How to Get a Letter of Administration in Florida

To get Letters of Administration in Florida, you file a Petition for Administration in the circuit court of the county where the deceased lived, satisfy the statutory qualifications to serve as personal representative, sign the Oath of Personal Representative, post any bond the judge requires, and wait for the court to enter an Order Appointing Personal Representative. The clerk then issues the letters, which are your legal credentials to act for the estate. From filing to issuance usually takes four to six weeks.¹

Confirm You Are Eligible to Serve

Before you file anything, make sure you are the person the court will actually appoint. Florida ranks candidates in a set order, and the qualifications are strict enough that a will alone does not override them.

Who Has Priority

If the deceased left a will, the person named in it as personal representative has first priority. If that nominee is unavailable or does not qualify, the court next considers the person selected by a majority of the beneficiaries, and then any beneficiary named in the will.²

Without a will, the surviving spouse comes first. If there is no spouse or the spouse declines, the court considers the person chosen by a majority of the heirs. If the heirs disagree, the nearest relative may apply, and the judge picks the most qualified applicant.²

Basic Qualifications

Any Florida resident with full legal capacity can serve. That means at least 18 years old and under no legal incapacity. A bank or trust company can also serve.³¹

Florida law disqualifies anyone who is under 18, who is mentally or physically unable to carry out the duties, or who has been convicted of a felony or of abuse, neglect, or exploitation of an elderly or disabled person. These bars apply even if the will names that person.⁴

If You Live Out of State

A nonresident can serve only if related to the deceased in one of a narrow set of ways: a legally adopted child or adoptive parent; a blood relative in the direct line (parent, grandparent, child, grandchild); a spouse, sibling, uncle, aunt, nephew, or niece, or someone in the direct bloodline of any of those relatives; or the spouse of anyone who qualifies. A close friend or business partner who lives out of state does not qualify no matter how well-suited they otherwise are.⁵

Gather What You Need Before Filing

The petition itself is short, but it depends on information and documents you will need to collect first.

For the petition, you need the deceased person’s full legal name, last known address, the last four digits of their social security number, date of death, and the county where they lived. You also need the names, addresses, and relationships of all known beneficiaries and the surviving spouse, if any, along with the dates of birth of any minor beneficiaries.⁶

An original certified copy of the death certificate must be filed with the probate clerk. If the deceased left a will, the original will has to be deposited with the clerk as well.⁶ A preliminary inventory of assets, with estimated values, will help your attorney draft the petition and give the court a sense of the estate’s scope.

If the original will is lost, you can still ask the court to establish and probate it. With a correct copy, one disinterested witness must confirm the contents. Without a copy, two disinterested witnesses must testify to the full and precise terms. This slows things down considerably.⁷

You Will Almost Certainly Need an Attorney

Florida Probate Rule 5.030 requires nearly every personal representative to be represented by a member of The Florida Bar. The only exceptions are when you are the sole interested person in the estate or when you are yourself a Florida-licensed attorney.⁸ There is no mandatory statutory fee schedule for the attorney’s compensation; fees are negotiated based on the estate’s complexity and value.⁹

File the Petition and Get Appointed

The petition is filed in the circuit court of the county where the deceased lived at the time of death. If the deceased was not a Florida resident, the correct venue is the county where their Florida property is located. Most filings go through the Florida Courts E-Filing Portal, and the filing fee for a formal administration is approximately $401.¹⁰ Budget for a few dollars per page for certified copies of the letters, and order several; banks and title companies will each want their own.

A probate judge reviews the petition. As the proposed representative, you sign the Oath of Personal Representative, pledging to administer the estate faithfully. The judge may also require a fiduciary bond, which functions as an insurance policy protecting beneficiaries and creditors against mishandling of estate assets. The court can waive the bond, raise or lower it, or require additional security based on the circumstances, and often honors a bond-waiver clause in the will.¹¹

Once the judge is satisfied, they sign the Order Appointing Personal Representative and the clerk issues the Letters of Administration. Plan on four to six weeks from filing to issuance. Contested matters or missing paperwork will push that out.¹

What the Letters Let You Do

With certified letters in hand, you can act for the estate. A common first step is applying to the IRS for an Employer Identification Number, which you use to open a bank account in the estate’s name.¹² You can then collect the deceased person’s account balances and deposit them into the estate account to pay debts and expenses.

The letters also authorize you to sell real property, transfer titles, manage investments, and either perform or reject the deceased person’s contracts.¹³ You can access personal records, represent the estate in litigation, and file the deceased person’s final tax returns as well as any returns owed by the estate. Your authority continues until you file a final accounting and petition for discharge and the court enters an order releasing you.¹¹

When Letters Are Not Issued at All

Not every Florida estate goes through formal administration, and not every family needs letters. Florida offers summary administration when the estate subject to administration, minus property exempt from creditor claims, is worth no more than $75,000, or when the deceased has been dead for more than two years regardless of value. If there is a will, it must not require formal administration under Chapter 733.¹⁴

Summary administration does not appoint a personal representative, so no Letters of Administration are issued. The court instead enters an order distributing assets directly to the beneficiaries. It is faster and cheaper, but it may not suit estates with meaningful debts or disputes. Legislation pending in 2026 (CS/HB 1337) would raise the value threshold from $75,000 to $150,000; check with your attorney about whether the updated limit has taken effect.¹⁵ If summary administration fits your situation, you can skip the letters process entirely.

1
The Florida Bar. Consumer Pamphlet: Probate in Florida
2
Florida Senate. Florida Code 733.301 – Preference in Appointment of Personal Representative
3
Florida Senate. Florida Code 733.302 – Who May Be Appointed Personal Representative
4
Online Sunshine. Florida Code 733.303 – Persons Not Qualified
5
Justia Law. Florida Code 733.304 – Nonresidents
6
Florida 11th Judicial Circuit Court. Checklist for Opening Estate Formal Administration Testate
7
Florida Senate. Florida Code 733.207 – Establishment and Probate of Lost or Destroyed Will
8
Seventeenth Judicial Circuit Court. Frequently Asked Questions
9
Online Sunshine. Florida Code 733.6171 – Compensation of Attorney for the Personal Representative
10
Orange County Clerk of Courts. Probate
11
Seventeenth Judicial Circuit. Personal Representatives Handbook
12
Internal Revenue Service. Get an Employer Identification Number
13
Online Sunshine. Florida Code 733.612 – Transactions Authorized for the Personal Representative
14
Online Sunshine. Florida Code Chapter 735 – Probate Code: Small Estates
15
Florida Senate. Bill Analysis and Fiscal Impact Statement CS/SB 1500