summary administration costs dramatically less, because there is no ongoing administration to pay for.

Why Those Percentages Are Ceilings, Not Prices

The figures above describe what Florida law presumes to be reasonable, which is a very different thing from what Florida law requires you to pay. Every one of them is negotiable, and the statute says so in terms. The sections below work through where each number comes from and which of them you can move.

How Are Florida Probate Attorney Fees Calculated?

Florida Statutes § 733.6171(3) provides a scale of compensation for ordinary services that is presumed reasonable when calculated on the compensable value of the estate. Compensable value means the inventory value of the probate assets plus income the estate earns during administration — not the decedent’s gross net worth, and not assets that pass outside probate to a joint owner or a named beneficiary.

The Statutory Attorney Fee Tiers

The scale is cumulative. Each tier applies only to the slice of value that falls inside it.

Compensable value of the estate	Presumed reasonable attorney fee
$40,000 or less	$1,500
More than $40,000, up to $70,000	An additional $750 (total $2,250)
More than $70,000, up to $100,000	An additional $750 (total $3,000)
More than $100,000, up to $1 million	3% of the next $900,000
More than $1 million, up to $3 million	2.5%
More than $3 million, up to $5 million	2%
More than $5 million, up to $10 million	1.5%
Above $10 million	1%

Worked through at common estate sizes, the scale produces these figures:

Estate value	Attorney fee under § 733.6171	How it is built
$100,000	$3,000	$1,500 + $750 + $750
$150,000	$4,500	$3,000 + 3% of $50,000
$300,000	$9,000	$3,000 + 3% of $200,000
$500,000	$15,000	$3,000 + 3% of $400,000
$750,000	$22,500	$3,000 + 3% of $650,000
$1,000,000	$30,000	$3,000 + 3% of $900,000
$2,000,000	$55,000	$30,000 + 2.5% of $1,000,000
$5,000,000	$120,000	$80,000 + 2% of $2,000,000

Notice what happens at the bottom of the scale. An estate of exactly $100,000 carries a presumed fee of $3,000, which is 3 percent. An estate of $40,000 carries $1,500, which is 3.75 percent. The scale is proportionally hardest on the smallest estates, which is one reason the summary administration threshold matters as much as it does.

Is the Statutory Fee Table Mandatory in Florida?

No. It is a presumption, not a price. Section 733.6171(2)(a) expressly allows the attorney, the personal representative, and the people who bear the economic impact of the fee to agree on compensation determined in an entirely different manner. Flat fees are permitted. Hourly billing is permitted. A blended arrangement is permitted. The statutory tiers exist so that a court reviewing a fee afterward has a benchmark to reason from, not so that every estate in Florida pays the same percentage.

What Must a Florida Probate Attorney Disclose in Writing?

If an attorney intends to charge a fee based on the statutory tiers, § 733.6171(2)(b) requires five specific written disclosures to the personal representative, and § 733.6171(2)(c) requires the attorney to obtain the personal representative’s timely signature acknowledging them. Section 733.6171(2)(d) supplies the consequence for skipping this step: an attorney who does not make the disclosures may not be paid for legal services without prior court approval of the fees or the written consent of all interested parties.

The Five Required Disclosures

1. There is no mandatory statutory attorney fee for estate administration.
2. The fee is not required to be based on the size of the estate, and the presumed reasonable fee may not be appropriate in every administration.
3. The fee is subject to negotiation between the personal representative and the attorney.
4. The personal representative chooses the attorney and is not required to select the lawyer who prepared the will.
5. The personal representative is entitled to a summary of ordinary and extraordinary services at the conclusion of the representation, consisting of either the total hours devoted to the matter or a detailed summary of the services performed.

The fourth disclosure is the one families most need to hear. The lawyer who drafted the will has no automatic claim on the estate administration, and a direction in the will naming a particular attorney does not obligate the personal representative to hire that person. If you have been handed a percentage fee agreement without these five points in it, you are entitled to ask why.

How Much Does the Personal Representative Get Paid?

