The Florida probate engine
Florida probate, organized before you file.
One intake states the rules for every administration path, records the path you elect, computes every creditor’s deadline, and assembles the Rule 2.520-formatted filings — from your own answers and Florida’s own statute text, with no model in the loop.
Source-locked and deterministic, designed to support review before anything is filed. Use it self-help, take it to your own Florida attorney, or run it inside your firm’s workspace. We don’t file for you.
One intake, every path stated
Most tools hand you a generic form. We state every path and assemble the one you elect.
The general rules Florida law sets for each administration path, stated beside your answers — including the 2026 summary-administration change by date. You elect the path; nothing here decides it for you.
Formal Administration
The standard court-supervised path — petition, letters, notice, inventory, claims, accounting, discharge. The default for larger or contested estates.
Fla. Stat. ch. 733
Summary Administration
The faster small-estate path — the 2026 $75k→$150k ceiling change stated by date, with the ambiguous band named for an attorney's decision, never guessed.
Fla. Stat. §§ 735.201–.206
Disposition Without Administration
The informal, clerk-level path when there is no real property and non-exempt personalty is within funeral plus last-60-day medical expenses.
Fla. Stat. § 735.301
Ancillary Administration
For a non-resident decedent who owned Florida property — including the $50,000 testate short form.
Fla. Stat. § 734.102
The 2026 threshold change, handled correctly.
Chapter 2026-57 raised the summary-administration ceiling from $75,000 to $150,000 on July 1, 2026 — with no date-of-death transition clause. The engine states the ceiling by date and names the ambiguous $75,001–$150,000 band for an attorney’s decision instead of guessing. The parallel $20k / $5k / $2k small-estate ceilings moved the same way.
The deadline lattice
The clocks that get a personal representative sued — computed, not calendared.
Missed creditor notice is the single largest malpractice-exposure zone in Florida probate. The engine derives each creditor’s bar date from the facts — the three-month publication bar, the served-creditor clock, the objection window, and the absolute two-year repose — and refuses to let a matter walk into a premature discharge.
- Per-creditor claim, objection, and independent-action clocks
- Diligent-search flag: publication does not bar an unserved, reasonably ascertainable creditor (Tulsa v. Pope)
- Absolute 2-year repose caps every other deadline
- Discharge-readiness check that blocks an early discharge
Reasonably ascertainable, served only by publication — not barred; alive until the 2-year repose (2028-08-15). Do not discharge.
Barred 3 months after first publication (2026-12-10).
Illustration. Dates computed from the matter’s facts.
Inspect the example
Probate deadlines
How: Every computed date carries its derivation
How: Two independent calculators
How: Proposed and calendared dates kept in separate lanes
Dates are computed from the facts entered, under Rule 2.514. The court's own orders and docket control.
From the Rivera family's estate plan — a fictional matter at Meadow & Grove, P.A., a demonstration firm. Sample data only.
The creditor-deadline lattice — computed, not asserted
A worked example run through the same deadline engine the platform uses on real matters (death Jan 15, 2026, first publication Feb 2, 2026, service Feb 10, 2026). Your facts move every date — that is the point of the engine.
Jan 15, 2026
the anchor dateFeb 2, 2026
Fla. Stat. § 733.2121May 2, 2026
Fla. Stat. § 733.702May 2, 2026
Fla. Stat. § 733.702Jan 15, 2028
Fla. Stat. § 733.710
Inside a law-firm workspace
The Opposing Counsel Pass™
Law firms run the same probate engine with one more pass: the assembled filing is read the way the other side of a Florida estate fight would read it. This pass runs only inside law-firm workspaces; the self-help lane runs no model at all.
In a firm workspace, the moment a filing is assembled the engine switches sides. It reads the petition the way a will-contest challenger, an objecting creditor whose claim was never properly barred, or a shortchanged surviving spouse would — hunting the missed §733.212 objection window, the unserved creditor, the homestead devised away from a spouse, the underpaid elective share, the personal representative who can’t qualify.
Every objection it lands becomes a finding for the firm’s reviewing attorney to clear — approve, revise, or reject, on the record. Only resolved findings move forward into the file.
The first opposing counsel a firm’s filing ever meets works for the firm.
Petition for Discharge — assembled in a firm workspace
“The personal representative has fully administered the estate and asks the Court to enter an order of discharge.”
Opposing Counsel Pass™ — finding
CriticalPremature discharge — an ascertainable creditor was never served.
Publication did not bar Memorial Hospital. This discharge is exactly the order the hospital’s lawyer moves to vacate — and the PR’s personal exposure (§733.2121(3)(a); §733.710).
Illustration of a firm-workspace finding. The self-help packet carries no findings pass.
One engine, two lanes
Self-help assembles. Firms add the review lane.
Self-help customers get deterministic assembly from their own answers and Florida’s own statute text, with no model in the loop. Law firms run the same engine with the Opposing Counsel Pass™ and the attorney workstation on top.
