Florida timeline
The statute states no universal waiting period for this route.
That clock is one condition among several, and it is not the whole estate timeline. The deadlines that carry the most risk are creditor deadlines, and in Florida they are not verified to this site’s standard, so none is published below.
Sources reviewed August 7, 2026. Latest primary-source re-fetch September 15, 2026.
The statute for this route states no universal waiting period. That is recorded as “none stated” rather than as zero days, because a statute’s silence is not the same as a stated permission to proceed immediately. Other conditions in the same section still apply.
Florida also provides a route that does not depend on value once the decedent has been dead for more than 2 years.
The creditor-notice and claim-bar deadlines have not been verified to this site's primary-source standard, so no number is published.
These are the deadlines with the largest consequences on this page. Publishing a notice starts a period after which most claims are barred; missing a required notice can extend an estate’s exposure and, in some circumstances, the personal exposure of the person administering it. A number that is wrong by a few days is materially worse than no number at all, which is why none is given.
Read this: Fla. Stat. ch. 733, part VII (claims against the estate). The probate clerk in the county of filing can also state the local practice, which sometimes differs from the bare statutory minimum.
Until then, the safe default is the one every source agrees on: do not distribute property, and do not pay non-priority debts, before the claim position is settled.
Fla. Stat. § 733.702(1) bars a very wide class of claims — claims that arose before death, including those of the state and its political subdivisions "even if the claims are unmatured, contingent, or unliquidated," funeral and burial expenses, claims for personal property in the personal representative’s possession, and damages claims "including, but not limited to, an action founded on fraud or another wrongful act or omission of the decedent" — unless the claim is filed in the probate proceeding by the deadline.
The deadline is expressed as a later-of: "on or before the later of the date that is 3 months after the time of the first publication of the notice to creditors or, as to any creditor required to be served with a copy of the notice to creditors, 30 days after the date of service on the creditor." A creditor who is served late therefore gets its own thirty-day window that can run past the three-month publication date.
The statute also closes the usual escape routes. Recognition does not revive a claim: the bar applies "even though the personal representative has recognized the claim or demand by paying a part of it or interest on it or otherwise." Subsection (3) makes an untimely claim barred "even though no objection to the claim is filed," and an extension "may be granted only upon grounds of fraud, estoppel, or insufficient notice of the claims period."
All of this sits under § 733.710, which § 733.702(1) names first. The three-month and thirty-day periods operate inside that outer limit, not independently of it.
Source: Fla. Stat. § 733.702, read from the enacting state’s own published code on 2026-09-17. Quoted wording is the statute’s; the surrounding explanation is this site’s reading of it and is not legal advice.
Florida timeline decision map
The Florida waiting period is only one condition. Use this map to separate the route clock from creditor deadlines, asset scope, court costs, and the documents needed to move from screening to filing.
| 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. |
Clock ledger
The creditor-notice and claim-bar deadlines have not been verified to this site's primary-source standard, so no number is published. Read Fla. Stat. ch. 733, part VII (claims against the estate) and ask the Circuit Court which notice and claim rules apply.
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.
Florida uses summary administration for qualifying estates. The route can depend on both estate value and how long ago the person died.
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.
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.
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
The order in which an estate is actually worked — secure property, confirm title and beneficiary designations, identify the court route, notify and account, then close — is the same everywhere and carries no citation, so it is set out once rather than repeated on each state’s page. Read it inthe executor’s first week, and seehow long probate takes for how the phases stretch in practice.
What is jurisdiction-specific is above: the Florida periods, the event each one runs from, and the source each was read in.
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.