Florida Probate Fees: What You'll Actually Pay

Why Florida Probate Costs So Much

Florida's probate process is a court-supervised procedure for transferring a deceased person's assets to their heirs. That court supervision is what drives the cost. Before heirs receive a dollar, several layers of professionals and the court system itself all take their cut.

Here is who gets paid first, in order:

• The probate court — filing fees, publication requirements, and ongoing proceeding costs.
• The attorney — statutory fees based on estate value, plus potential surcharges for extraordinary services.
• The personal representative — the person managing the estate also has a right to statutory compensation.
• Appraisers and CPAs — required for valuing assets and filing the estate's tax returns.
• Creditors — debts are paid from the estate before any distributions to heirs.

Eleanor's estate — $310k house, $47k savings, $18k car — sits in this system for fourteen months. David watches the costs accumulate in real time, line item by line item. Let's walk through each one.

Attorney Fees — The Biggest Line Item

Attorney fees are almost always the single largest cost in a Florida probate. They are governed by F.S. §733.6171, which sets out what constitutes “reasonable compensation” for an attorney managing a Florida estate.

The Statutory Fee Schedule

Florida law establishes a sliding-scale fee based on the gross value of the estate. For the first $1 million of estate value, the statutory fee is 3% of the gross estate (F.S. §733.6171(1)(a)). This is the floor for reasonable compensation — attorneys can charge more for complex estates, but this is where the calculation starts.

Extraordinary Services — Where Fees Double

The 3% base rate covers routine probate administration. But F.S. §733.6171 also allows for surcharges when an attorney performs “extraordinary services” — things like:

• Selling real estate during the probate proceeding
• Preparing estate income tax returns
• Handling contested claims or litigation
• Managing income-producing property
• Handling claims against or on behalf of the estate

Eleanor's house was sold during probate — a standard move, but one that triggered the extraordinary services surcharge. David's attorney charged $14,800 total — the base statutory fee plus the extraordinary services surcharge for managing the real estate sale mid-probate.

Alternatively, attorneys can charge hourly instead of the percentage fee. This happens more often in contested estates where the outcome is unpredictable and the time investment is hard to project. For Eleanor's estate, the percentage approach applied.

Personal Representative Fees

The personal representative (PR) — the person named to manage and administer the estate — is also entitled to compensation. Under F.S. §733.617, the PR fee follows the same 3% statutory formula used for attorney fees. On Eleanor's $375,000 estate, the statutory PR fee would have been approximately $11,250 as well.

David served as Eleanor's personal representative. He chose to waive his fee entirely — saving the estate $11,250. Most families in his situation do exactly this, because the alternative feels like getting paid to grieve your own mother.

What most families do not know is that the fee is optional. You can waive it. If you hire a professional PR — like a bank trust department — they will typically charge the full statutory fee or close to it. That adds another $11,000+ to the bill for a $375,000 estate.

Court Filing Fees

Florida formal probate requires multiple court filings, and each one costs money. These fees are set by statute and vary slightly by county.

• Formal administration filing fee:

  Approximately $400, depending on the county. This is the fee to open the estate with the circuit court.

• Publication of Notice to Creditors:

  Florida requires the personal representative to publish a notice to creditors in a local newspaper — once a week for two consecutive weeks. Cost: $200–$350 depending on the newspaper and the county. This is not optional; it starts the 90-day creditor claims window.

• Additional filings (inventory, accountings, final order):

  The inventory of estate assets, annual accountings, and the petition for final discharge each carry their own fees. Individually modest, they total $500–$800 over the course of a formal administration.

David's court costs — filing fees plus publication — came to $810. Not the dominant expense, but not zero either.

Appraisers, CPAs, and Miscellaneous Costs

Beyond attorneys and courts, a typical Florida probate generates several other required professional costs:

David's Full Bill — Eleanor's Estate

Here is every cost David paid to administer Eleanor's estate — laid out line by line, the way he wished he had seen it before he started.

David thought it would be under $5,000. He was off by $12,580. And that figure does not account for the fourteen months Eleanor's house sat in a legal limbo, unable to be sold at peak market — while property values in Kissimmee shifted.

It also does not account for the personal representative fee David was entitled to waive — which, had he taken it, would have added another $11,250 to the total, bringing the estate's administration costs close to $29,000 before distributions.

Summary Administration vs. Formal Administration

Not every Florida estate requires the full formal administration process that David went through. Florida offers a simpler option — called summary administration — for qualifying estates.

When Summary Administration Is Available

Under F.S. §735.201, summary administration is available when either:

• The decedent has been dead for more than two years, regardless of estate size, or
• The value of the estate subject to administration in Florida — excluding homestead property — is $75,000 or less.

Eleanor did not qualify. Her savings account alone was under $75,000 — but the house pushed the non-exempt assets well above the threshold. If the house had been a Lady Bird deed or inside a trust, it might have been a different story. But it was not.

What Summary Administration Saves You

Summary administration is faster — typically weeks instead of the twelve to eighteen months formal administration takes — and much cheaper. Attorney fees for a summary administration typically run $1,500–$3,000, compared to the $14,800 David paid. There is no personal representative appointment, no publication period (in most cases), and fewer court filings.

If your loved one's estate qualifies, it is worth confirming that with an attorney before opening a formal administration and committing to the full fee structure.

Disposition Without Administration

For very small estates — where funeral expenses and medical bills essentially exhaust the assets — Florida also allows a “disposition without administration” under F.S. §735.301. This is the simplest path available — no court hearing, no personal representative, minimal cost. But it only applies in very limited circumstances where the estate's assets are genuinely tiny.

How to Avoid Most of These Costs

The tools to avoid Florida probate fees exist. They are not exotic or expensive. Eleanor had none of them. David is making sure Sofia will have all of them.

Eleanor had none of these tools in place. Her house went through probate. Her savings account went through probate. Her car went through probate. Every asset David inherited cost something in professional fees and time.

What David Did Next

The week after Eleanor's estate closed, David hired an estate planning attorney. He did not wait. He had spent fourteen months learning exactly what happens when you don't plan — and he was not going to put Sofia through the same thing.

Here is what David built for his own estate:

• A revocable living trust — the primary structure for everything to flow through.
• His house retitled into the trust via warranty deed, removing it from his probate estate.
• POD designations on all his bank accounts — payable directly to Sofia.
• His IRA beneficiary updated to name Sofia as the primary beneficiary.
• A pour-over will to catch any assets that end up outside the trust at his death.

Total cost: $2,200.

Sofia was sitting at the kitchen table when David explained it.

“So we just saved $11,000 by spending $2,200?”

David looked up from the trust documents. “And about a year of your life.”

He set down the papers. “We're not doing this to you.”

Frequently Asked Questions: Florida Probate Fees