Palm Beach County Probate Court: How to File and What to Expect

When a loved one dies in Palm Beach County, probate is handled by the 15th Judicial Circuit Court — the same circuit that covers Palm Beach County exclusively. The Clerk of the Circuit Court's probate division is located in West Palm Beach, and all probate cases are filed there regardless of whether the decedent lived in Boca Raton, Delray Beach, Jupiter, or anywhere else in the county.

Here's what you actually need to know to get a case filed and moving.

Filing Fees in Palm Beach County

Palm Beach County probate filing fees follow the standard Florida schedule for 2026:

These fees are paid to the Clerk of the Circuit Court at the time of filing. The estate reimburses them as an administrative expense — they're a first-priority cost before any beneficiary distributions.

Additional costs: certified copy fees run $3.00 per page plus a certification surcharge. You'll typically need 10 to 20 certified copies of the Letters of Administration, since every bank, investment account, title company, and government agency demands their own original.

Which Probate Route Applies to Your Estate

Before you file anything, determine which track you're on. Florida's three options, applied to Palm Beach estates, work like this:

Disposition Without Administration: The decedent left only personal property, its total value doesn't exceed funeral and final medical expenses, and effective July 1, 2026, intestate estates of only personal property up to $20,000 qualify. No formal case is opened. You file an application with the clerk and a judge signs an authorization. This route costs $231 at the Palm Beach clerk's office.

Summary Administration: Available when the non-exempt probate estate is valued at $150,000 or less (effective July 1, 2026 — homestead and statutory exempt property don't count toward this limit), or when the decedent has been dead more than two years regardless of estate size. The 4 to 8 week process doesn't require appointing a personal representative. Filing fee is $235 to $345 depending on asset values.

Formal Administration: Required for estates exceeding the Summary Administration threshold with a death date less than two years ago. This is the full court-supervised process. Under Florida Probate Rule 5.030, the personal representative must retain a Florida-licensed attorney unless they are the only beneficiary.

The OLS Online Scheduling System

Palm Beach County uses an Online Scheduling (OLS) system for certain probate matters. If your case requires a hearing — which is common in contested matters, petitions to sell real property, or guardianship proceedings — you'll need to reserve a hearing slot through the OLS portal rather than calling the court to schedule.

For uncontested Summary Administrations where all interested parties have signed and no hearing is required, many matters can be handled on the papers. Your attorney will know whether your specific petition needs a hearing based on the nature of the petition and the presiding judge's preferences for that division.

What the Clerk's Office Can and Cannot Do

This distinction matters enormously for unrepresented executors: the probate clerks at the 15th Circuit are administrative staff, not legal advisors. They can:

• Accept your filing and collect fees
• Audit the filing for completeness (are all required documents present?)
• Issue certified copies once ordered
• Provide blank forms for some basic proceedings

They cannot:

• Tell you which form to use for your situation
• Advise you on how to fill out a petition
• Explain whether your estate qualifies for Summary Administration
• Tell you whether your will is valid

This is not unhelpfulness — it's the law. Court clerks who provide legal advice expose themselves to liability. If you ask a clerk "do I need to open a formal case?" they are legally required to decline to answer.

For actual guidance on which track your Palm Beach estate qualifies for and what the petition needs to include, you need either a probate attorney or, for administrative preparation, a comprehensive process guide.

Depositing the Will Before Filing

If the decedent left a will, Florida law requires whoever holds the original to deposit it with the Palm Beach County Clerk of the Circuit Court within 10 days of learning of the death. The deposit is free — there's no filing fee for the will alone. It's typically accompanied by an Acknowledgment of Venue form.

Depositing the will does not open a probate case. It simply preserves the document in the court's custody until you're ready to file a formal petition. The will is held confidentially and won't be accessible to the public until probate is formally commenced.

Real Estate, Homestead, and Title Issues

Palm Beach County has a substantial volume of homestead property — condominiums, waterfront homes, retirement community residences. If the decedent owned a primary residence in Palm Beach County, the probate case needs to include a Petition to Determine Homestead Status of Real Property, processed alongside the main probate proceeding.

Homestead property technically passes outside the probate estate under Florida's constitutional protections. But title companies in Palm Beach County — and everywhere else in Florida — will not insure the title for a future sale without a formal judicial Order Determining Homestead. Without that order, the heirs cannot sell the property.

Two critical property tax deadlines run parallel to probate for homestead property:

• March 1 of the year following the homeowner's death is the deadline to file Form DR-501T with the Palm Beach County Property Appraiser to port the "Save Our Homes" tax cap to the heir's new ownership. Missing this deadline means the property gets reassessed to full market value — which can mean thousands of dollars per year in increased property taxes.
• The heir must also apply for their own homestead exemption using Form DR-501 if they intend to use the property as their primary residence.

These are property appraiser filings, not probate court filings, but they run on the same calendar as the probate case.

Out-of-State Executors Filing in Palm Beach

A substantial portion of Palm Beach probate executors are adult children who live out of state. Their parents retired to Palm Beach County; the executor is in New York or Ohio or California. This creates procedural complications.

If the personal representative is not a Florida resident, they must designate a Resident Agent — a Florida resident who can accept legal service on behalf of the estate. Many attorneys serving in this role also act as registered agents for out-of-state executors.

Additionally, non-Florida-resident executors may face heightened scrutiny on the bond requirement. The judge has discretion to require a fiduciary bond even if the will waives it, and out-of-state residency is one factor courts consider when assessing that risk.

The Florida Probate Process Guide was built specifically for the Palm Beach situation: a grieving family member who is geographically distant, unfamiliar with Florida's county-specific procedures, and trying to understand what an attorney should handle versus what they can organize themselves. It covers the asset inventory process, the homestead petition, the DR-501T portability deadline, and the full creditor notification procedure in plain language — so when you do engage a Palm Beach probate attorney, you're not paying them to explain the basics.

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