The personal representative earns a separate commission under § 733.617, calculated on the same compensable value and payable from estate assets without a court order. It runs at 3 percent through the first million dollars and steps down from there. Critically, a personal representative may renounce the commission in whole or in part — and adult children serving for a parent’s estate very frequently do.

The Personal Representative Commission Tiers

Compensable value	Presumed reasonable commission
First $1 million	3%
Above $1 million, up to $5 million	2.5%
Above $5 million, up to $10 million	2%
Above $10 million	1.5%

There is a tax dimension to the waiver decision that is worth raising with your accountant. A commission is taxable income to the person who receives it, while an inheritance generally is not. A beneficiary who is also serving as personal representative sometimes declines the fee and simply receives a larger share of the residue, which reaches a similar economic result on better terms.

What the Two Statutory Presumptions Cost Together

Because both scales run at 3 percent through the first million dollars, an estate that pays both professionals at the presumed rate is paying close to 6 percent of its value in professional fees.

Estate value	Attorney	Personal representative	Combined	Share of the estate
$150,000	$4,500	$4,500	$9,000	6.0%
$300,000	$9,000	$9,000	$18,000	6.0%
$500,000	$15,000	$15,000	$30,000	6.0%
$1,000,000	$30,000	$30,000	$60,000	6.0%
$2,000,000	$55,000	$55,000	$110,000	5.5%
$5,000,000	$120,000	$130,000	$250,000	5.0%

Six percent is the number worth carrying away, because it is also the number a family can most easily reduce. Waiving the personal representative commission removes half of it in a single stroke.

Can Both the Attorney and the Personal Representative Be Paid?

Yes, and they are separate entitlements. The attorney fee compensates legal work performed for the estate. The commission compensates the fiduciary work of gathering assets, paying creditors, and making distributions. One does not absorb the other. Section 733.617(6) goes further: where the personal representative is a member of The Florida Bar and renders legal services in the administration, that person may be allowed a legal fee in addition to the commission.

When There Is More Than One Personal Representative

Section 733.617(5) handles co-representatives, and the result surprises people. If the estate’s compensable value is $100,000 or more and there are two personal representatives, each is entitled to the full commission a sole representative would receive. Where there are more than two, the equivalent of two full commissions is apportioned among them according to the services each performed. Below $100,000, a single commission is divided among however many are serving.

Naming two children as co-representatives to keep the peace can therefore double the fiduciary cost of the estate. That is a planning decision worth making deliberately rather than by default.

What Does the Clerk of Court Charge to Open a Probate Case?

Far less than most people expect. Florida Statutes § 28.2401 caps what a clerk may charge in probate matters, and the counties publish the resulting totals. Opening a formal administration runs about $400. A summary administration runs about $346. Disposition of personal property without administration runs about $232. These are one-time charges paid when the case is filed, and they are the same whether the estate is worth $200,000 or $2 million.

Probate Filing Fees in Four Florida Counties

Filing fees are close to uniform statewide but not identical, because each clerk adds the statutory service charges slightly differently. These are the currently published amounts:

Filing	Miami-Dade	Broward	Palm Beach	Orange
Formal administration	$401	$401	$401	$400
Summary administration, estate $1,000 or more	$346	$346	$346	$345
Summary administration, estate under $1,000	$236	$236	$236	$235
Disposition of personal property without administration	$232	$232	$232	$231
Certifying a document	$2	$2	$2	$2
Copies, per page	$1	$1	$1	$1

The statute also caps a caveat at $40 and exemplified certificates at $7. A certified copy of Letters of Administration — the document banks and title companies ask for — is priced compositionally rather than as a line item: the per-page copy charge plus the per-document certification, which works out to roughly $3 or $4 for a typical set of Letters. Order several at the outset. Every institution that holds an estate asset will want its own.

Does Florida have a small estate affidavit?

No. This is one of the most common wasted searches in Florida probate. Most states let an heir collect a modest estate by signing a small estate affidavit and handing it to whoever holds the asset — no court, no filing, no lawyer. Florida has no such document. There is no Florida small estate affidavit form to download, and any site offering one is offering a form from another state.

