Florida Statute 735.301: Disposition Without Administration

Florida’s disposition without administration, authorized by Florida Statute 735.301, lets whoever paid a decedent’s funeral and last medical bills get reimbursed directly from the estate’s personal property without opening a probate case. It works only for very small estates: no real estate, no non-exempt assets worth more than the qualifying funeral and medical expenses combined. Because the value ceiling is tied to what was actually spent on final expenses rather than a fixed dollar figure, most estates that qualify are genuinely tiny.¹

Who Can File

Any interested party can apply. In practice that usually means the person who paid the funeral home or the hospital and wants their money back. A surviving spouse, an adult child, or a creditor who covered those costs all qualify. The statute keeps the gate wide, allowing the request to come by “affidavit, letter, or otherwise.”¹

The Three Estate Requirements

All three of these must be true, or the process is unavailable:

No real estate. If the decedent owned any real property in Florida or elsewhere that would require probate, disposition without administration is off the table, regardless of how modest everything else is.
Only personal property, exempt or non-exempt.
The non-exempt personal property is worth no more than the total of preferred funeral expenses plus reasonable medical and hospital expenses from the last 60 days of the final illness.

The third condition is what makes the process narrow. It functions as a break-even test: if the non-exempt assets are worth more than what was spent on the funeral and final medical care, the estate doesn’t qualify.¹

How the Value Cap Actually Works

Funeral Expenses Are Capped at $6,000

The statute uses the defined term “preferred funeral expenses.” Under Florida’s probate payment priority rules, that means reasonable costs of the funeral, burial or cremation, and grave marker, but only up to $6,000 total.² Spending $12,000 on the funeral doesn’t help; only $6,000 counts toward the eligibility math. This is the detail most people miss.

Medical Bills Only From the Last 60 Days

The second component is reasonable and necessary medical and hospital expenses from the decedent’s last 60 days of illness. There’s no statutory dollar cap on this category, but the expenses must genuinely be reasonable, necessary, and within that window. Bills from six months earlier don’t count. Amounts already paid by insurance or Medicare don’t count either.²

Exempt Property Is Excluded From the Calculation

Certain personal property is exempt from creditor claims and doesn’t count toward the value limit at all:

Household furniture, furnishings, and appliances in the decedent’s home, up to $20,000 in net value at the date of death.
Two motor vehicles regularly used by the decedent or immediate family, provided neither exceeds 15,000 pounds gross vehicle weight.
Qualified tuition programs, including Florida Prepaid College contracts.

These items pass to the surviving spouse, or to the decedent’s children if there is no surviving spouse.³ The Florida Constitution also exempts personal property worth up to $1,000 from creditor claims,⁴ and that amount is also outside the eligibility test.

A Worked Example

Say the decedent left a $7,500 bank account, a car worth $8,000, and household furniture worth $14,000. The petitioner paid $5,500 for the funeral and $2,000 in final medical bills. The car and furniture are exempt, so they drop out. The only non-exempt asset is the $7,500 in the bank. Qualifying expenses total $7,500: $5,500 in funeral costs (well under the cap) plus $2,000 in medical. Because the non-exempt assets don’t exceed the qualifying expenses, the estate makes it through.

What to File and What It Costs

Although the statute technically allows a letter, most circuit courts expect a specific affidavit. Many clerks provide a standardized form, sometimes downloadable from the county clerk’s website. The affidavit lists every asset the decedent owned, with account numbers and values, separated into exempt and non-exempt categories, and is signed under penalty of perjury.¹

Plan to bring or attach:

A certified death certificate. The statute doesn’t explicitly demand one, but every clerk’s office will.
The funeral bill and receipts showing what was paid and by whom.
Receipts for qualifying medical expenses from the last 60 days.
The notarized affidavit itself.

If the decedent left a will, whoever holds the original must deposit it with the clerk within 10 days of learning of the death.⁵ That obligation applies even in a disposition without administration. Some courts also want notarized consents from anyone entitled to exempt property when distribution is going elsewhere.

The statutory filing fee is $230.⁶ Counties may add small surcharges, so confirm the exact amount with your local clerk before you go in.

