How to Complete the Florida Disposition of Personal Property Without Administration Form

To use Florida’s Disposition of Personal Property Without Administration form, you file an affidavit-style petition with the Clerk of the Circuit Court in the county where the decedent lived, listing the personal property to be collected along with the funeral and last-illness medical expenses that justify the transfer. The process comes from Section 735.301 of the Florida Statutes and lets an interested party get a court order releasing bank accounts, refund checks, and similar assets without opening full probate.¹ Each county publishes its own version of the form, but the legal requirements are the same statewide.

Confirm the Estate Qualifies

Two conditions decide whether this form is available to you. First, the decedent must have left no real estate in Florida. If there is any real property, you need summary administration or formal probate instead. Personal property means bank and brokerage accounts, vehicles, stocks, refund checks, jewelry, and similar assets.

Second, the nonexempt personal property must not exceed the sum of preferred funeral expenses plus reasonable medical and hospital expenses from the last 60 days of the decedent’s final illness.¹ In plain terms, the process works when funeral and end-of-life medical bills used up most of what the decedent left. If nonexempt assets are worth more than those combined costs, the estate is too large for this form.

Any interested party can file. That usually means the person who paid the funeral, a surviving spouse, or a legal heir. You do not need to be named in a will or appointed as personal representative.

Do the Threshold Math Before Filing

The dollar limit is not fixed. It depends on the actual funeral and medical costs, and it only measures nonexempt assets. Getting this wrong is the most common reason a petition is rejected.

What Counts as Exempt

Certain property does not count toward the threshold at all. Under Florida law, exempt property includes household furniture, furnishings, and appliances from the decedent’s home up to a net value of $20,000 at the date of death; up to two motor vehicles under 15,000 pounds gross weight that the decedent or immediate family regularly used; and qualified tuition programs under IRS Section 529, including Florida Prepaid College contracts.² These items pass outside the threshold entirely, so the estate can include exempt property and still qualify.

The Funeral Cap

Florida’s creditor priority statute caps preferred funeral, interment, and grave marker expenses at $6,000 in the aggregate.³ If the funeral actually cost $12,000, only $6,000 counts toward the qualifying threshold.

The 60-Day Medical Window

Medical and hospital expenses count only if they are reasonable, necessary, and dated within the last 60 days of the decedent’s final illness. There is no fixed cap on this category, so large end-of-life bills can significantly raise the qualifying threshold. You will need itemized statements showing dates of service to prove the bills fall inside the 60-day window.

Worked Example

Add the preferred funeral expenses (up to $6,000) to the qualifying medical expenses. If nonexempt personal property is worth less than or equal to that total, the estate qualifies. If the funeral cost $5,500 and final medical bills totaled $3,000, the threshold is $8,500. A bank account with $7,000 qualifies. A bank account with $10,000 does not.

Gather Everything Before You Go to the Clerk

Missing one document means a wasted trip. Before you touch the form, collect:

A certified copy of the death certificate with a raised seal.⁴
Itemized, paid funeral receipts showing who paid and the exact amounts.
Itemized medical and hospital statements from the last 60 days of the final illness, with dates of service.
Bank statements, stock certificates, insurance documents, or other records showing account numbers, institution names and addresses, and balances at the date of death.⁵
The decedent’s full legal name, Social Security number, date of death, last known address, and age at death.
Your own full name, address, and relationship to the decedent.

Bring originals and at least one photocopy of each. Some clerks keep the originals; others copy and return them.

Filling Out the Petition

There is no single statewide form. Each Clerk of the Circuit Court publishes its own version, usually posted as a PDF under the probate division. Search for your county clerk’s name together with “disposition of personal property without administration” to find the correct packet. Some counties include an instruction sheet with the form.

The petition is written as an affidavit. You will typically complete:

The caption, with the decedent’s name after “In Re:” at the top.
Petitioner details: your name, address, Social Security number, and relationship to the decedent.
Decedent details: full name, Social Security number, date and place of death, last known address, county of residence, and age.⁴
Exempt property, listed with estimated values.
Nonexempt property, with institution name, account or policy number, address, and value at the date of death for each item.
Total funeral expenses paid and total qualifying medical expenses from the final 60 days.
The proposed distribution: name, address, and dollar amount or specific property for each recipient.

Be precise. The judge relies on these figures to confirm the estate falls within the statutory limits, and the bank or brokerage will match the court order against its own records before releasing funds. A wrong digit in an account number can hold everything up.

Most counties require the signature to be notarized. Some include a notary block on the form itself; others use a separate jurat. The clerk’s office often has a notary on site, but call first.

Filing With the Clerk

File the completed package with the Clerk of the Circuit Court in the county where the decedent lived. The filing fee is $231 based on current county fee schedules.⁶ Bring a check or money order payable to the clerk, or ask whether the office accepts credit cards or cash. The fee is nonrefundable.

Some counties accept electronic filings through the Florida Courts E-Filing Portal, but many still require you to present the original death certificate and paid receipts in person. If you file electronically, the clerk may ask you to bring the originals in before the petition moves forward.