What Florida provides instead are two court procedures that reach a similar result at a similar scale:

Florida procedure	What it does	Realistic use
Disposition without administration, section 735.301	A short court filing that releases assets where the estate consists only of exempt property and non-exempt personal property not exceeding certain final expenses	The closest thing to a small estate affidavit. No dollar cap written into the statute, but genuinely small estates only
Summary administration, section 735.201	An abbreviated administration, with an order distributing the assets	Non-exempt value at or below the threshold — raised to $150,000 by chapter 2026-57 — or a death more than two years ago

The practical difference matters. A small estate affidavit in another state is something you sign. Both Florida routes are something a judge signs. That is why the answer to how do I get a small estate affidavit in Florida is always a question back: what is actually in the estate, and is anyone disputing it?

Does Summary Administration Cost Less Than Formal Administration?

Substantially less, and as of July 1, 2026 far more estates qualify. Summary administration has no ongoing administration to fund: no inventory of the sort a formal administration requires, no personal representative to compensate because none is appointed, and a much shorter engagement for the attorney. The court’s filing fee drops by roughly $55, but that is the smallest part of the saving. The real difference is that the statutory percentage compensation structure built around formal administration simply does not apply in the same way.

The July 1, 2026 Small-Estate Changes

Chapter 2026-57, Laws of Florida, raised four separate thresholds, all effective July 1, 2026. If you are reading an article written before that date, every one of these numbers in it is wrong.

Provision	Old limit	Limit today
§ 735.201(2) — summary administration eligibility	$75,000	$150,000
§ 735.304(1) — disposition without administration, intestate small estates	$10,000	$20,000
§ 735.303 — payment to successor without court proceedings	$1,000	$2,000
§ 735.302(1) — federal income tax refunds paid without administration	$2,500	$5,000

The first line is the consequential one. Doubling the summary administration ceiling to $150,000 moved a large band of Florida estates — the ones holding a modest bank balance and a car, or a homestead plus a little cash — out of formal administration and into a track that costs a fraction as much. An estate that would have faced roughly $4,500 in presumed attorney fees plus a personal representative commission under a formal administration may now be eligible for a proceeding with neither.

Summary administration is also available regardless of value when the decedent has been dead for more than two years. That is a separate route under the same statute and it is frequently overlooked in older estates where nobody opened probate at the time.

If you are weighing which track applies, our discussion of summary administration in Florida works through the eligibility requirements in detail, and when probate is not necessary at all covers the assets that bypass the process entirely.

If the number on this page is the reason you have not called anyone yet, that is worth saying out loud rather than sitting on. It is one of the questions people are most embarrassed to ask, and it has a practical answer.

What Counts as an Extraordinary Service in a Florida Probate?

Extraordinary services are billed on top of the ordinary compensation, and they are where a predictable probate becomes an expensive one. Section 733.6171(4) lists the categories for attorneys and § 733.617(3) does the same for personal representatives. The common thread is that something in the estate stopped being routine: a lawsuit, a tax controversy, a business to run, real property to sell, or a fight over who gets what.

The Extraordinary Service Categories

For the attorney, § 733.6171(4) includes involvement in a will contest, will construction, a proceeding to determine beneficiaries, a contested claim, an elective share proceeding, apportionment of estate taxes, or any adversarial litigation by or against the estate; representation in a tax audit or proceeding; postmortem tax planning advice; preparation or review of tax returns; the purchase, sale, lease, or encumbrance of real property; legal advice on carrying on the decedent’s business; environmental claims; advice regarding homestead status and protected homestead; fiduciary and compensation disputes; and ancillary administration of out-of-state assets.

Chapter 2026-57 added one more category effective July 1, 2026: involvement in any proceeding to enforce the authority of a personal representative as conferred by the Florida Probate Code. The same act created § 733.6125, which provides that in such a proceeding the court shall award a prevailing personal representative taxable costs including attorney fees, and may direct payment from the person whose action or inaction made the proceeding necessary.

That pairing matters practically. A beneficiary or third party who obstructs a personal representative carrying out lawful duties now faces a statutory fee exposure, and the cost of overcoming the obstruction is no longer automatically borne by the estate.

Preparation of the federal estate tax return has its own presumptive rate under § 733.6171(4)(e): one-half of 1 percent of the gross estate up to $10 million, and one-quarter of 1 percent above that, inclusive of a routine audit at the examining agent level.

