What Florida Probate Cost One Family $35,000 — While They Were Still Grieving

By Chuck Roulet, Estate Planning & Elder Law Attorney | Licensed in Florida & Minnesota | Nearly 30 Years of Experience | Read full bio →

A client of mine — a woman in her seventies — came in recently to update her estate planning documents. She had lost one of her four daughters in a tragic car accident.

One of her other daughters joined us for the meeting. During our conversation, she opened up about what the family had been going through. Her sister — middle-aged, gone far too soon — had no trust in place. The family believed there might have been a will, but no one could find it. It didn't matter. Without a trust, the estate still had to go through Florida probate. The proceedings were being administered in a county north of Tampa — unfamiliar territory for a grieving family.

By the time we sat down together, they had already spent over thirty-five thousand dollars in probate costs. And they weren't finished.

But it wasn't the dollar amount that stopped me. It was the next thing her daughter said.

They had to front all of it out of their own pockets. Because of how Florida probate works, they couldn't access any of her sister's accounts until they reached a certain point in the process. The money would eventually be reimbursed — but in the meantime, they had to come up with tens of thousands of dollars while grieving, while planning a funeral, while trying to hold a family together across counties they didn't know.

Then she looked at her mother — my client — and said she was grateful. Grateful that her mom had a trust. That when the time came, her family would have immediate access. No courts. No fronting costs. No waiting.

That moment is why I am writing this article. Florida probate is not an abstract legal concept. It is a concrete, expensive, time-consuming burden that falls on families at the worst possible moment. And it is almost entirely avoidable.

What Florida Probate Actually Is

Florida probate is the court-supervised process that validates a will and oversees the distribution of a deceased person's estate. If someone dies with assets titled in their own name — without a trust — those assets go through probate. A will does not avoid probate. A will is simply the document the court uses to supervise the distribution. With a will or without one, if there is no trust, there is probate.

Summary Administration

Summary administration is a simplified process available when the gross probate estate is valued at $75,000 or less, or when the person has been deceased for more than two years. It is faster and less expensive than formal administration — but it is still a court process requiring an attorney, court filings, and a judge's order.

Formal Administration

Formal administration is required for any estate exceeding $75,000 in gross value. It involves court filings, appointment of a personal representative, creditor notification, a required asset inventory, and a final distribution order from the court. From filing to final order, Florida formal probate typically takes twelve to twenty-four months — and that is the smooth, uncontested version.

What Florida Probate Actually Costs

Florida sets presumptively reasonable probate attorney fees by statute — Florida Statute 733.6171. The schedule runs three percent of the gross estate value on the first one million dollars, with lower percentages on larger estates.

The word gross is critical. The fee is calculated on gross value — not the net value after mortgages and debts. A home appraised at $500,000 with a $200,000 mortgage generates a fee based on the full $500,000. Not the $300,000 in equity. The full appraised value.

The personal representative — typically the adult child managing the estate — is entitled to a completely separate fee under Florida Statute 733.617. The presumed reasonable commission is also three percent of gross value, in addition to the attorney fee.

The statutory fee is described as presumptively reasonable — meaning attorneys can charge more for extraordinary services including contested matters, real estate sales during probate, and ancillary administration of out-of-state assets. The base schedule is the floor, not the ceiling.

The Fronting Costs Problem Nobody Mentions

Here is the aspect of Florida probate that catches most families completely off guard.

Probate requires money to run — attorney fees, court filing fees, required publication costs. But until the estate advances to a certain point in the probate process, the family cannot access the deceased person's accounts to pay those costs. The money is there. In accounts they can see. They simply cannot touch it.

So the family pays out of pocket. They front the expenses with the expectation of eventual reimbursement. For a family with financial resources, this is an inconvenience. For a family without that cushion, it can be a genuine crisis — missed payments, borrowed funds, added stress on top of grief.

The daughter of my client asked a question I have not forgotten: what would have happened if we hadn't had the money? It is worth asking before the need arises.

What a Properly Funded Trust Changes

A revocable living trust, when properly funded, avoids Florida probate entirely. When you transfer your assets into the trust — your home, bank accounts, investments — the trust becomes the legal owner. When you pass away, your successor trustee steps in immediately. No court. No judge. No twelve-to-twenty-four month wait. No statutory fee schedule. No fronting costs. The trustee distributes assets according to your instructions, privately, typically within weeks.

The critical word is funded. A trust document without assets transferred into it provides no probate protection. Your home still goes through probate if it is still titled in your name. Your accounts still go through probate if the trust is not listed as owner or beneficiary. Funding is not automatic — it requires following through on asset transfers one by one, and it is the step most families skip.

The Snowbird Trap: Minnesota Residents with Florida Property

Minnesota residents who own Florida property face a specific risk that a surprising number of estate plans fail to address.

