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How to avoid probate in Florida: what skips it, what doesn't, and what each option costs you
Most of what a person owns can pass to family without a court being involved. Some of it can't. This page sorts out which is which, and the two ways people avoid probate that end up costing more than probate would have. Plain answers for Citrus, Hernando, and Pasco County.
Probate is the court process that settles what a person owned when they died and hands it to the people entitled to it. It takes months, it usually needs a lawyer, and the fees come out of what the family would have received. That's why people want to avoid it. The good news is that Florida law already gives most families several ways to do that, and some of them are free.
Every answer was checked against Florida law. None of it is a recommendation for your own situation. Last reviewed: September 13, 2026.
The short version:
- Does having a will avoid probate? No. A will is instructions for the probate court. It only works by going through probate.
- What assets don't go through probate in Florida? Anything with a built-in next owner. A joint account, an account with a named beneficiary, life insurance, a retirement account, a house owned jointly with survivorship, or a house with a lady bird deed. Florida law spells each of these out.
- Can I avoid probate in Florida without a lawyer? For most of what you own, yes, and for free. The bank, the brokerage, and the insurance company each have a beneficiary form. Most people can move most of what they own out of probate in an afternoon.
- Should I add my child to my bank account to avoid probate? Usually not. It makes the child a co-owner now, opens the account to the child's creditors and divorce, and can count as a gift for Medicaid. A beneficiary form does the same job without any of that.
- Is there a faster way through probate in Florida? Yes. Estates of $150,000 or less, after subtracting the protected home, qualify for summary administration, and the smallest estates need no case at all.
What probate is and why people avoid it
What is probate, and why does everyone want to avoid it?
When someone dies owning things in their name alone, nobody else has the legal right to sign for those things. Probate is how a court gives someone that right. A judge appoints a personal representative, Florida's name for an executor, who collects what the person owned, pays the debts, and hands out what's left, either the way the will says or, if there's no will, the way Florida's list says.
People avoid it for three reasons. It takes time: Florida gives creditors three months from the first newspaper notice to file claims, so even the simplest estate stays open at least that long, and The Florida Bar says a simple case takes about five or six months. It costs money: filing fees, the lawyer, and the personal representative's fee all come out of the estate. And it's public: the file at the courthouse is a public record.
Does having a will avoid probate?
No. This is the most common misunderstanding on this whole subject.
A will is a set of instructions to the probate court. It says who gets what and who should be in charge. But the only way those instructions get carried out is by opening a probate case and having the judge follow them. A will with nothing in it that needs probate does nothing. A will covering a house and accounts in your parent's name alone sends all of it through probate.
What a will does do is make probate go the way your parent wanted, instead of the way Florida's no-will list says. That's worth having. It's just not the same as avoiding court. Our page on dying without a will shows what happens when there isn't one.
What skips probate
What assets don't go through probate in Florida?
Anything that already has a built-in next owner. The rule of thumb: if a bank, insurance company, or county clerk can hand it to the next person by looking at a death certificate and their own paperwork, it skips probate. Here's the list, with the Florida law behind each one.
| What your parent owns | How it passes | Florida law |
|---|---|---|
| Bank account with a joint owner | To the surviving owner. Florida presumes that's what the owners meant unless the account paperwork says otherwise. | Section 655.79 |
| Bank account with a pay-on-death beneficiary | To the named beneficiary. The law says it "is not part of the party's estate." | Section 655.82 |
| Brokerage or investment account with a transfer-on-death beneficiary | To the named beneficiary. The transfer "is not testamentary," meaning no will and no probate. | Sections 711.50 to 711.512 |
| Life insurance, annuities, IRAs, 401(k)s | To whoever is named as beneficiary on the company's form | The contract with the company |
| House owned jointly with a right of survivorship, including a married couple's home | To the surviving owner, automatically | Section 689.15 |
| House with a lady bird deed | To the person named on the deed, by recording a death certificate | Not in any statute. Accepted by Florida title companies and courts. |
| Anything in a living trust | To whoever the trust names, handled by the trustee | Chapter 736 |
| A car or mobile home | Heirs can retitle it without a probate order by filing an affidavit that the estate owes nothing and the family agrees on the split | Section 319.28 |
Only what's left goes through probate: property in your parent's name alone, with no joint owner and nobody named. For a married couple who owned everything together, that's often nothing. For a widow or widower, it can be everything, unless they set up beneficiaries after their spouse died.
