Informal Probate in Florida, and Why It Does Not Exist

Is There Informal Probate in Florida?

No. There is no Florida petition for informal probate, no Florida form for it, and no Florida judge with the power to grant one.

Searching for the Florida version returns nothing useful because there is nothing to return. The phrase is real, and it is real somewhere else.

Practice pointer. When somebody calls asking how to start an informal probate here, I ask where they heard the phrase. The answer is usually a sibling in another state describing their own parent's estate, and the useful next question is about the size of this estate rather than about the procedure they were told to ask for.

Where the Phrase Comes From

Informal probate is a term from the Uniform Probate Code, a model act drafted to be adopted state by state. In the states that took it, probate runs on two tracks. Informal probate is handled administratively, by a registrar, without a hearing, for estates where nobody is fighting. Formal probate is the court proceeding for everything else.

Florida never adopted the Uniform Probate Code. Florida wrote its own probate code, and it divides estates by size rather than by whether a judge is involved. All three Florida routes are court filings.

The difference explains why the advice travels badly between families, and I spend real time undoing it. A person whose mother's estate in a Uniform Probate Code state was handled in a few weeks by mail is not exaggerating, and is also not describing anything available in Florida.

What Florida Has Instead

Three routes, and I sort an estate among them on the first call using the value, the date of death and one question about what the family has to sign.

The practical difference between the first two is authority. Summary administration hands out the assets and stops. Formal administration appoints somebody who can act, which is what a bank, a broker or a title company needs to see before it will deal with anyone. An estate that has to sell a house usually needs the second one even if its value would qualify for the first.

Detail on each route is on Florida summary administration and disposition without administration.

Formal Notice and Informal Notice Are Real

Here is the source of the confusion, and I straighten it out early because both terms carry consequences.

Florida probate practice uses formal notice and informal notice, and neither has anything to do with a type of probate. They are methods of serving papers.

Formal notice is the probate equivalent of being served with process. A copy of the pleading or motion is served on interested persons together with a notice requiring the person to serve written defenses within 20 days after service, exclusive of the day of service, and to file the original with the clerk. The notice warns that failing to serve written defenses may result in an order granting the relief demanded, without further notice.

Informal notice is ordinary service of a paper, used for hearings once formal notice has already been given.

The consequence is where it matters. After formal notice, if no written defense is served within those 20 days, the pleading may be considered ex parte as to that person unless the court orders otherwise. A family member who receives formal notice, decides it looks routine and does nothing has given up the right to be heard on it.

Avoid treating a formal notice as an FYI. I have watched interested persons read the twenty-day warning, assume somebody would call them before anything happened, and find out afterward that nobody had to.

What Changed in Florida Probate in 2026

Every dollar figure in the small-estate toolkit roughly doubled on July 1, 2026, under an act the Governor approved on April 29, 2026. I re-ran several open matters against the new numbers the week it took effect.

Florida has no informal probate, and the two things people usually mean by it are priced very differently. One is summary administration, which turns on the value line and the two-year rule. The other is a full formal administration, where the court issues letters of administration, the personal representative may have to post a bond, and the timeline runs as long as how long probate takes sets out.

The same act created something separate and useful. A personal representative whose authority is obstructed, by a bank, a transfer agent, a hostile beneficiary or a relative sitting in estate property, now has a statutory cause of action, and the fee award to a prevailing personal representative is mandatory rather than discretionary.

One reading note worth carrying. The annual republication of the summary administration statute on the Legislature's website still displayed the older cap for a period after the change took effect, with a history line ending decades earlier. The session law controls, and it is linked in the sources below.

My Brother Says His State Did This by Mail. Why Can I Not?

A common question I hear is, "Why is Florida making this so complicated when my brother did the same thing in three weeks?" Usually because his state adopted the Uniform Probate Code and Florida did not, so the informal track he used has no Florida equivalent. What I look for instead is whether this estate fits summary administration, because that is the closest Florida gets to the speed he is describing, and the value cap doubled in 2026 so more estates qualify now than did last year.

Do You Need a Lawyer?

The answer depends on the route, and only one of the three is genuinely a do-it-yourself filing.

Florida generally requires a personal representative in formal administration to be represented by an attorney, with a narrow exception where the personal representative is the sole interested person in the estate. Summary administration ordinarily involves an attorney as well, because the petition has to establish that the estate qualifies and has to account for creditors.

Disposition without administration is the exception. It is filed by the person who paid the final expenses, no personal representative is appointed, and in a genuinely small intestate estate it is a short request rather than a proceeding.

Practice pointer. I tell people who are set on handling it themselves to start by listing what is actually in the decedent's sole name with nobody named as beneficiary, because roughly half the time the answer is small enough that the question changes entirely. Whether probate is needed at all is covered on do I need probate in Florida.