A Minnesota couple with a Minnesota trust and a Florida condo may believe their estate plan covers both states. It does — but only if the Florida property was transferred into the trust. If the deed still shows their name rather than the trust's name, Florida requires its own separate probate proceeding when they pass away. This is called ancillary probate.

A Minnesota trust does not automatically pull Florida real property into it. The deed has to follow the trust. If the Florida title was never updated, Florida has jurisdiction — a separate court process, separate attorney fees calculated on the Florida property's gross value, and a separate twelve-to-twenty-four month timeline, running alongside whatever is happening in Minnesota.

This gap — between a Minnesota estate plan and a Florida property — is where I regularly see snowbird families lose tens of thousands of dollars that proper planning would have preserved.

Florida Homestead — A Critical Distinction

Florida's homestead law is one of the most powerful property protections in the country — and one of the most misunderstood in the context of estate planning. Your Florida homestead is generally protected from forced sale by most creditors during your lifetime and carries significant property tax benefits.

But homestead also restricts who you can leave the property to if you have a surviving spouse or minor children. You cannot leave a Florida homestead to anyone other than your surviving spouse if a spouse exists — Florida law restricts that transfer regardless of what your will or trust says. Understanding how homestead interacts with your estate plan is essential for any Florida homeowner, and particularly for snowbird families whose primary residence may be in Minnesota.

Florida vs. Minnesota Probate: What Snowbird Families Should Know

For families with connections to both states, the comparison is important:

Frequently Asked Questions

Does a will avoid probate in Florida?

No. A will does not avoid probate in Florida. A will is the document the court uses to supervise the distribution of your estate — it is designed to work through probate, not around it. The only way to avoid probate for Florida assets is to hold them in a properly funded revocable living trust, use joint tenancy with right of survivorship where appropriate, or use beneficiary designations on accounts and retirement funds.

How much does Florida probate cost?

Florida probate attorney fees are set by statute at 3% of the gross estate value on the first million dollars under Florida Statute 733.6171. The personal representative is entitled to a separate fee, also presumed reasonable at 3% of gross value under Florida Statute 733.617. Court filing fees, required publication, accounting, and appraisal fees add to the total. On a typical middle-class Florida estate with a home and savings, total probate costs commonly run $30,000 to $50,000 or more. The fee is calculated on gross value — not net value after mortgages.

How long does Florida probate take?

Florida formal probate typically takes twelve to twenty-four months from the date of filing to final distribution. The process includes a mandatory three-month creditor notification period from the date of first publication. Contested estates, missing beneficiaries, or real estate sales during probate can extend the timeline further.

What is ancillary probate in Florida?

Ancillary probate is a separate Florida probate proceeding required when a non-Florida resident dies owning Florida real property that was not transferred into a trust. A Minnesota trust does not automatically cover Florida property — the deed must be titled in the trust's name. If the Florida property remains in the deceased person's name, Florida requires its own court process with its own fees and timeline, regardless of what the person's home state plan provides.

Does a living trust avoid Florida probate?

Yes — but only if it is properly funded. A revocable living trust that holds your Florida assets in the trust's name avoids Florida probate entirely. If the trust is signed but your Florida property was never re-titled into the trust's name, that property still goes through probate. Funding — the process of transferring assets into the trust — is the step that determines whether the trust actually works.

Is Florida Medicaid estate recovery different from Minnesota?

Yes. Florida Medicaid estate recovery is generally limited to the probate estate. Assets that pass outside of probate — through a properly funded trust, beneficiary designations, or joint tenancy — are generally not subject to Florida estate recovery in the same way that Minnesota's broader recovery rules can apply. This difference makes Florida trust planning valuable not just for probate avoidance, but for Medicaid planning as well.

About the Author

Chuck Roulet is the founding attorney of Roulet Law Firm, P.A., with nearly 30 years of experience in estate planning, elder law, and long-term care planning. He is licensed in both Florida and Minnesota — one of the few attorneys in the country who advises families navigating the laws of both states. He is the author of The Florida Snowbird Guide and has been featured in USA Today, The Epoch Times, Money Matters, and Live Life Large. Chuck serves clients from offices in Venice, Florida and Minnetonka, Minnesota.

Chuck's commitment to elder law is personal. His grandfather — a World War II veteran — worked his entire life, saved carefully, and eventually inherited a small home from his brother. When the time came that he needed nursing home care, he lost everything: his home, his savings, all of it. He sat across from Chuck and wept — not because he was afraid of dying, but because he felt he had failed his family after a lifetime of doing everything right. What Chuck later discovered was that Minnesota was not following federal law at the time. His grandfather did not have to lose everything. He just never had someone in his corner who knew how to protect him. That moment is why Chuck practices elder law.

This article is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Please consult a qualified estate planning attorney regarding your specific situation