How Do I Find a Will or Probate Records in Florida?

1. How Do I Find a Will in Florida?

You start with the clerk of the circuit court in the county where the person lived at death, because Florida makes the person holding a will deposit it there within 10 days after learning of the death. A will that was handled properly is already on file at that clerk’s office, whether or not anyone has opened probate.

When the clerk has nothing, four other places hold almost every Florida will.

1. The clerk’s probate records, searched in person, by phone or online, covered in sections 2 and 3.
2. The lawyer who drafted the will, who may keep the original in the firm’s vault, covered in section 5.
3. The person’s safe deposit box, which a bank must open for close family once it sees a death certificate, covered in section 6.
4. The person’s own papers, meaning the desk, the filing cabinet, a fireproof box and the binder from a law office.

The original matters more than any copy. Florida law makes a will useless as proof of who owns property until a court admits it to probate, and a court admits the signed original. A copy starts a separate and harder proceeding, explained in section 7. Our page asking do I need probate in Florida explains when the will has to go through the court at all.

2. Is the Will on File With the Clerk?

Call or visit the probate division of the clerk of the circuit court in the county where the person lived, and give the person’s full name and date of death. Florida requires the custodian of a will to deposit it with the clerk of the court that has venue over the estate within 10 days after receiving information that the person has died, and to supply the date of death or the last four digits of the person’s Social Security number.

The deposit rule reaches everyone holding a will, including a spouse, a child, a friend and a law firm. An electronic will held by a qualified custodian goes to the clerk the same way, and the custodian may not charge a fee for depositing it. Once deposited, the clerk keeps the original in its original form for at least 20 years, whether or not the will is ever admitted to probate, and a scan does not replace it.

Depositing a will opens no case and appoints nobody, so a will can be on file with no probate behind it. Several clerks charge nothing for the deposit and hand back a receipt. Citrus and Marion counties issue a Receipt for Deposit of Will carrying the file number, the date and the clerk’s seal, and that file number is how the will is found later. Palm Beach takes will deposits in Room 3.2300 of the Main Courthouse at 205 North Dixie Highway in West Palm Beach, or by mail to the Probate Division at P.O. Box 4667.

Check the right county. Venue for the estate is the county where the person was domiciled at death, and a will deposited somewhere else can be hard to move. Lee County, for example, says a will deposited in the wrong county can only be released through a new probate action. When the person moved within Florida in the last years of life, ask both counties.

Practice pointer. A family member who finds the original at home should deposit it rather than hand it to a sibling or keep it for the lawyer. The 10-day duty belongs to whoever holds it, and a holder who sits on a will without good reason can be ordered to produce it and charged the costs and attorney fees of the person who had to ask.

3. How Do I Search Probate Records Online?

Use the clerk’s online records search for the county where the person lived and search by the person’s last and first name. Many Florida clerks offer free public access to probate dockets online, and the probate counter can run the same search in person. Indian River County’s clerk, for example, runs a public probate name search. Flagler County takes record searches by mail for $2.00 for each year searched, with the full name, the date of death and a stamped self-addressed envelope.

A docket entry tells you three things quickly. The case number shows a file exists, the filing type shows whether it is a will deposit or an open estate, and the list of documents shows whether a petition, an order admitting the will and letters of administration have been filed. The name of the personal representative appears on the letters, which is how families learn who is in charge.

Search more than one county when property is involved. A person who lived in another state but owned Florida real estate is probated in Florida in the county where the property sits, through an ancillary administration, and a Floridian’s will may have been deposited in a former home county.

Our county probate court guides list where each clerk keeps the original will, the courthouse address and the posted filing fees.

4. Are Probate Records Public in Florida?

Yes, most of a Florida probate file is a public court record. The will becomes public once it is deposited, and the petition for administration, the letters of administration, the court’s orders and the creditor claims are open to anyone who searches the file. The notice to creditors is also published in a local newspaper for two weeks.

Two documents are confidential by statute. Every inventory of the estate and every accounting, whether interim or final, is exempt from public inspection. The clerk will show them only to the personal representative, the personal representative’s attorney, an interested person such as a beneficiary, or someone with a court order granting access for good cause. A neighbor can read who inherits under the will, but cannot read what the estate was worth.

A living person’s plan stays private. Florida’s deposit rule starts only at death, and Broward’s clerk, for example, will not accept a will unless the person who made it has died. A trust is never filed with the court at all, apart from a one-page notice of trust naming the trustee. Our page on whether a trust is public record in Florida covers that difference, and our page on how to find out if there is a trust covers the trust side of the search.

An interested person who expects a will to be filed can ask for notice in advance. Florida lets an interested person file a caveat, and the court then cannot admit a will or appoint a personal representative until that person has been formally served. Our page on the Florida probate caveat explains the filing.