What Happens After You File

You file with the clerk of the circuit court in the county where the decedent lived. The clerk routes the package to a judge. There is usually no hearing. The judge reviews the affidavit and supporting documents and, if the estate qualifies, issues a written order under the court’s seal authorizing payment, transfer, or disposition of the listed personal property to the entitled persons.¹

You get a certified copy of that order. It’s how you actually collect. You present it to the bank, credit union, brokerage firm, or anyone else holding the property, and they release the specific assets listed. Collected funds go first to reimburse whoever paid the funeral and medical bills. If assets fall short, the statutory priority order in Section 733.707 controls who gets paid first.² Anything left after claims are satisfied goes to the beneficiaries under the will, or to the decedent’s heirs under Florida’s intestacy rules if there wasn’t one.

An institution that releases property based on the court’s order is permanently discharged from liability for doing so. Banks can still be cautious, but the statutory protection is what allows them to hand over funds without worrying about being sued later.¹

When Disposition Won’t Work

Some estates look small enough for this route but still don’t qualify. The common disqualifiers:

The decedent owned real property. Even a modest house or a fractional interest in land ends the analysis.
Non-exempt assets exceed the qualifying expenses. A $15,000 bank account against $6,000 in funeral and medical costs doesn’t work, no matter what other debts the decedent had.
The expenses don’t qualify. Credit card balances, utilities, and rent are not part of the eligibility calculation. Only preferred funeral expenses (up to $6,000) and medical bills from the last 60 days of the final illness count.

If the estate falls out on any of these, the next step down in complexity is summary administration under Section 735.201, available when the total estate subject to administration, minus exempt property, is under $75,000, or when the decedent has been dead for more than two years.⁷ It’s more involved than an affidavit but far less than a full formal administration.

Watch for Medicaid Recovery

If the decedent received Medicaid after age 55, the state can file a claim against the estate for reimbursement. Florida’s Medicaid Estate Recovery Act creates a debt equal to the total Medicaid payments made on the recipient’s behalf after that age.⁸ It can surface even in a very small estate.

Recovery is blocked if the decedent is survived by a spouse, a child under 21, or a blind or permanently disabled child. The state also cannot recover against property that is exempt from creditor claims under Florida law, which protects exempt household items and vehicles. A hardship waiver is available if recovery would deprive an heir of food, shelter, or necessary medical care.⁸ If there’s any chance the decedent was on Medicaid, look into this before filing. A Medicaid claim that outranks your reimbursement under the statutory payment order can consume the entire estate.

Two Related Shortcuts

If the decedent overpaid federal income taxes and the refund is $2,500 or less, the surviving spouse can claim it directly with a verified application, with no probate proceeding at all. If there’s no surviving spouse, the decedent’s children can designate one of them to receive it. The application must state that the decedent had no unpaid debts, or that the estate is entirely exempt from creditor claims.⁹

The other item that catches families off guard: Social Security benefits are not prorated. If the decedent was receiving them, any payment for the month of death or later must be returned. Someone who died on the second of the month owes back the whole month’s benefit. For direct deposits, ask the bank to return the funds; for checks, don’t cash them and mail them back to the Social Security Administration.¹⁰ A surviving spouse or dependent child may qualify for a $255 lump-sum death payment, which is worth claiming if you’re eligible.

1
Justia Law. Florida Code 735.301 – Disposition Without Administration
2
FindLaw. Florida Code 733.707 – Order of Payment of Expenses and Obligations
3
Florida Senate. Florida Code 732.402 – Exempt Property
4
FindLaw. Florida Constitution Art X, Section 4 – Homestead and Exemptions
5
Florida Senate. Florida Code 732.901 – Production of Wills
6
Online Sunshine. Florida Code 28.2401 – Service Charges and Filing Fees for Probate Proceedings
7
Online Sunshine. Florida Code 735.201 – Summary Administration; Nature of Proceedings
8
Online Sunshine. Florida Code 409.9101 – Recovery for Payments Made on Behalf of Medicaid-Eligible Persons
9
Florida Senate. Florida Code 735.302 – Income Tax Refunds in Certain Cases
10
Social Security Administration. How Social Security Can Help You When a Family Member Dies