The drafting engine
Rule 2.520-formatted filings — petition, oath, notices, inventory, accounting, discharge — assembled deterministically from a clause library and filled from your own answers, placed as you typed them. No model writes, phrases, or reviews anything in the self-help lane. Every filing carries its governing statute and Probate Rule as a hook.
The deadline lattice
Each creditor's bar date is computed from the facts — the three-month publication bar, the served-creditor clock, the objection window, and the absolute two-year repose — and the discharge-readiness check names any creditor still alive before you release the packet.
Inside a law-firm workspace
Firms run the same engine with the Opposing Counsel Pass™ and the attorney workstation: every assembled filing is read as the other side would read it, and the reviewing attorney records an Approve or Return decision. Both live only in firm workspaces.
The engine assembles deterministic drafts hooked to Florida’s statutes and Probate Rules. Every output is a draft assembled from your own answers, for you or a Florida attorney of your choosing to review, complete, and file. EstateDraftFL is not a law firm and does not file documents.
Accurate by design.
Every statute, citation, and clause in your probate packet is fixed, source-locked text drawn from the official Florida statutes and Probate Rules — loaded verbatim, SHA-256 byte-verified against the official source, and never generated at request time. Your own facts are placed as you typed them. In the self-help lane no model writes, phrases, or reviews anything, so a filing cannot cite a made-up statute the way a generic AI tool can.
EstateDraftFL is Florida-only software, is not a law firm, and does not file documents. Florida statutory text is loaded verbatim and SHA-256 byte-verified against the official source; the deterministic engine assembles from that corpus. In a formal administration the personal representative, unless the personal representative remains the sole interested person, shall be represented by an attorney admitted to practice in Florida (Fla. Prob. R. 5.030(a)); from October 1, 2026 the rule reads "must" (SC2025-1478; the substance is unchanged). Plan for an attorney of record before filing.
Intake to discharge, on the record
Five steps from a death to a defensible packet
- 01
Intake the estate, once
Decedent, residency, assets, will, spouse, personal representative, creditors — answered one time, in minutes.
- 02
Elect the path & compute the lattice
You elect formal, summary, disposition, or ancillary from the general rules stated for each; the engine applies the 2026 threshold by date and computes every creditor's claim and repose clock.
- 03
Assemble the filing set
The Rule 2.520-formatted documents for that exact path are assembled from the clause library — each hooked to its governing Florida section.
- 04
Download the packet
The Rule 2.520-formatted filings for that exact path, in Word — each hooked to its governing Florida section, your answers placed as typed.
- 05
Release & discharge readiness
You release the packet for filing by you or your own attorney; the engine blocks premature discharge until every reasonably ascertainable creditor is served or barred.
Open a Florida probate matter
Answer one intake. Read the rules for every administration path, elect yours, and get the document set and the per-creditor deadline lattice — assembled from your own answers, for you or your Florida attorney to file.
Florida-only · Source-locked & deterministic · Independent legal services not included · We prepare; you or your attorney files
Florida probate, common questions
What is Florida probate administration software?
It is software that organizes a Florida probate matter end to end: it states the general rules for every administration path Florida law provides (formal, summary, disposition without administration, or ancillary), records the path you elect, assembles the Rule 2.520-formatted document set for that path from your own answers, and computes the statutory deadlines from the dates you enter — for you or a Florida attorney of your choosing to review and file. EstateDraftFL is not a law firm and does not file documents; it organizes and prepares, and no model writes or reviews anything in the self-help lane. General information, not legal advice.
What is the difference between formal and summary administration in Florida?
Formal administration is the standard, court-supervised process with an appointed personal representative. Summary administration is a faster option generally available when the estate's non-exempt assets fall under the statutory ceiling or the decedent died more than two years ago. The engine states the conditions Florida law sets for each path beside your answers; you elect the path, and the filing set assembles for the one you choose.
Did the Florida summary-administration threshold change in 2026?
Yes. Chapter 2026-57, Laws of Florida raised the summary-administration ceiling in §735.201 from $75,000 to $150,000 effective July 1, 2026 (and raised the parallel small-estate ceilings). Because the act has no date-of-death transition clause, the engine names the ambiguous band for an attorney's decision rather than guessing. Confirm the controlling ceiling with a Florida attorney.
How are creditor deadlines handled?
The engine computes each creditor's bar date from the facts — the three-month publication bar, the served-creditor clock, the personal representative's objection window, and the absolute two-year repose — and flags any reasonably ascertainable creditor who was served only by publication, because publication does not bar that creditor. Missed creditor notice is the single largest malpractice-exposure zone in Florida probate.
Does the platform file documents with the court?
No. EstateDraftFL prepares a packet for you or your own attorney but does not file, represent you, or give legal advice. Independent legal services are not included; retain a licensed Florida attorney where the court or law requires one.
General information, not legal advice. EstateDraftFL is Florida-only software, is not a law firm, and does not file documents or represent you. Independent legal services are not included; retain a licensed Florida attorney where the court or law requires one.