Florida route screening
The probate estate, after exempt property, may qualify at $150,000 or less. An estate may also qualify regardless of value when the decedent has been dead for more than two years.
Sources reviewed August 7, 2026. Latest primary-source re-fetch September 15, 2026.
Threshold evidence and currency
Currency: The $150,000 limit comes from Chapter 2026-57, section 7, Laws of Florida, effective July 1, 2026. The Legislature's codified page for section 735.201 now carries that figure in the 2026 edition, so the codified statute and the session law agree.
Controlling citation: Ch. 2026-57, § 7, Laws of Fla. (amending Fla. Stat. § 735.201(2)) — This act shall take effect July 1, 2026.
Verbatim threshold text from that source:
(2) That the value of the entire estate subject to administration in this state, less the value of property exempt from the claims of creditors, does not exceed $150,000 $75,000 or that the decedent has been dead for more than 2 years.
The headline limit is not a count of everything the person owned. It is a test of the property and deductions named by this procedure. Classify title and beneficiary status first; property that transfers by a valid survivorship right, beneficiary designation, or funded trust follows its own transfer path.
This screen counts the probate estate within the statute’s stated scope, not merely cash accounts. Solely owned real property can therefore affect the amount test. That does not necessarily mean the same simplified procedure transfers the house; counting scope and transfer authority are separate questions.
The statute excludes categories of exempt property that this worksheet cannot classify from a dollar entry alone. A result near the limit remains provisional until those exemptions are identified from the actual property and family facts.
The cited section states no universal waiting period for the value-based route. This site records that as “none stated,” not as permission to file immediately: will status, prior appointments, notices, family rights, and local filing instructions can still control.
Florida also states an alternate route after more than 2 years. It is evaluated separately from the amount route rather than requiring both conditions at once.
Assemble the death date, will status, asset titles, beneficiary confirmations, values, enforceable liens, family facts, and any prior court filing before signing anything. Then use the court publisher’s current artifact for the selected route.
Florida publishes no statewide summary-administration form. The petition is prepared for the circuit court in the county where the decedent lived, and requirements differ by circuit.
The statewide court system publishes one probate page; county clerk sites carry the operative local instructions.
If the state publishes no statewide form, that is a finding—not a missing link. Contact the Circuit Court or clerk in the proper county for its packet and current filing instructions rather than borrowing an unofficial form from another county.
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.
Florida eligibility map
The Florida threshold is one screen, not a complete legal conclusion. This map pairs the recorded ceiling with the property scope, deductions, date, and court artifact that have to be checked before relying on a likely-qualifies result.
| Question | Recorded Florida answer | Carry into the case |
|---|---|---|
| What route is being screened? | Summary administration | Confirm that the will, prior appointment, family facts, and asset titles fit this route. |
| What property and basis count? | probate property within the rule's stated scope; gross value with statutory exemptions not classified by this worksheet. | Keep real property, liens, beneficiary transfers, and survivorship transfers classified separately. |
| What is the amount screen? | $150,000 | Use the counted property, not a bank-balance shortcut. |
| What is the time or deadline record? | No universal waiting period stated; No deadline is recorded here: The creditor-notice and claim-bar deadlines have not been verified to this site's primary-source standard, so no number is published. | Keep the event that starts each clock with the date; do not combine separate periods into one number. |
| What does the cost record establish? | 2 published schedules; the proceeding and value basis control the total. | Ask the Circuit Court about local surcharges, copies, publication, bond, and later filings. |
| What does compensation use? | 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. The relevant base is the estate accounting. | Keep the will, task log, receipts, and accounting base together; extraordinary work is separate. |
Eligibility inputs
A threshold is useful only when the amount is measured the way the source describes. Keep this table with the asset worksheet so an empty or misclassified field cannot look like a confirmed qualification.
| Input | Registry record |
|---|---|
| Threshold | $150,000 |
| Property scope | probate property within the rule's stated scope |
| Value basis | gross value with statutory exemptions not classified by this worksheet |
| Waiting period | No universal waiting period stated |
| Required extra facts | None listed in the registry |
| Alternate time route | More than 2 years after death |
Case-file context
A route answer is easier to use when the facts that can change it stay in the same record. These are the reviewed Florida descriptions adjacent to this page\'s main question; they are not a substitute for the source quotations or the receiving court\'s instructions.
Summary administration is $230 below $1,000 and $340 at $1,000 or more, and formal administration is $395. Section 28.2401(3) adds a mandatory $4 service charge to each of these petitions.
2 published schedules; the proceeding and value basis control the total.
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.
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. The relevant base is the estate accounting.
No deadline is recorded here: The creditor-notice and claim-bar deadlines have not been verified to this site's primary-source standard, so no number is published.
Court-material note: Florida publishes no statewide summary-administration form. The petition is prepared for the circuit court in the county where the decedent lived, and requirements differ by circuit. The statewide court system publishes one probate page; county clerk sites carry the operative local instructions.
Arithmetic illustration
The recorded Florida ceiling is $150,000, and it is tested against probate property within the rule's stated scope, on a basis this site records as gross value with statutory exemptions not classified by this worksheet. Counted that way, $112,500 sits below the Florida figure and $187,500 sits above it. Both are comparisons to a published number rather than legal outcomes: two estates holding the same total can land on opposite sides of this line, because what Florida counts and how it values it are decided before the comparison is made.
| Illustrative counted amount | Comparison to the Florida ceiling | What it does not decide |
|---|---|---|
| $112,500 | Below $150,000 | Title, liens, waiting period, appointment, or creditor duties |
| $187,500 | Above $150,000 | Whether another statutory route or court process applies |
Next evidence to collect
Official material
Florida publishes no statewide summary-administration form. The petition is prepared for the circuit court in the county where the decedent lived, and requirements differ by circuit.
The statewide court system publishes one probate page; county clerk sites carry the operative local instructions.
Source trail
Each legal input links to the government source reviewed for this page. Source text can change; confirm the current rule before acting.
Reviewed source note: (2) That the value of the entire estate subject to administration in this state, less the value of property exempt from the claims of creditors, does not exceed $150,000 $75,000 or that the decedent has been dead for more than 2 years.
What this means: This is the enacted text and it governs. Florida bills print new wording followed by the wording it replaces, so "$150,000 $75,000" means the limit rose to $150,000 and the old $75,000 figure was struck. The act took effect July 1, 2026.
Reviewed source note: (2) That the value of the entire estate subject to administration in this state, less the value of property exempt from the claims of creditors, does not exceed $150,000 or that the decedent has been dead for more than 2 years.
What this means: Florida codifies its statutes once a year, and the 2026 edition has folded in Chapter 2026-57. This page now states the operative $150,000 limit directly, and its history line credits section 7 of chapter 2026-57. The session law remains cited alongside it as the enacting authority.