5. What if the Lawyer Who Drafted the Will Has It?

Ask the law firm to deposit the original with the clerk. A lawyer holding a will is a custodian under the same 10-day rule as anyone else, so the firm’s job is to send the original to the clerk.

The lawyer’s name usually turns up in the person’s papers. Look for law-firm letterhead on a copy of the will or on a cover letter, the firm’s name on a binder, a payment to a law firm in the checkbook, and the preparer line at the top of any deed the person signed, which names whoever drafted it. A self-proving affidavit at the end of a will names the notary, who may have worked in the drafting lawyer’s office.

When you call, give the person’s full name, date of birth and date of death, and offer a copy of the death certificate. When the firm has closed or merged, ask the successor firm or the lawyer’s former colleagues where the files went.

A holder who refuses can be compelled. On petition and notice the probate court can order the custodian to produce and deposit the will, and if the court finds there was no just or reasonable cause for holding it back, the custodian pays the costs, damages and a reasonable attorney fee.

6. Can a Safe Deposit Box Be Opened to Look for a Will?

Yes. Once it sees satisfactory proof of death, a Florida bank must let the spouse, a parent, an adult descendant, or a person named as personal representative in a copy of a purported will open and examine a box the person leased, in the presence of a bank officer. No court case is needed for that first look.

The bank releases only three kinds of paper on that visit, if the family asks.

• A document that looks like a will goes to the court with probate jurisdiction in the county where the bank is located, not to the family.
• A deed to a burial plot or written burial instructions go to the person who asked for the search.
• A life insurance policy goes to the beneficiary it names.

The bank officer copies anything removed and leaves the copy in the box with a note of who took it and when, and the bank may charge a reasonable fee. Nothing else comes out on that visit. When nobody on the list is available, a person can ask the court for an order authorizing the search.

The full opening comes later. After the court appoints a personal representative, the bank must give the representative access on a certified copy of the letters. Two of three people must be present at that initial opening, chosen from a bank employee, the personal representative and the representative’s attorney. Each one signs the inventory of the box under penalty of perjury, and the inventory is filed with the court within 10 days together with the box’s entry record going back six months before the death.

Avoid treating the bank’s release of a will to the court as a substitute for the deposit search. The will goes to the county where the bank sits, which may not be the county where the person lived, so a will found in a box should be traced to the right clerk.

7. What if Only a Copy of the Will Can Be Found?

A copy can still be admitted, but only through a separate court proceeding to establish a lost will. When an original that the person kept cannot be found after death, Florida courts presume the person destroyed it intending to revoke it, and the family offering the copy has to overcome that presumption with evidence.

Florida law sets the proof. The full and precise terms of the lost will must be proved by two disinterested witnesses, or, if a correct copy is provided, by one disinterested witness. A correct copy means an identical copy such as a photocopy of the signed will, and a disinterested witness is someone with no stake in the outcome who can speak to what the will said. A beneficiary under the will does not qualify, and neither does a friend who never saw it.

The drafting lawyer’s file is often where that evidence comes from. A lawyer or paralegal who prepared the will, supervised the signing and kept a copy can testify to the contents, which is one more reason to find the firm.

A later will that surfaces after probate is open can still be offered. Any interested person can petition to probate the later will or codicil, but only until the estate has been completely administered and the personal representative discharged.

What Does Help Finding a Will Cost?

The first consult is free, and many families leave it with the clerk searches run and a letter to the drafting firm. Once the will is found, Florida probate is a flat fee from $1,500 for disposition without administration, from $2,500 for summary administration and from $3,500 for a routine formal administration. A petition to compel a custodian to produce a will, or to establish a lost will, often turns contested, so we quote it per matter rather than as a flat fee. Filing fees, publication, certified copies and other government costs are additional and passed through at cost. Advertised fees are honored for 90 days from the posted date. Our probate cost calculator shows the statutory figures for comparison.

Frequently Asked Questions

Common Situations

The son in another state. A mother in Ocala dies and her son in Virginia does not know whether she ever signed a will. He calls the Marion County clerk’s probate division with her name and date of death, learns a will was deposited by her lawyer the week after the funeral, and orders a copy using the file number on the deposit receipt.

The key in the kitchen drawer. A daughter finds a safe deposit key among her father’s things. She brings the death certificate to the bank, opens the box with a bank officer, and the bank sends the will inside to the probate court in that county, while the burial plot deed comes home with her.

The photocopy in the binder. A family finds a neat estate binder holding a photocopy of the will and no original. Before filing anything, they track down the paralegal at the drafting firm who supervised the signing, because her testimony is what a court will need to admit the copy.

