Estate Settlement Navigator: Probate Route & Costs

This worksheet needs JavaScript to calculate.

The calculation runs entirely in your browser, which is why nothing you enter is sent anywhere — and why it cannot run with scripting disabled. Every figure it would produce is also published as static text: the state comparison lists limits, waiting periods and court charges for all reviewed states, and each state’s cost page itemises the statutory fee schedule.

1. Where and when

StateDate of deathRequired. Without it no waiting period can be tested and the route stays undecided.

Private by design: entries stay in this browser.

2. What they left

Ownership determines whether an asset usually enters probate. Choose “Not sure” when title or beneficiary status has not been confirmed.

Asset 1

DescriptionValue$Not entered. A blank amount is not counted as zero.Enforceable liens or mortgage$Not entered. Enter 0 if there is no lien.OwnershipThis is real property

Asset 2

DescriptionValue$Not entered. A blank amount is not counted as zero.Enforceable liens or mortgage$Not entered. Enter 0 if there is no lien.OwnershipThis is real propertyWill it be sold during administration?Some court charges are assessed on sale proceeds and exclude real property that is kept, so this changes the amount.

Compensable value of the estate$Fla. Stat. s 733.617(1) applies the whole schedule to this one figure: the inventory value of the probate assets plus income the estate earned during administration. It is not the gross probate estate, and it comes from the estate accounting rather than from the asset list above. Leaving it blank keeps the compensation undecided rather than assuming a number.

Your working estimate

Florida estate snapshot

Route check

More information is needed

Counted probate estate: not yet counted

A valid date of death is required before any waiting period can be tested.

Gross probate propertyNot yet counted

Court chargeMore information neededSummary administration2 asset entries have no value entered. A blank amount is not treated as zero, so the charge cannot be computed.More information neededFormal administration2 asset entries have no value entered. A blank amount is not treated as zero, so the charge cannot be computed.Court charges only, for the proceeding named beside each figure. That proceeding is not always the route screened above.

Scheduled executor compensationCase accounting neededEnter the compensable value above and this schedule is applied to it, band by band.Florida presumes a percentage schedule is reasonable. The base is the compensable value of the estate, meaning the inventory value of the probate assets plus income the estate earned during administration, so it is not the same as the gross probate estate. A court may adjust compensation, and extraordinary services are paid separately.

This route check is general information, not legal advice. It does not test every eligibility condition, creditor issue, will provision, local fee, or asset-title fact.

Classify the estate, check the likely route, and keep sourced cost lines separate from unresolved local charges.

Need the published rule behind a result? Use the state comparisonto open the reviewed route and the source ledger to see the quoted source and re-fetch date behind each state page.

Why these two questions are answered on one page

Route and compensation are usually looked up separately, and that is how they go wrong. The small-estate question asks whether a simplified procedure is open; the compensation question asks what the person administering the estate may take. They are decided by different statutes, but they read the same property, and the answer to the first often removes the second.

They count different things. A small-estate threshold is tested against a statutory scope — 28 of the 50 published states count personal property only — while a compensation schedule is applied to a compensation base that in several states includes the proceeds of real property that was sold. The same estate can be small for one purpose and not for the other.
Liens can move one and not the other. 23 states measure small-estate value after liens and encumbrances. A financed vehicle can therefore decide eligibility for the simplified route while leaving the compensation base untouched.
The simplified route often pays nothing. Affidavit and summary procedures generally run without an appointed representative, so there is no accounting against which a percentage schedule operates. Where the route is open, the compensation figure usually stops being a live question rather than becoming a smaller one.
An unconfirmed asset blocks both. Property whose ownership has not been confirmed is held aside rather than guessed at, which is why this tool reports indeterminate results instead of a confident yes or no. An indeterminate answer is a real answer: the missing fact is one that changes the outcome.

The full method for each question is set out once, on the page that answers it: how scope, value basis, threshold and waiting period are applied on the small-estate calculator, and how the 15 percentage-schedule states, the 6 ceiling state and the 25 reasonable-compensation states differ on the executor fee calculator. Neither method is restated here, so there is only ever one copy of it to keep correct.

What this tool deliberately does not do

It does not reconcile the two answers for you. Where the route and the compensation questions point in different directions, the reason is in the two statutes, not in the arithmetic.
It does not rank the options. A simplified route being open does not make it the right choice for an estate with contested facts or an uncooperative institution.
It does not carry entries between the two questions, and nothing you type is stored or sent.
It does not decide who inherits. Intestate succession shares and will construction are outside its scope.
It does not price attorney fees, bond premiums, publication, appraisals, or property sale costs.
It does not calculate estate, inheritance, income, or capital-gains tax.
It does not transfer real property, and it does not advise on deeds or title.
It does not resolve creditor claims, family allowances, elective shares, or contested proceedings.

Open the reviewed rule before you build the worksheet

The private worksheet is quickest when you already have the right state guide open for the threshold, filing-cost path, compensation rule, and court-resource lane.

Compare all 50 reviewed states

Guides for the next step

What counts as a probate asset?

Classify each item by title, beneficiary, and trust ownership before entering a value.

Getting an EIN for an estate

When the estate needs its own tax identity and how to apply through the free IRS process.

Death certificates and notifications

Count the institutions that keep a certified copy and sequence the early notifications.

Verification snapshot

The worksheet is tied back to the same source ledger as the state pages

Each case screen stays in your browser, while the linked state pages, source record, methodology, and correction log show where every published legal input came from and when it was last re-fetched.

This is an inspectable evidence trail, not a credentials badge: 254primary records from 61 source publishers, with every quotation and matched check available in the downloadable catalog.

Reviewed states: 50
Primary records: 254
Matched checks: 952
Source publishers: 61
Last full re-fetch: September 15, 2026

Use this as a starting point.

This is general information, not legal, tax, or financial advice, and it does not create an attorney-client relationship. Probate law varies by state and county and changes over time. Verify the current rule with the court or a licensed attorney in the relevant state.