Who pays probate attorney fees in Florida?

The estate pays. That is the short answer to who pays probate attorney fees, and it is the part that relieves most families: the personal representative does not pay out of pocket, and beneficiaries are not billed individually. Fees come out of estate assets before the residue is distributed, which means every beneficiary bears them proportionally through a smaller share rather than through an invoice.

Two situations change that. Where a beneficiary brings or defends litigation that benefits only themselves, the court can order those fees paid from that person’s share instead of the estate as a whole. And where a personal representative breaches a duty, fees generated by the breach can be charged against them personally rather than the estate.

How much does a probate lawyer cost in Florida?

There is no single figure, and anyone quoting one without seeing the estate is guessing. What are typical attorney fees for probate depends on which of three structures applies: hourly, a flat fee agreed in advance, or the statutory percentage scale described above. The scale is a presumption of reasonableness, not a price list, and it is regularly departed from in both directions.

The variables that actually move the cost of a probate lawyer are the type of administration, whether real property is involved, whether creditors file claims, and above all whether the beneficiaries agree with each other. A cooperative formal administration and a contested one of identical value are not comparable engagements.

Who Pays the Probate Fees, the Estate or the Family?

The estate pays, and beneficiaries bear the cost indirectly through a smaller inheritance. Section 733.106(3) provides that any attorney who has rendered services to an estate may be awarded reasonable compensation from the estate. Neither the personal representative nor the beneficiaries pay probate fees out of pocket in an ordinary administration; the money comes off the top before distribution. Filing fees are typically advanced by whoever opens the case and reimbursed from estate funds.

When the Court Shifts Fees to One Person’s Share

Litigation changes this picture. Under § 733.106(4) a court may direct which part of the estate pays costs and fees, and may assess them against one or more persons’ individual shares in whatever proportion it finds just and proper. The statute expressly permits the court to do this without finding that the person engaged in bad faith, wrongdoing, or frivolousness.

The factors a court weighs include the relative impact on the value of the estate, the amount of fees involved, the extent of each person’s participation, the potential benefit or detriment to the estate, the strength of the claims or defenses raised, whether a party prevailed, and whether a person unjustly caused an increase in costs.

The practical lesson is that contesting an estate is not a free option. A beneficiary who forces a fight can end up funding it from their own share. Our pages on contesting a will in Florida and caveats in Florida probate go into how those disputes actually unfold.

Publication, Certified Copies, and Other Third-Party Costs

A formal administration requires a notice to creditors. Section 733.2121 directs that publication run once a week for two consecutive weeks in a newspaper published in the county where the estate is administered, or a newspaper of general circulation there if the county has none.

That charge is paid to the newspaper, not to the court, which is why it appears on no clerk’s fee list. Published rate cards are uncommon; one Broward legal newspaper currently lists $120 for a notice to creditors. Expect the figure to differ by county and by publication, and ask what the current rate is in the county where the estate will be opened rather than relying on a number from an article.

Beyond publication, budget for certified death certificates, certified copies of Letters, and — depending on the estate — a real property appraisal, an accountant for the decedent’s final return, and occasionally a fiduciary bond where the will does not waive it or the court requires one. None of these are large individually. Together they typically add several hundred dollars to a routine administration.

If the estate includes a home or a vehicle, the mechanics of transferring them carry their own costs and timelines. We cover those in selling a house during probate and transferring a vehicle after death.

Flat Fee, Hourly, or Percentage: Which Structure Fits an Estate

Because § 733.6171(2)(a) permits any agreed structure, the right question is not what the statute presumes but which arrangement matches the work your estate will actually require.

Structure	Works well when	Works badly when
Percentage of the estate	The estate is modest and the work is proportional to its size	A single high-value asset, such as a homestead, makes the estate large but the work simple
Flat fee	The path is predictable: known heirs, no disputes, clean title, a straightforward asset list	Creditor issues or beneficiary disputes are likely and the scope cannot be defined up front
Hourly	The matter is contested or the scope is genuinely unknown	The family needs cost certainty more than it needs flexibility

The clearest case for negotiating away from the percentage is the single-asset estate. A Miami condominium worth $600,000 with one beneficiary and no creditors produces a presumed attorney fee of $18,000 under the statutory tiers. The work involved is not remotely $18,000 worth of work, and the statute plainly anticipates that the parties will say so.