Once accepted, the paperwork goes to a probate judge. The judge checks that the nonexempt asset values stay within the combined funeral and medical threshold and that the supporting documents match. If everything is in order, the judge signs an order under the seal of the court authorizing transfer of the listed property.¹ Most cases involve no hearing; the judge rules on the paperwork alone.

Collecting the Assets

Request several certified copies of the signed order from the clerk. You need one for each bank, brokerage, insurance company, or other institution holding the decedent’s assets. Certified copies carry their own fees. In Miami-Dade County, the charge is $1 per page plus $2 per document for certification.⁷ Order more than you think you need; going back later means another trip.

Present the certified order to each institution listed in the petition. The institution is legally protected when it follows the court’s direction, so banks and brokerages generally release the funds promptly once they verify the account details match.¹ Bring a valid photo ID and a copy of the death certificate along with the court order; some institutions run their own verification steps.

The 735.304 Variant for Older Intestate Estates

Section 735.304 is a related process for estates where the decedent died without a will more than a year ago. It adds an extra $10,000 to the qualifying threshold, so nonexempt personal property can be worth up to $10,000 plus the combined funeral and medical expenses.⁸ Several county forms, including Manatee County’s, are built around this section rather than 735.301.

Section 735.304 carries requirements that 735.301 does not:

The decedent must have died without a valid will.
More than one year must have passed since the date of death, and no other administration can be pending.
You must conduct a diligent search for known or reasonably identifiable creditors and either provide for payment or obtain their consent.
The affidavit must be signed by the surviving spouse (if any) and all heirs at law, unless an heir is receiving their full intestate share under the proposed distribution.
Formal notice must be served on any heirs who did not sign and on all known creditors.
If the decedent was over 55 at death, notice must also be served on Florida’s Agency for Health Care Administration.⁸

Check whether your county’s form packet is written for 735.301 or 735.304 before you start filling anything in. The two look similar and are easy to confuse.

Medicaid and Creditor Exposure

If the decedent received Medicaid benefits after age 55, the state can seek recovery from the estate. Federal law requires every state to pursue recovery for nursing facility services, home and community-based services, and related hospital and prescription drug costs.⁹ Florida runs this through its Agency for Health Care Administration. Under 735.304, you are explicitly required to notify AHCA. Under 735.301 there is no built-in notice step, but a Medicaid claim can still complicate the filing. If you are unsure whether the decedent received Medicaid, contact AHCA before filing.

Property received through this process is not shielded from other creditors. Under 735.304, nonexempt property that has been transferred remains liable for the decedent’s debts until barred by limitation.⁸ In most qualifying cases the funeral and medical bills have already consumed most of the value, leaving little for other creditors to reach.

U.S. Savings Bonds Run Through Treasury

If the decedent owned U.S. Savings Bonds, the Treasury Department has a separate process that runs alongside the Florida filing. When no court-appointed representative exists, the total redemption value of all bonds and Treasury securities is $100,000 or less, and the estate will not be formally administered, a family member can act as a voluntary representative through TreasuryDirect.¹⁰

The voluntary representative files FS Form 5336, signed in front of a certifying official, along with certified death certificates for everyone named on the bonds. The bonds are sent unsigned. To cash out, include FS Form 1522. To keep EE or I bonds, include FS Form 4000 and open a TreasuryDirect account, since those bonds will be reissued electronically. Mail everything in a single transaction to Treasury Retail Securities Services, P.O. Box 9150, Minneapolis, MN 55480-9150.¹⁰

When This Form Is Not Enough

If the estate includes any real property, if nonexempt assets exceed the funeral-plus-medical threshold, or if the situation is otherwise too complex for this form, Florida offers summary administration as the next step up. Summary administration covers estates valued at $75,000 or less after subtracting exempt property, or estates where the decedent has been dead for more than two years, and it handles both real and personal property.¹¹ It requires a formal petition and a court order of distribution but still avoids the full complexity of regular probate.

1
The Florida Legislature. Florida Code 735.301 – Disposition Without Administration
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The Florida Legislature. Florida Code 732.402 – Exempt Property
3
The Florida Legislature. Florida Code 733.707 – Order of Payment of Expenses and Obligations
4
Okeechobee County Clerk of Court. Florida Disposition of Personal Property Without Administration
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Manatee County Clerk of the Circuit Court and Comptroller. Disposition of Personal Property Without Administration Pursuant to Florida Statute 735.304
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Orange County Clerk of Courts. Probate Filing Fees
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Clerk of the Court and Comptroller of Miami-Dade County. Probate Cases Certified Copies
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The Florida Legislature. Florida Code 735.304 – Disposition Without Administration of Intestate Property in Small Estates
9
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 USC 1396p – Liens, Adjustments and Recoveries, and Transfers of Assets
10
TreasuryDirect. Non-Administered Estates
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The Florida Legislature. Florida Code Chapter 735 – Summary Administration and Disposition Without Administration