Can I avoid probate in Florida without a lawyer?
For most of what people own, yes, and for free. The beneficiary forms are the main tool.
Every bank will add a pay-on-death beneficiary to a checking, savings, or CD account. Every brokerage will add a transfer-on-death beneficiary to an investment account. Life insurance and retirement accounts already require a beneficiary; the job there is checking that the name on file is still the right one. A parent who does this for each account has moved all of them out of probate without paying anyone.
The house is the exception. The two ways to pass a house outside probate, a lady bird deed and a living trust, are both documents where a mistake can't be fixed after death. The deed can be done without a lawyer. Our lady bird deed page covers when that's reasonable and when it isn't.
Does Florida have a transfer-on-death deed for a house?
No. Many states have written a deed into their laws that lets you name who gets your house when you die, the same way a bank account can have a beneficiary. Florida hasn't.
Florida's version is the lady bird deed, which does the same job but isn't written into any statute. It works because Florida title companies and courts have accepted it for years. If you search for "transfer on death deed Florida" and find a form, be careful: a form written for another state's law doesn't work here.
The two ways that backfire
Should I add my child to my bank account to avoid probate?
Usually not. It does avoid probate, but it does four other things at the same time, and a pay-on-death beneficiary avoids probate without any of them.
- Your child owns the account now, not later. They can withdraw all of it while you're alive, legally.
- Your child's creditors can reach it. If your child is sued, goes through a divorce, or files bankruptcy, the account is on the table, because their name is on it.
- It can count as a gift for Medicaid. If you apply for Medicaid nursing home coverage within five years, Florida may treat the money your child could take as money you gave away, which can delay coverage. Our Medicaid page explains the look-back.
- The account goes to that child only. Florida law presumes a joint account passes to the surviving owner, and that presumption can only be overcome with proof of fraud, undue influence, or clear and convincing evidence you meant something else. If you have three children and add one, the other two have no claim, whatever your will says.
A pay-on-death beneficiary gives your child nothing until you die, keeps the account out of their creditors' reach, isn't a gift, and lets you name all three children. It's the same form at the same bank.
Should I put my child on the deed to my house?
Same answer, with higher stakes. Adding a child to the deed makes them a co-owner today. You can't sell or refinance without their signature. Their creditors and a divorcing spouse can reach their share. It counts as a gift for Medicaid. And unless the deed says "with right of survivorship," it doesn't even avoid probate: the child's half is theirs, and your half still goes through probate.
A lady bird deed passes the house to the child at your death, keeps full control with you until then, keeps the child's creditors out, and isn't a gift for Medicaid. Our lady bird deed page covers the details and the cases where it fails.
Living trusts
Do I need a living trust to avoid probate in Florida?
Most people don't. A living trust is a legal container you create while you're alive and move your property into. When you die, the person you named as trustee hands out the property without a court. It works, and for some families it's the right tool. But most of what a trust does, the free beneficiary forms and a lady bird deed do too.
A trust earns its cost in a few situations: property in more than one state, since each state would otherwise need its own probate; a child who shouldn't get a lump sum at once, because of age, disability, or money trouble; a blended family where you want the house to go to your spouse for life and then to your children; or an estate large enough that privacy matters. Ask a lawyer whether any of those describes your family before paying for one.
What does a living trust not do?
Three things people expect it to do that it doesn't.
It doesn't protect anything you forgot to put in it. A trust only controls property that's been retitled into the trust's name. A house still in your own name goes through probate even though the trust exists. Lawyers call this funding the trust, and it's the step families most often skip.
It doesn't protect against your own debts. Florida law says a revocable trust has to pay the estate's bills if the probate estate can't. Creditors get the same reach either way.