Where Florida Probate Costs Actually Get Out of Hand

Routine administrations rarely surprise anyone. The estates that become expensive share a small number of features, and most of them are identifiable in the first two weeks.

A contested will or a challenged deed. Litigation converts ordinary services into extraordinary ones for both the attorney and the personal representative, and it is the single largest driver of cost. A dispute over a transfer the decedent made during their lifetime raises the same problem — we address that in our page on setting aside a Florida deed.

Creditor claims that are not handled on schedule. The claims process has hard deadlines, and missing one converts a manageable claim into litigation. Our page on Florida probate creditors explains the timetable.

Real property in another state. Out-of-state real estate requires a separate ancillary proceeding, with its own filing fee, its own counsel, and its own timeline. See Florida ancillary probate.

Assets nobody can find. Time spent tracing accounts is time billed. If the decedent may have had forgotten accounts, unclaimed property in Florida is worth checking before administration begins rather than after.

Co-representatives who disagree. Two personal representatives who cannot cooperate generate double the commission and, frequently, a petition to the court on top of it.

Six Ways to Reduce What a Florida Probate Costs

Check whether the estate qualifies for summary administration first. With the ceiling now at $150,000, many estates that would have gone through formal administration a year ago no longer need to.

Ask whether the personal representative will waive the commission. This is the largest single lever available to most families, and in a family administration it is often the natural answer.

Negotiate the fee structure before signing anything. The statute requires the attorney to tell you the fee is negotiable. Treat that disclosure as an invitation.

Identify what is not a probate asset. Jointly titled property, payable-on-death accounts, and assets with named beneficiaries generally bypass probate entirely, which reduces the compensable value that both fee calculations run on. See what counts as a probate asset and assets exempt from probate.

Gather documents before the first meeting. The death certificate, the original will, deeds, account statements, and a list of known creditors. Hours spent assembling what the family already has are hours billed for nothing.

Do not let the estate sit. Delay costs money: additional accountings, stale appraisals, property carrying costs, and creditors whose claims complicate with time. Our page on how long probate takes in Florida sets out the realistic timeline.

Common Myths About Florida Probate Costs

“Probate takes a third of the estate.” It does not. Both statutory presumptions together come to about 6 percent of compensable value, and one of them is routinely waived. The one-third figure appears to be borrowed from jurisdictions and eras that have nothing to do with current Florida law.

“The statutory fee is the law, so there is nothing to discuss.” The statute says the opposite, in writing, and requires your attorney to tell you so before charging on that basis.

“I have to use the lawyer who wrote the will.” You do not. Section 733.6171(2)(b)4 requires the attorney to disclose this specifically. A direction in the will naming counsel does not bind the personal representative.

“A small estate means small percentage fees.” The reverse is true. The fixed minimums make the scale proportionally most expensive at the bottom, which is exactly why the summary administration route matters.

“Handling it myself will be cheaper.” Sometimes. But Florida’s probate rules generally require a personal representative to be represented by counsel except in narrow circumstances, and a defective filing costs more to repair than to have done correctly. Our page on whether you need a Florida probate attorney addresses when self-representation is actually permitted.

“A living trust always avoids these costs.” A funded trust avoids probate for the assets inside it. Assets left out of the trust still go through probate, and trust administration has costs of its own. Compare the tradeoffs in lady bird deeds and their tax consequences and Florida quit claim deeds.

How to Estimate Your Own Probate Cost in Five Steps

You can produce a usable estimate in about ten minutes with a list of assets and the tables above. There is no official Florida probate fee calculator, and the online ones tend to ignore the two variables that matter most: what actually falls inside the probate estate, and whether the personal representative takes a commission.

Step one: list only the probate assets. Leave out anything held jointly with right of survivorship, anything with a payable-on-death or transfer-on-death designation, anything with a named beneficiary such as life insurance or a retirement account, and anything already titled in a trust. What remains is the starting point.

