What to Do When Someone Dies in Florida: Probate Checklist

When someone dies in Florida, the first hours are about the body and the paperwork that follows it, but the clock that matters most for the estate starts almost immediately: the original will must be filed with the county clerk within 10 days. Everything else — funeral arrangements, death certificates, bank notifications, probate — unfolds over the following weeks and months in a specific order, and getting that order wrong can leave the person handling the estate personally on the hook for debts. This checklist walks through what to do when someone dies in Florida, roughly in the sequence you will face it.

The First 24 to 48 Hours

If the death was expected and the person was under hospice or a treating physician’s care, call that provider first. They begin the certification of cause of death. In Florida, that certification must come from a physician, physician assistant, advanced practice registered nurse, the district medical examiner, or a hospice nurse working under a written protocol with a licensed physician.¹ If the death was sudden or unattended, call 911.

Some deaths trigger a mandatory investigation. Florida law requires the district medical examiner to investigate any death resulting from criminal violence, accident, suicide, or workplace injury, as well as any death where the body will be cremated or buried at sea.² In those cases, the body generally cannot be moved until the medical examiner’s office releases it.

Once death has been pronounced, call a funeral home or cremation provider. They will transport the body and typically help with several of the notification steps that come next, including filing the Statement of Death with Social Security. While arrangements are being made, lock up the deceased’s home, bring in any mail, and let close family know.

Check for prepaid funeral arrangements or written wishes before committing to services. Costs vary widely in Florida: a direct cremation can run around $2,200 and a traditional burial averages roughly $7,400. If money is tight, know that funeral expenses sit near the top of the estate’s payment priority list — second only to administration costs — so reasonable costs can be reimbursed from estate funds later.³

File the Original Will Within 10 Days

This is the hardest deadline in Florida’s post-death timeline, and the one most families miss because they are focused on the funeral. Whoever has physical custody of the deceased’s original will must deposit it with the Clerk of Court in the county where the deceased lived, within 10 days of learning of the death. The custodian also has to give the clerk the deceased’s date of death or the last four digits of their Social Security number.⁴ Holding onto the will past that window can expose the custodian to personal liability.

Look for the will at home, in a safe deposit box, or with the deceased’s attorney. While you are hunting, gather the other documents you will need over the coming weeks: trust documents, powers of attorney, advance directives, life and property insurance policies, recent bank and brokerage statements, retirement account statements, tax returns from the last three years, deeds and vehicle titles, mortgage papers, the Social Security card, birth and marriage certificates, and military discharge papers (DD Form 214) if the deceased was a veteran.

Order Certified Death Certificates — More Than You Think

You will need certified copies for almost every step that follows: closing bank accounts, filing life insurance claims, transferring the title on a car or house, opening probate. Institutions typically require an original certified copy, not a photocopy, and each bank, insurer, and agency wants its own. Ten to fifteen copies is a sensible starting point.

In Florida, you can order certified copies through the funeral home, the Florida Bureau of Vital Statistics, or a county health department. Ordering by mail from the Bureau costs $5 for the first certified copy and $4 for each additional copy. Online orders through VitalChek, the Bureau’s vendor, cost $15 for the first copy because of a rush fee. County health department fees vary.⁵ County offices can only issue certificates for deaths from 2009 onward; for earlier deaths, order from the Bureau.

To request copies you will need the deceased’s full legal name, sex, date and place of death, date of birth, and Social Security number. If you want the cause of death printed on the certificate, include a copy of your valid photo ID with the order.

Notify Social Security, Banks, and Other Agencies

The funeral home usually reports the death to the Social Security Administration using Form SSA-721.⁶ If they don’t, call 1-800-772-1213 yourself. Any Social Security payment received for the month of death or later must be returned; if payments arrive by direct deposit, ask the bank to send them back to the SSA.

Then work through the deceased’s financial life:

Call every bank and brokerage. Solo accounts without a payable-on-death beneficiary will be frozen until probate opens and a personal representative is appointed. Joint accounts with right of survivorship pass to the surviving owner, but the bank still needs a death certificate to remove the deceased’s name.
File claims with life insurance companies as soon as you have certificates in hand.
Call health, auto, and homeowners insurers to adjust or cancel coverage.
Notify credit card companies and lenders. The estate — not surviving family — is responsible for the deceased’s individual debts, though co-signers remain liable on joint obligations.
Contact the employer or pension plan about any final paycheck, accrued benefits, or survivor benefits.
Transfer or cancel utilities.
Report the death to the VA if the deceased was receiving veterans’ benefits.
Ask Florida’s Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles to cancel the driver’s license, which helps block identity theft.