It doesn't get around the homestead rules. Florida law applies the same limits to a trust as to a will: if you leave a spouse or a child under 18, the family home can't be left to anyone but the spouse, and with a minor child it can't be left away from the child at all. Our no-will page covers what happens to the house then.
When probate can't be avoided
Is there a faster way through probate in Florida?
Two, depending on how small the estate is.
Summary administration. As of 2026, an estate qualifies when what's going through probate is worth $150,000 or less, after subtracting property that's protected from creditors, which includes the family home. It also qualifies, at any size, when the person has been dead more than two years, because after two years Florida bars all creditor claims. There's no personal representative; the judge just orders the property handed out. That number was $75,000 through 2025, and older articles and The Florida Bar's own booklet still say $75,000.
Disposition without administration. For the smallest estates, there's no case at all. It applies when the person left only exempt property, such as household furniture up to $20,000 and two cars, plus enough to cover funeral expenses and the medical bills from the last 60 days. The family sends the court a letter or affidavit, and the clerk authorizes the bank or whoever holds the property to hand it over.
Both tracks usually still involve a lawyer. They take less of the lawyer's time than full probate, which is where the savings come from. Our page on settling a home after a death covers the first steps.
Does the house have to go through probate if it's protected homestead?
Not as part of the estate, but the family usually needs a court order saying so.
Florida's constitution protects the family home from most creditors when it passes to a spouse or heirs, and Florida law says protected homestead isn't part of the probate estate. But the title company handling the next sale wants a judge's order confirming the house was protected homestead and naming who got it. That order comes from the probate court, often in the same case as everything else, or in a short case of its own if nothing else needs probate. A lady bird deed avoids even that, because the deed itself shows who owns the house.
Free help in Citrus, Hernando and Pasco County
Who can I talk to about this for free?
Florida Senior Legal Helpline: free legal advice by phone for Florida residents 60 and older, in all three counties. Probate and estate questions are within what they cover.
1-888-895-7873
Monday to Friday, 9:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. There are income limits, but they don't count your savings.
| County | Legal aid office | Phone |
|---|---|---|
| Citrus | Community Legal Services | 1-800-405-1417 |
| Hernando | Community Legal Services | 1-800-405-1417 |
| Pasco | Bay Area Legal Services | 1-813-232-1343 |
Also worth reading
- Lady bird deeds in Florida: who needs one, the six ways they fail, and how they compare to a life estate deed and a living trust
- Dying without a will in Florida: who gets the house and everything else
- Medicaid, nursing homes and your house: the payback, the five-year look-back, and which homes are already protected
- Settling a home after a death in Florida: the first practical steps, probate basics, and when to get a lawyer
- Legal questions Florida families ask about an aging parent: power of attorney, lady bird deeds, probate and guardianship in one place
Sources
- Florida Statutes section 655.79, joint deposit accounts pass to the surviving owner; section 655.82, pay-on-death accounts
- Florida Statutes sections 711.50 to 711.512, transfer-on-death registration of securities
- Florida Statutes section 689.15, right of survivorship in jointly held property
- Florida Statutes section 319.28, transferring a vehicle title after the owner's death
- Florida Statutes section 733.702, the three-month creditor claim period; section 733.710, the two-year bar on claims
- Florida Statutes section 733.707(3) and section 736.05053, a revocable trust pays the estate's obligations when the probate estate can't
- Florida Statutes section 732.4015, limits on leaving the homestead by will or trust
- Florida Statutes section 735.201, summary administration, amended by chapter 2026-57; section 735.301, disposition without administration
- Florida Constitution, Article X, section 4, homestead protection; Florida Statutes section 731.201(33), protected homestead defined; section 733.608(1), protected homestead is not an asset of the estate; section 732.402, exempt property
- The Florida Bar consumer booklet on probate; Florida Bar Journal, "Lady Bird Deeds" (November 2018) and "Failure to Deliver: The Problem with Pocket Deeds and a Review of Alternatives" (March/April 2019)
- Florida Department of Elder Affairs, Senior Legal Helpline