How Long Does Formal Administration Take?

The creditor period sets the floor, not the judge's calendar, and I give clients that date rather than a guess.

A claim against the decedent is barred unless it is filed by the later of three months after the first publication of the notice to creditors, or thirty days after service on a creditor entitled to be served with a copy. An estate cannot safely distribute and close before that window has run, because the personal representative who distributes early carries a personal problem rather than an estate one.

Three to six months is realistic for a straightforward estate where the house and the accounts are in order. A contested will, an unclear beneficiary designation, a sale of real property, or an estate where the decedent received Medicaid after age 55 all run longer. The notice mechanics are on the Florida notice of administration.

Frequently Asked Questions

Common Situations

The estate that qualified only after July 2026. A Volusia County family had an estate worth roughly $120,000 in bank accounts and a car. Under the old cap it was over the line and headed for formal administration. After the threshold doubled it qualified for summary administration, which is a materially shorter and cheaper filing, and the only thing that changed was the date.

The formal notice that was ignored. An interested person in a Duval County estate received formal notice of a petition and set it aside, expecting a hearing notice to follow. No written defense was served inside the twenty days, the matter proceeded ex parte as to him, and the objection he intended to make was never heard. A written defense costs very little and preserves everything.

Sources of Law

• Fla. Prob. R. 5.040(a)(1) (procedure for formal notice, requiring written defenses within 20 days after service exclusive of the day of service, filed with the clerk, and warning that failure may result in an order for the relief demanded without further notice); (a)(2) (after service of formal notice, informal notice of any hearing must be served, and if no written defense is served within 20 days the pleading or motion may be considered ex parte as to that person unless the court orders otherwise). Text from the Florida Bar compilation of the Florida Probate Rules effective January 1, 2026.
• Laws of Fla. ch. 2026-57 (CS/HB 1337, "An act relating to estates"), approved by the Governor April 29, 2026, effective July 1, 2026 per §14: raising the Fla. Stat. §735.201(2) summary administration value cap from $75,000 to $150,000; the §735.304(1) disposition without administration threshold for intestate estates from $10,000 to $20,000; the §735.303(2), (3)(c) and (4) aggregate bank payment to a family member without a court proceeding from $1,000 to $2,000; and the §735.302(1) federal income-tax refund payable to a survivor without administration from $2,500 to $5,000. The act also creates a new enforcement and fee-shifting regime in ch. 733 for a personal representative whose authority is obstructed, with a mandatory fee award to a prevailing personal representative. Text extracted from the official session-law PDF.
• ⚠ Reading note. The annual republication of Fla. Stat. §735.201 on flsenate.gov still displayed the prior $75,000 figure when checked on August 12, 2026, with a history line ending in 2001. The session law linked above controls. This note will be removed when the republication catches up.
• Fla. Stat. §733.702(1) (a claim is not binding unless filed by the later of 3 months after the first publication of the notice to creditors or 30 days after service on a creditor required to be served); Fla. Stat. §733.710(1) (2-year bar from the date of death, whether or not letters of administration have been issued).
• Uniform Probate Code §3-301 and following (informal probate and appointment proceedings). Cited here only to identify the source of the term. Florida has not adopted the Uniform Probate Code.
• ⚠ Which route an estate qualifies for is a fact question. Value, the date of death, whether the decedent left a will, and what the family needs to accomplish all change the answer. Nothing here predicts how any petition will be decided. Confirm your own position before filing.
• Advertised fees are honored for 90 days from the posted date. Government costs, including filing fees, publication, recording and certified copies, are additional and passed through at cost. General information about Florida law, not legal advice.

What I See in These Files

In 14 years of law practice the informal probate question almost always arrives secondhand, from a relative in another state, and I have a few take-home points about why that matters beyond vocabulary.

The first is that the advice does not travel. A family acting on what worked in a Uniform Probate Code state will wait for a registrar who does not exist here, and the months spent waiting are months the creditor clock has not started, because nothing has been published. The delay is invisible while it is happening and obvious afterward.

The second is the word formal. Florida attaches real consequences to formal notice, and the twenty-day written defense requirement is the part people skip. I also litigate probate disputes in court, work most planning attorneys never do, and a meaningful share of the fights I am brought into started with somebody who received formal notice and read it as information. The response costs very little and it preserves the right to be heard on everything that follows.

Avoid relying on a statute page you found online without checking whether a session law changed it. The summary administration cap doubled in 2026 and the published statute still showed the old number months later, which is exactly the kind of thing that sends a qualifying estate down the expensive route.

Updated on September 14, 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. Which route fits your estate depends on your facts, which we confirm at a free consult.