Florida Probate Forms: What You Need and Where to Find Them

The Florida court system provides many probate forms for free. The problem most executors run into isn't finding the forms — it's understanding which form applies to their situation, filling it out correctly, and meeting the county-specific requirements layered on top of the state forms. A correctly downloaded but incorrectly completed petition gets rejected and adds weeks to the process.

Here's what you actually need by probate track, where to get it, and what to watch for.

Forms for Disposition Without Administration

This is the simplest track — no formal case is opened. It's available when the estate consists only of exempt property and non-exempt personal property not exceeding funeral and final medical expenses. Effective July 1, 2026, intestate estates of personal property only up to $20,000 also qualify.

Most counties provide their own Disposition Without Administration packet on the county clerk's website. These vary by county — Palm Beach's packet looks different from Pasco's. The packet typically includes:

• An informal application form
• An affidavit of assets
• A place to attach paid funeral receipts and medical bills

The clerk reviews the application; a judge signs an authorization letter. There's no ongoing case to manage.

Forms for Summary Administration

Summary Administration is available for estates with $150,000 or less in non-exempt probate assets (effective July 1, 2026, with homestead and statutory exempt property excluded) or for any estate where the decedent has been dead more than two years.

The core forms for a Summary Administration include:

Petition for Summary Administration (F.S. 735.201): This is the primary pleading. It identifies the petitioner, describes the decedent's estate and assets, states the basis for qualifying for Summary Administration, identifies all beneficiaries, and sets out the proposed distribution. Florida Courts provides a form petition template, but local counties often require additional county-specific certifications attached to it.

Original Will: If the decedent left a will, the original must be filed with the petition. If the will was already deposited with the clerk (required within 10 days of death), you don't need to file a duplicate — reference the deposit.

Certified Death Certificate: One certified copy must be filed with the petition. The clerk won't accept photocopies; it must be an official copy with the registrar's raised seal.

Proposed Order of Summary Administration: The attorney drafts an order for the judge to sign, directing financial institutions and others holding estate assets to release them to the petitioners.

County-Specific Checklists: This is where many pro se filers get tripped up. Miami-Dade requires Form CC-01 (for intestate Summary Administration) and Form CC-07 (for homestead proceedings). These checklists must be explicitly cross-referenced against the petition before the clerk forwards the file for judicial review. Failing to include the checklist means the file doesn't move.

The Miami-Dade CC-series forms are available on the Miami-Dade Clerk's website. Other counties have their own local requirements — Lee and Sarasota counties require signed checklists filed simultaneously with the petition.

Forms for Formal Administration

Formal Administration involves an appointed personal representative and the full court-supervised process. The petition package is more extensive.

Petition for Administration: The primary pleading. It identifies the decedent, establishes venue (why this county), describes the estate assets, identifies all beneficiaries and heirs, states the validity of the will, and proposes the personal representative. This is a complex, fact-intensive document — filling it out incorrectly or omitting required statutory elements leads to a Deficiency Notice.

Oath of Personal Representative: The proposed personal representative swears to faithfully administer the estate according to Florida law. Required before the Letters of Administration are issued.

Designation of Resident Agent: Required if the personal representative does not live in Florida. Names a Florida resident who can accept legal service on behalf of the estate.

Fiduciary Bond: If a bond is required (either by the will, by the court, or by statute), the bonding company provides its own form. Bond requirements can be waived in the will, but the judge retains discretion to require one anyway.

Proposed Order Admitting Will to Probate: Once the court admits the will, it signs this order formally accepting the will as the governing document for the estate.

Proposed Letters of Administration: The document that formally appoints and empowers the personal representative. Banks, title companies, and government agencies require certified copies of this document before releasing estate assets.

Post-Appointment Forms in Formal Administration

After the personal representative is appointed, additional forms come into play:

Verified Inventory of Assets (within 60 days): The personal representative must file this within 60 days of the Letters of Administration being issued. It lists every probate asset with the fair market value at the date of death. Florida Probate Rule 5.340 governs the requirements.

Notice to Creditors: This is a published notice — it runs in a qualifying county newspaper for two consecutive weeks. It's not a court form per se, but it must include specific statutory language identifying the estate, the court case number, and the claim deadline.

Petition to Determine Homestead Status: If the decedent owned a primary Florida residence, this petition runs alongside the main probate case. Most counties provide a form petition, but the specific requirements vary, and the petition must accurately describe the property, the decedent's ownership interest, and the constitutional basis for the homestead determination.

Final Accounting: A detailed financial statement showing all receipts, disbursements, and proposed distributions. Filed before the Petition for Discharge.

Petition for Discharge: Requests the court officially close the estate and release the personal representative from fiduciary liability. Filed with receipts from beneficiaries confirming they've received their distributions.

Forms Outside the Probate Court

The probate court isn't the only agency that needs forms:

Department of Revenue — Form DR-501T: If heirs want to port the "Save Our Homes" property tax cap from the decedent's homestead to their own ownership, this form must be filed with the county Property Appraiser by March 1 of the year following the death. This is a Property Appraiser form, not a court form — but missing it while focused on the probate case is one of the most expensive mistakes a Hillsborough, Palm Beach, or Broward executor can make.

FLHSMV — Form HSMV 82040 MV: For transferring vehicle titles through the estate. Since July 2023, the old Form 82040 was split into three versions: MV for motor vehicles, VS for vessels/boats, and MH for mobile homes. Using the wrong form means the title office rejects the transfer.

FLHSMV — Form HSMV 82152: If a surviving spouse inherits a vehicle, this form — Surviving Spouse Transfer of Florida Certificate of Title — allows them to transfer title at the county tax collector's office without going through probate at all. They just need the death certificate and their marriage license.

Why Having the Form Is Only Half the Battle

County clerks and court staff are legally prohibited from providing legal advice. They can hand you a form; they cannot tell you what to write in it, whether it applies to your situation, or why your previous filing was rejected beyond noting which field was incomplete.

Florida's probate forms require accurate legal characterizations — describing whether heirs take as "beneficiaries under a will" or as "intestate heirs," whether property is homestead or investment property, whether the estate qualifies for Summary Administration based on correctly calculated non-exempt asset values. Getting those characterizations wrong produces rejected petitions.

If you're handling an estate that qualifies for Summary Administration and want to understand the full context behind each form before working with an attorney — or want to arrive at that consultation already organized — the Florida Probate Process Guide provides the administrative framework: what each phase of the process requires, what the courts are looking for, and which non-court filings (like the DR-501T) run in parallel and have their own hard deadlines.

The forms are publicly available. Knowing how to use them correctly is the part that's harder to find.

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