Figure Out What Was Owned and What Was Owed

Before you can settle anything, you need a clear picture of the deceased’s assets and debts. That inventory decides whether probate is even needed and which creditors get paid in what order.

Probate Versus Non-Probate Assets

Not everything goes through probate. Assets that transfer automatically to a named beneficiary or surviving co-owner bypass the process: jointly held real estate with rights of survivorship, life insurance with named beneficiaries, retirement accounts with designated beneficiaries, and bank accounts with payable-on-death designations. Everything else owned solely in the deceased’s name without a beneficiary is a probate asset.

Homestead Property Has Its Own Rules

Florida’s homestead rules override what the will says and generally keep the primary residence out of the probate pool and out of reach of most creditors. If a surviving spouse or minor children are in the picture, the homestead cannot be freely devised, and it typically is not available to pay the estate’s general debts. If a homestead is involved — especially in a blended family or second marriage — talk to a Florida probate attorney before making assumptions about who inherits it.

Digital Assets

Email, social media, cryptocurrency, online banking, and cloud files all count. Florida adopted the Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act in 2016, codified as Chapter 740.⁷ A personal representative does not automatically get access to the content of private emails or direct messages. Without explicit consent from the deceased in the will or in the platform’s own settings, service providers can refuse to release message content. For other digital property, the personal representative may have to petition the court. If the deceased held cryptocurrency or ran an online business, expect access to be slow.

Debts

List every debt you can find: mortgage, car loan, credit cards, medical bills, personal loans, taxes. Surviving family members are generally not personally responsible for the deceased’s individual debts unless they co-signed or guaranteed them. The estate pays debts from estate assets before anything goes to heirs.

Choose the Right Probate Path

Florida has three ways to settle an estate. Which one fits depends on the value and type of probate assets.

Formal Administration

This is the standard process for estates with probate assets above $75,000 (after excluding homestead and exempt property) where the person has been dead for two years or less. The court appoints a personal representative who inventories assets, publishes notice to creditors, pays valid debts in priority order, and distributes what’s left. Formal administration usually takes six months to a year, sometimes longer.

Not everyone can serve as personal representative. A person named in the will who lives outside Florida can only serve if they are the spouse, parent, child, sibling, or other close relative of the deceased. A non-resident friend or business partner named in the will is disqualified.⁸

Summary Administration

This streamlined option is available when the probate assets (minus homestead and exempt property) are worth $75,000 or less, or when the person has been dead for more than two years regardless of estate size.⁹ There is no personal representative; the court orders assets distributed directly to beneficiaries. It is faster and cheaper, but still requires a court petition and usually still requires dealing with known creditors.

Disposition Without Administration

The simplest route applies only to very small estates made up entirely of personal property, where the non-exempt property is worth no more than the combined cost of funeral expenses and medical bills from the last 60 days of the final illness.¹⁰ If the estate includes any real property, this option is off the table.

Handle Creditors Before Paying Anyone

This is where personal representatives get into financial trouble. Florida has a specific creditor procedure, and skipping steps or paying in the wrong order can leave the personal representative personally liable.

Once appointed, the personal representative must publish a Notice to Creditors in a local newspaper once a week for two consecutive weeks.¹¹ They must also run a diligent search for known creditors and send each one a copy of the notice directly. Creditors then have the later of three months from first publication or 30 days from receiving direct notice to file their claims with the court. Claims not filed within that window are permanently barred.¹²

Do not distribute anything to heirs until the claim window has closed. If the estate cannot cover every valid claim, Florida law dictates a strict payment order:³

Class 1 — Administration costs, including personal representative and attorney compensation
Class 2 — Reasonable funeral expenses
Class 3 — Debts and taxes with federal preference, including amounts owed to the United States
Class 4 — Medical and hospital expenses from the last 60 days of the final illness
Class 5 — Family allowance of up to $18,000 for the surviving spouse and dependents¹³
Class 6 — Unpaid court-ordered child support
Class 7 — Debts from continuing the deceased’s business after death
Class 8 — All other claims, including credit card debt and personal judgments

Paying a lower-priority creditor while a higher-priority claim remains unpaid can make the personal representative personally liable for the shortfall. This is the single biggest financial risk of administering a Florida estate without a lawyer.

