Florida Disposition Without Administration

The Short Answer

Disposition without administration is Florida’s answer for the smallest estates, and it is not really a probate at all. There is no court case and no personal representative. Whoever paid the deceased person’s final expenses simply asks the clerk to release the small assets that are left, to reimburse them. Think of a modest bank account left over after the funeral and final bills were paid. When it fits, nothing is faster or cheaper. For a person who died without a will leaving only personal property, Florida provides a separate route under its own section of the small estate statute, with a flat limit rather than a comparison. Non-exempt property worth no more than $20,000 (raised from $10,000 on July 1, 2026) plus the funeral and final medical bills qualifies, where the death was more than a year ago and no administration is pending in Florida.

Do You Qualify?

Generally you qualify when both of these are true.

• No real estate in the deceased person’s sole name, and
• the only assets are exempt personal property plus non-exempt property that does not exceed the cost of the final illness and funeral expenses.

In plain terms there is no house, and what little remains is roughly enough to cover the funeral and final bills. If there is a home or more substantial assets, you need summary administration or a formal administration instead.

How It Works

People ask me whether a person without a law degree can file this, and the honest answer is that the process was built for exactly that. You file an informal request with the clerk of court, often on the clerk’s own form, with proof of the death, the final expenses you paid, and the asset to be released (a bank statement, for example). If it qualifies, the clerk authorizes the institution to release the funds to you, usually with no hearing. Many people do this without a lawyer, and we will tell you if that is your situation. One bright line ends the discussion, which is that it cannot transfer a house. Real estate always takes summary or formal administration, unless the home was already set up to pass by a lady bird deed.

Can You Use Disposition Without Administration for a Bank Account?

Yes, and a bank account is the ordinary case, because this path never reaches real estate and personal property is all it was built for. Florida offers three routes for a small account, and which one fits turns on the size of the account and how long ago the death was.

The route described on this page carries no dollar cap of its own. What limits it is the comparison, because the non-exempt property has to come in at or under the preferred funeral expenses plus the reasonable and necessary medical and hospital bills from the last 60 days of the final illness. A $7,000 account left after a $9,000 funeral clears that comparison easily.

A second route exists for a person who died without a will, and it runs on a flat number instead of a comparison. Non-exempt personal property of no more than $20,000, raised from $10,000 on July 1, 2026, qualifies where the death was more than a year ago and no administration is pending in Florida.

The third route skips the courthouse altogether. Where every account the person held at one financial institution adds up to $2,000 or less, raised from $1,000 on that same date, a family member can collect the money on an affidavit handed to the institution, with no clerk and no court proceeding, once six months have passed since the death.

Frequently Asked Questions

Common Situations

The reimbursed daughter. A daughter paid her father’s $9,000 funeral and final medical bills; his only asset is a $7,000 bank account in his name. Disposition without administration releases it to her, no probate, no lawyer required.

The case that needed more. A son assumes disposition will cover his mother’s estate, but she owned a small condo. Because there is real estate, it takes summary administration instead, which we handle quickly.

Sources of Law

• Fla. Stat. §735.301 (disposition of personal property without administration, the general route, filed on Fla. Bar form P-2.0100; no dollar cap of its own, the test being exempt property plus non-exempt personal property not exceeding the preferred funeral expenses and the reasonable and necessary medical and hospital expenses of the last 60 days of the last illness); exempt property under §732.402. Real property cannot be transferred this way; see ch. 735 summary administration and ch. 733 formal administration. flsenate.gov (retrieved 2026-06-08)
• ★ §735.301 and §735.304 are different sections and are easily conflated. §735.304(1) is the separate intestate small-estate route, requiring that the decedent died intestate, that the death was more than one year ago, and that no administration is pending in Florida, with non-exempt personal property not exceeding $20,000 (raised from $10,000) plus the preferred funeral expenses and the reasonable and necessary medical and hospital expenses of the last 60 days of the last illness. §735.301 was not amended by the 2026 act.
• §735.303 (payment by a financial institution to a family member without any court proceeding; aggregate of all qualified accounts at that institution not exceeding $2,000, raised from $1,000, with the six-month waiting period after death unchanged, on the statutory affidavit in subsection (4)). §735.302 (federal income-tax overpayment refundable to the surviving spouse, or a designated child if none, raised to $5,000).
• Ch. 2026-57, Laws of Florida (HB 1337), effective July 1, 2026, raising the ch. 735 small-estate thresholds. ⚠ The Florida Probate Rules and the Bar forms were not conformed at the same time, so a form may still recite a superseded dollar figure; the statute controls, and a stale figure on the paper invites a kickback at the counter. (Session law reviewed 2026-09-08.)

What I Have Learned About the Smallest Estates

In 14 years of law practice, the cheapest probate in Florida is the one most families never hear about until somebody tells them at the clerk’s counter.

I have a few take-home points.

The first is that two different sections of the statute get called by the same name, and the dollar figure people repeat belongs to only one of them. I take calls quoting the twenty thousand dollar limit for estates that are not intestate, and for deaths that happened two months ago, and neither of those fits that route. I usually end up telling the caller that the route with no dollar cap is the one they actually qualify for, and that nobody had mentioned it to them.

The second is the form. Florida raised these small estate figures on July 1, 2026, and the probate rules and the Bar forms did not move on the same day, so for a stretch the paper in front of the clerk carried an older number than the statute did. I check the figure on the form against the current statute before anything gets filed, because the statute is what controls and the clerk is working from the form.

The third is that most of these calls are about a single bank account, and for a small enough account there is a route that never goes near a courthouse. A family member signs an affidavit, hands it to the institution, and waits out the six months. I say that on the phone for free, because it is the whole answer and it takes two minutes.

Practice pointer. Get the funeral invoice and the last 60 days of medical bills in hand before comparing anything, because on the no-cap route the comparison runs against those two numbers rather than against a limit written in the statute. I have watched a request come back because a family estimated the funeral cost instead of attaching the bill.

Avoid treating the clerk’s release as a ruling about who inherits. Nothing in this process appoints anyone or decides an heir, and what it does is reimburse the person who paid the final bills rather than distribute an estate. A family that reads it as a decision about ownership is going to be surprised later.

An honest limit belongs here. No judge signs off, no personal representative is appointed and no order issues, so nothing here prevents a real administration being opened afterward if another asset or a creditor turns up. Practice at the counter also varies from county to county, and I would rather call the clerk in your county than tell you what the clerk in mine would do.

Kevin D. Klagge, Esq., admitted in Florida since 2012. General information rather than advice on your situation.

Updated on September 8, 2026. Reviewed by Kevin D. Klagge, Esq., Fla. Bar No. 99502. Attorney Kevin Klagge represents families, businesses, and international clients in estate and tax planning, business structuring, and international law, with a focus on Florida legal tools. He litigates estate and business issues in court. General information about Florida law, not legal advice, and no attorney-client relationship is created. Eligibility depends on the specific estate. Do not send confidential information until we have agreed to represent you.