What Happens If You Die Without a Will in Florida?

The Hours and Days That Follow

In the first hour, Elena is at the hospital. She's not thinking about estate planning. She's thinking about how to tell Marco his dad isn't coming home.

In the first week, the calls start. The mortgage company. The car payment. The kids' tuition. She goes to their joint bank account to move money — it's fine, that account had both names on it. But the savings account Carlos opened in his name alone? Frozen. She can't touch it until the court says she can.

In the first month, she hires a probate attorney because she has to — Florida law requires a licensed attorney to file and handle formal probate proceedings. The attorney explains what happens when someone dies without a will in Florida. Elena listens, stunned. She assumed everything would just pass to her automatically. She assumed wrong.

What followed cost her family 14 months and $18,000 in fees — for an estate that Carlos thought was simple.

What “Intestate” Means — In Plain English

When someone dies without a valid will, the law calls it dying intestate. That's it. No complicated meaning. It simply means: no instructions were left behind.

When that happens, the state of Florida steps in and applies its own set of rules — called intestate succession laws — to decide who gets your assets, in what amounts, and in what order. These rules don't know you. They don't know your family. They don't know what you would have wanted. They're just a legal formula, applied mechanically, to every estate that arrives without a will.

Think of it this way: dying without a will doesn't mean your family gets nothing. It means the government decides who gets what — instead of you.

Florida's Intestate Succession Rules

Florida's intestate succession rules are laid out in Chapter 732 of the Florida Statutes. Here's how they work depending on your family situation:

You have a spouse and children

This is the most common situation — and the one that surprises people most. Many assume a surviving spouse automatically inherits everything. Not in Florida.

Under Florida law, if your children are also the children of your surviving spouse (the most typical family), your spouse inherits 100% of the estate. But if you have children from a prior relationship — or your spouse has children from before your marriage — the split is 50% to your spouse and 50% to your children. The children's share is divided equally among them.

In Carlos's case, Sofia and Marco were Elena's biological children too, so she would have inherited everything under intestate rules. But here's the problem: because Sofia and Marco were minors, their inherited property couldn't simply be handed to them. The court required a guardianship of the property — a separate legal proceeding, additional fees, and ongoing court oversight until they turned 18.

You have a spouse but no children

Your spouse inherits your entire estate. Straightforward — but still requires going through probate.

You have children but no spouse

Your children inherit everything equally. If a child has predeceased you, that child's share passes to their own children (your grandchildren). Again, if any heirs are minors, the court steps in to manage their share.

No spouse, no children

Florida looks next to your parents, then your siblings (and their descendants), then more distant relatives. The state follows a specific chain — and whoever is first in that chain inherits, regardless of your actual relationship with them.

No living relatives can be found

If Florida's formula runs out — if there are no living relatives within the legal hierarchy — your estate escheats to the state of Florida. Your assets become state property. Your long-term partner, your closest friend, the charity you cared about — they receive nothing, because they weren't in the formula.

The Florida Probate Process: What Your Family Actually Goes Through

Every Florida estate that doesn't have a properly structured trust must go through probate — the court-supervised process of settling a deceased person's affairs. When there's no will, the process is called intestate administration, and it is not fast or cheap.

Timeline: 6 to 12+ months (often longer)

Florida's formal probate process typically takes six to twelve months for straightforward estates. Anything with real property, business interests, minor heirs, contested claims, or multiple beneficiaries routinely stretches to eighteen months, two years, or longer. During that time, your family is in legal limbo.

Court costs and attorney fees

Florida is one of a handful of states with statutory attorney fees for probate — fees set by law based on the gross value of the estate (not the net, not what's left after debts). Under Florida Statute §733.6171:

• 3% on the first $1 million in estate value
• 2.5% on the next $4 million
• 2% on the next $5 million

On a $400,000 estate — a house, some savings, a modest retirement account — that's $12,000 in attorney fees alone, before court filing costs, personal representative fees, appraisal costs, and other administrative expenses. The total often runs $15,000–$25,000 or more, even for “simple” estates.

Probate is public record

Everything filed in Florida probate court — the inventory of your assets, the list of creditors, the names of your heirs, the distribution amounts — becomes a public record. Anyone can look it up. That means your neighbors, your estranged relatives, and anyone else who is curious can see exactly what you had and who got it.

What Your Family Actually Goes Through

The legal mechanics are one thing. The human reality is something else entirely.

Elena couldn't access the savings account for months — it was frozen pending probate. The mortgage still came due. The car payment still came due. The kids' school activities still cost money. She had to drain her own personal accounts to cover expenses while the court processed the estate her husband had spent sixteen years building.

She couldn't sell the house without court approval, even though the house was in both their names. (Jointly held property does pass outside probate — but not everything Carlos owned was jointly held.) She couldn't roll over his 401(k) efficiently because there was no named beneficiary — it went through the estate instead of directly to her, triggering a slower distribution.

And through all of it, she was managing two grieving kids, a full-time job, and the mountain of paperwork that death creates — while also being the client in an active probate proceeding.

This is what dying without a will actually costs. Not just money. Time. Energy. Clarity. The ability to grieve without also administering a legal proceeding.

What a Will Actually Does

A valid Florida will does several things that no other document can do:

Names an executor

Your will names the person (called a personal representative in Florida) who will manage your estate — collecting assets, paying creditors, filing the final tax return, and distributing what remains. Without a will, the court appoints someone. With a will, you choose.

Names a guardian for your minor children

This is the one that stops most parents cold. If you die without a will and your children have no surviving legal parent, a judge decides who raises your kids. Your preferences — the aunt who would be perfect, the sibling you trust completely — carry no legal weight unless they're in a valid will. A will is the only document that lets you name a guardian for your children.

Directs how your assets are distributed

You decide who gets what, in what amounts, and on what timeline. You can leave specific items to specific people, set conditions, create trusts for minor children, or exclude people you'd prefer not to inherit from you. The formula goes out the window. Your wishes go in.

Beyond a Will: The Case for a Revocable Living Trust

A will is essential — but it still goes through probate. If avoiding the 12-month process, the statutory attorney fees, and the public record matters to your family, the next step is a revocable living trust.

A revocable living trust holds your assets during your lifetime and transfers them to your beneficiaries at death — completely outside of probate. There's no court involvement, no public record, no statutory fees. Your successor trustee (the person you designate) takes over, follows your instructions, and distributes your assets — often within weeks rather than months.

For Florida families with real property, minor children, or significant assets, a trust isn't a luxury — it's the tool that makes everything faster, cheaper, and private. If Carlos had funded a revocable trust before his death, Elena could have accessed his accounts and managed the house without a single court filing.

The Trust & Estate Administration 101 guide walks through exactly how trusts work, when they're the right choice, and what you need to do to make one effective.

Frequently Asked Questions

Carlos's Story — How It Ended

Elena got through probate. It took 14 months and cost $18,000 in attorney fees, court costs, and administrative expenses — money that came from the estate she was trying to protect for her kids.

There were moments where she wasn't sure she'd make it through the financial strain while the estate sat frozen. There were moments where explaining the guardianship proceeding to Marco — who just wanted to know why the courts were involved in his dad's stuff — felt impossible.

But she made it. And when it was over, the first thing she did was call an estate planning attorney. She now has a valid will. She has a revocable living trust with the house and accounts properly funded into it. She has named guardians for Sofia and Marco in writing. She has updated every beneficiary designation.

She did it for Carlos. And she did it so her kids would never have to go through what she went through.

If you haven't started your estate plan yet, you don't need a law degree or a high net worth. You need clarity on what's involved — and a starting point. That's what these guides are for.