Step two: identify the protected homestead separately. Florida’s constitutional homestead protection means the family home frequently passes to heirs outside the ordinary administration, and the Florida Probate Rules require it to be identified separately on the inventory. Whether it forms part of the compensable value that fees are calculated on is a question to settle in the fee agreement at the outset, not one to discover at the end. On an estate whose principal asset is the house, the answer changes the fee by a wide margin.

Step three: add the income the estate will earn. Compensable value includes income earned during administration — rent from an investment property, dividends, interest. For most estates this is a rounding error. For an estate holding rental property through a long administration it is not.

Step four: run the two tables. Apply the § 733.6171 tiers for the attorney fee and the § 733.617 tiers for the commission. Then decide whether the commission will actually be taken.

Step five: add the hard costs. Roughly $400 for a formal administration filing or $346 for a summary administration, plus publication, plus certified copies, plus any appraisal you know the estate will need.

A Worked Example From Start to Finish

Consider an estate consisting of a Broward County home worth $400,000 held solely in the decedent’s name, a bank account of $85,000, a car worth $12,000, and a brokerage account of $140,000 that named the decedent’s two children as transfer-on-death beneficiaries. There is a will, both children are adults, they agree on everything, and there are no significant creditors.

The brokerage account drops out immediately — it passes by beneficiary designation and never enters the probate estate. That removes $140,000 from the calculation before anything else happens. If the home qualifies as protected homestead passing to the children as heirs, the compensable value is roughly $97,000: the bank account plus the car. Under the § 733.6171 tiers, that produces a presumed attorney fee of $3,000.

Had all four assets simply been added together, the arithmetic would have started from $637,000 and produced a presumed fee of about $19,110. The difference is not a discount. It is the consequence of correctly identifying what is in the probate estate in the first place, which is why step one matters more than any negotiation that follows.

Add a $401 filing fee, publication, and certified copies, and the hard costs land near $600. If one of the children serves as personal representative and waives the commission, the family’s total outlay is a little over $3,600 on a $637,000 transfer of wealth.

Three Scenarios and What They Actually Cost

Scenario A — the summary administration. A widow dies leaving a bank account of $60,000, a car, and personal effects. Her home passed to her husband years earlier. The estate is under the $150,000 ceiling, so summary administration applies. There is no personal representative appointed and therefore no commission. The court charges $346. The attorney work is a petition, an order, and the transfer paperwork — typically handled on a flat fee rather than a percentage. Total cost to the family is modest and predictable, and the case can conclude in a matter of weeks rather than months.

Scenario B — the ordinary formal administration. A father dies leaving a $500,000 investment account, a $250,000 condominium that was not his homestead, and a modest bank balance. Compensable value is approximately $780,000. The presumed attorney fee is roughly $23,400 and the presumed commission is another $23,400, though the son serving as personal representative waives his. Filing fee $401, publication, certified copies, plus an appraisal on the condominium. The estate pays somewhere near $24,500 all in, and the administration runs the better part of a year.

Scenario C — the contested estate. The same $780,000 estate, except a sibling files an objection alleging the will was procured by undue influence, and separately challenges a deed the father signed eighteen months before his death. Everything in the ordinary column still applies. On top of it, the will contest and the deed action are extraordinary services for both the attorney and the personal representative under § 733.6171(4) and § 733.617(3). Depositions, expert testimony on capacity, and a trial setting follow. There is no honest way to quote this in advance, and any figure offered before the pleadings are in is guesswork.

Scenario C is the reason the fee-shifting provisions in § 733.106(4) exist. It is also the reason that resolving a family disagreement early — before positions harden and pleadings are filed — is almost always cheaper than being right at trial.

Bond, Accountings, and the Costs Nobody Budgets For

A few recurring costs sit outside every table on this page because they depend entirely on the estate.

A fiduciary bond. Where the will does not waive bond, or where the court requires one despite a waiver, the personal representative must post it. The premium is a percentage of the bond amount, paid annually until discharge, and it is an estate expense. Most well-drafted Florida wills waive bond, which is one of the quiet arguments for having had a will at all.