Sources of Law

• Fla. Stat. §732.901(1)-(4) (custodian deposits the will with the clerk of the court having venue within 10 days after learning of the death, with the date of death or the last four digits of the Social Security number; compelled production with costs, damages and attorney fees; a will filed with a petition is deposited; the clerk retains the original 20 years); §732.524(11) (a qualified custodian deposits an electronic will under §732.901 and may not charge a fee for the deposit). Broward clerk practice (no deposit before death) from this site’s Broward probate court research.
• Fla. Stat. §733.103(1) (a will is ineffective to prove title until admitted to probate); §733.101 (venue); §733.207 (establishment of a lost or destroyed will by two disinterested witnesses, or one with a correct copy); §733.208 (discovery of a later will before discharge); §733.604(1)(b) (inventories and accountings confidential; disclosure to the personal representative, the attorney, interested persons, or by court order on good cause); §731.110 (caveat; a pre-death caveat expires after two years).
• Safe deposit boxes, Fla. Stat. §655.935 (search on death of the lessee by the spouse, a parent, an adult descendant or a person named as personal representative in a copy of a purported will; delivery of a will to the court in the county where the institution is located, burial papers to the requester, insurance policies to the beneficiary; copy and memorandum left in the box; reasonable fees; not the initial opening); §655.936 (delivery to a Florida personal representative on certified letters; out-of-state personal representative after 3 months); §733.6065 (initial opening before two of three persons, inventory signed under penalty of perjury and filed within 10 days with the entry record from six months before death); Fla. Prob. R. 5.3425 (petition for an order authorizing a search). Statute text in reference/statutes/fl-safe-deposit-boxes-2026.md, read 2026-09-29.
• Fla. Prob. R. 5.200(h)-(j) (the petition must state what the petitioner knows of unrevoked wills and that the original is with the court or accompanies the petition). Florida Probate Rules as of July 16, 2026.
• County facts from the clerks’ own pages as recorded in this site’s county probate court research (Palm Beach, Lee, Citrus, Marion, Flagler, Indian River), retrieved September 2026.
• The case retold below is Pilak v. Reigel, No. 5D2025-0269 (Fla. 5th DCA Feb. 6, 2026), applying §733.207 and the presumption of revocation from In re Washington’s Estate, 56 So. 2d 545 (Fla. 1952), Brennan v. Honsberger, 101 So. 3d 415 (Fla. 5th DCA 2012), and In re Estate of Parker, 382 So. 2d 652 (Fla. 1980). Opinion read in full; retrieved October 1, 2026.

The Will That Existed Only as a Photocopy

The most recent Florida case on lost wills came down in February 2026, and having read the Florida opinions on lost wills, I have a few take-home points.

An Ocala man died in June 2015. He had signed a will in 2002 and two codicils after it, leaving his estate to his long-term partner, a friend and his sister. After his death nobody could find the originals, only photocopies. His partner could not serve as personal representative because he lived outside Florida and was not a relative, so a friend agreed to petition to prove the lost will in 2016, and everyone in the family signed consents. Then the friend changed his mind about serving, and the petition was never filed.

Six years later one of the sister’s sons opened the estate as though there were no will, under Florida’s rules for dying without one, which do not count a partner as an heir. The partner filed to establish the lost will at the end of 2024. At the hearing his only witness was the friend, who had not seen the will signed and did not know what it said. The trial court admitted the copies anyway, relying on the consents the family had signed in 2016. In February 2026 the appeals court reversed. The consents were never filed with any court, the family had withdrawn them, and they said nothing about what the will contained. Florida’s lost-will statute requires a disinterested witness who can prove the contents, and nobody at that hearing could. Nearly eleven years after the death, the estate went back to the trial court.

The first point is that a petition sitting in a drawer protects nobody. Everyone agreed in 2016, and the agreement was worth nothing because it never reached a judge. Avoid letting signed consents wait while the family decides who will serve.

The second is that the proof of a lost will has to be lined up deliberately. The witness has to have no stake in the outcome and has to know what the will said, which usually means the lawyer or staff who prepared it and supervised the signing. A beneficiary’s feeling about what the person wanted does not count.

The third is the out-of-state rule. The partner was the main beneficiary and the one person who could not serve, and that single fact set off the delay. A will that names a Florida resident or a close relative as personal representative, with an alternate, avoids that problem.

One limit is worth stating plainly. The appeals court sent the case back without deciding who inherits, so the opinion does not say whether the copies will ever be admitted or whether the estate will pass to the sister’s children.

Kevin D. Klagge, Esq., admitted in Florida since 2012. The case described above is a decision of a Florida court rather than a matter handled by this firm. Past results do not guarantee a similar outcome.

Updated on October 1, 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. Do not send confidential information until we have agreed to represent you.