File the Final Tax Returns

Florida has no individual income tax, so there is no state return to worry about. The federal side still applies.

A final federal income tax return (Form 1040) is due for the deceased, covering income from January 1 through the date of death. The deadline is the same as for a living taxpayer: April 15 of the following year, unless extended. A surviving spouse can file jointly for that year. On a paper return, write “Deceased,” the person’s name, and the date of death across the top.¹⁴ A court-appointed personal representative should attach a copy of the appointment document. Anyone other than a surviving spouse or court-appointed representative claiming a refund must include Form 1310.

If the estate itself earns $600 or more in gross income during administration — from interest, rent, dividends, or asset sales — the personal representative must also file Form 1041, the U.S. Income Tax Return for Estates and Trusts.¹⁵ The estate gets its own EIN, available online from the IRS.

Most families will not owe federal estate tax. For deaths in 2026, estates below $15 million are exempt entirely.¹⁶ Estates over the threshold must file Form 706 within nine months of the date of death. Florida has no separate estate or inheritance tax.

Watch for Identity Theft

Deceased people are frequent identity theft targets because the fraud can go undetected for months. Report the death to all three major credit bureaus — Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion — and ask that the credit file be flagged.¹⁷ Once Social Security processes the death, the information eventually reaches the Death Master File that banks and verification services check.¹⁸ There is a lag, and that lag is when a stolen identity is most valuable.

Collect the deceased’s mail for at least several months. Watch for unfamiliar account statements, collection letters, or credit offers. If you spot fraud, file a report at IdentityTheft.gov and notify the affected institutions with a copy of the death certificate. Canceling the driver’s license and passport closes two more doors.

Budget for Probate Costs

Probate is not free. Florida has a statutory fee schedule that courts presume reasonable for attorneys handling a formal administration, calculated on the estate’s compensable value (probate assets plus income earned during administration). The schedule starts at $1,500 for estates of $40,000 or less and tiers up from there; at the $100,000 mark the attorney fee reaches $3,000, with 3% added on value above that figure, dropping to smaller percentages for larger estates and down to 1% on value above $10 million.¹⁹ A $500,000 estate generates presumed attorney fees of $15,000. The personal representative is entitled to compensation on the same schedule. Add court filing fees, newspaper publication for the Notice to Creditors, accounting fees, and any extraordinary fees for contested matters. All of this comes out of the estate before heirs receive anything.

1
The Florida Legislature. Florida Code 382.008 – Death and Fetal Death Registration
2
The Florida Legislature. Florida Code 406.11 – Examinations, Investigations, and Autopsies
3
The Florida Legislature. Florida Code 733.707 – Order of Payment of Expenses and Claims
4
Official Internet Site of the Florida Legislature. Florida Code 732.901 – Production of Wills
5
Florida Department of Health. Death Certificates
6
Social Security Administration. Form SSA-721 Statement of Death by Funeral Director
7
The Florida Legislature. Florida Code Chapter 740 – Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act
8
The Florida Legislature. Florida Code 733.304 – Nonresidents
9
The Florida Legislature. Florida Code Chapter 735 – Small Estates
10
Official Internet Site of the Florida Legislature. Florida Code 735.301 – Disposition Without Administration
11
The Florida Legislature. Florida Code 733.2121 – Notice to Creditors
12
The Florida Legislature. Florida Code 733.702 – Limitations on Presentation of Claims
13
The Florida Legislature. Florida Code 732.403 – Family Allowance
14
Internal Revenue Service. Filing a Final Federal Tax Return for Someone Who Has Died
15
Internal Revenue Service. 2025 Instructions for Form 1041
16
Internal Revenue Service. What’s New — Estate and Gift Tax
17
USAGov. Agencies to Notify When Someone Dies
18
SSAB. Social Security and the Death Master File
19
The Florida Legislature. Florida Code 733.6171 – Compensation of Attorney