Accountings. A formal administration ordinarily concludes with an accounting, and beneficiaries may waive it. Where they will not, or where the administration has run long enough to require interim accountings, preparation time is billable and an accountant is sometimes needed.

Appraisals. Real property, closely held business interests, and unusual personal property generally require a qualified appraisal to establish inventory value. The cost varies widely with the asset.

Ancillary counsel. Real property outside Florida requires a separate proceeding in that state, with its own lawyer and its own filing fee.

Debts of the decedent. These are not administration costs, but they come off the estate before beneficiaries receive anything, and families frequently conflate the two. What survives the decedent and what does not is covered in what happens to your debt when you die.

What About Bank Accounts and Everyday Assets?

Two situations come up constantly and neither requires a full administration. Under § 735.303, as amended effective July 1, 2026, a financial institution may pay funds from a qualifying account directly to a family member without any court proceeding where the total held at that institution does not exceed $2,000. And under § 735.302 a federal income tax overpayment of up to $5,000 may be refunded directly to a surviving spouse or designated child.

Above those figures, releasing a bank account requires Letters of Administration or a summary administration order, which is where the filing fee and the certified copies come in. The mechanics are set out in our page on closing a bank account after death.

Does It Cost More to Probate an Estate With No Will?

Not directly. The statutory tiers in § 733.6171 and § 733.617 make no distinction between testate and intestate estates — the presumed fee on a $400,000 estate is the same whether or not the decedent left a will. What changes is the probability that the administration becomes complicated, and complication is what costs money.

Three things tend to drive the cost up when there is no will. The first is that the court must determine who the heirs are under Florida’s intestacy statutes rather than reading a document that says so, and where the family tree is not simple — children from more than one relationship, a predeceased sibling with children of their own, no surviving spouse — a proceeding to determine beneficiaries may be required. That is an extraordinary service.

The second is bond. A will typically waives it. Without a will there is nothing to waive, so the personal representative may be required to post one, and the premium is an annual estate expense until discharge.

The third is that there is no nominated personal representative, so the court appoints one according to statutory preference. Where two family members both want the appointment, the resulting contest is billable on both sides before a single asset has been gathered.

None of this makes intestate administration inherently expensive. A surviving spouse and two adult children who agree on everything will move through it at about the same cost as a testate estate. It is the disputed intestate estate, not the intestate estate as such, that gets expensive.

What If the Estate Cannot Cover Its Own Costs?

Some estates are insolvent — the debts exceed the assets. This does not mean nothing gets paid or that the family becomes personally liable. Florida sets a statutory order of payment, and costs and expenses of administration sit at the top of it, ahead of most creditors.

The practical consequences are worth understanding before anyone spends money. Beneficiaries of an insolvent estate will receive nothing, so opening a formal administration purely to distribute an inheritance that does not exist is rarely sensible. Exempt property and the statutory family allowances are treated differently and may still reach a surviving spouse and children even where general creditors go unpaid. And the personal representative who pays creditors in the wrong order can face personal exposure, which is precisely the situation where paying for competent counsel is cheaper than not.

If the estate’s only real asset is a homestead passing to heirs and the remaining assets are modest, there may be no meaningful administration to open at all. That determination should be made deliberately, in the first conversation, rather than discovered after filing fees have been spent.

Getting a Real Number for Your Estate

Every figure on this page is a statutory presumption or a published government charge. What an individual estate costs depends on what is in it, who the beneficiaries are, and whether anyone disagrees — and those questions can usually be answered in one conversation.

To get a meaningful estimate, bring the death certificate if you have it, the original will, a list of accounts and real property with rough values, whether any asset was jointly owned or had a named beneficiary, and the names of the people who stand to inherit. That is enough to determine which administration track applies and what the fee structure ought to look like.

Lorenzo Law handles probate and estate matters throughout Florida, including Miami-Dade and Broward County. Call 305-224-6811 or reach out through our contact page to discuss what your estate is likely to cost before you commit to anything.

This page explains Florida statutes and published court charges for general informational purposes. It is not legal advice, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship. Statutory figures reflect Florida law as amended effective July 1, 2026.