Florida Formal Administration Checklist: Petition to Discharge

Before you file

• Gather the certified death certificate and the original will and any codicils. The original will must be deposited with the clerk (s. 732.901).
• Confirm the type of administration: testate or intestate, resident or nonresident, and whether summary administration is available.
• Confirm the proposed personal representative is qualified to serve (ss. 733.302 to 733.305, Fla. Stat.).
• Check whether your circuit expects a checklist to be filed with the petition. The Fifth Circuit (Sumter County) and the Eighteenth Circuit publish formal administration checklists, and the Fifteenth Circuit publishes one for ancillary administration. In at least one circuit, an incomplete checklist can lead the court to deny the petition.

Opening the estate

1. File the petition for administration with the will. The required contents are set out in Rule 5.200.
2. On the order admitting the will (if testate) and appointing the personal representative, complete the oath and any required bond before Letters issue (Rule 5.235).
3. Letters of administration issue. Most of the clocks below run from this date or shortly after it.

The clocks that start with Letters

• Inventory: due within 60 days after Letters issue, verified by the personal representative, and served on the surviving spouse, each heir (intestate) or residuary beneficiary (testate), and anyone who asks in writing. The court can extend the time on petition for cause (Rule 5.340). Once filed, inventories are confidential but available to interested persons (s. 733.604).
• Notice of administration: served promptly on the surviving spouse, beneficiaries and others listed in Rule 5.240. It starts several objection periods, covered in our notice of administration guide.
• Notice to creditors: published and served promptly, with proof of publication filed within 45 days after first publication (Rule 5.241). See the notice to creditors guide.
• Claims: generally due by the later of three months after first publication or 30 days after service on a creditor who had to be served (s. 733.702), and cut off entirely two years after death (s. 733.710), with limited exceptions.
• Final accounting and petition for discharge: due within 12 months after Letters issue unless the court extends the time for cause after notice to interested persons. If a federal estate tax return is filed, the period is measured from the return's due date instead (Rule 5.400(c)).

Calendar each of these dates when Letters issue, rather than as each task comes up.

Closing the estate

The petition for discharge must state that the estate has been fully administered, that claims have been paid or otherwise disposed of, that taxes and expenses are provided for, the compensation paid or to be paid to the personal representative and others, and a plan of distribution. Interested persons have 30 days from service to object, and an objection is treated as abandoned if a notice of hearing is not served within 90 days after it is filed. The personal representative distributes according to the plan unless objections are filed, and the court discharges the personal representative on evidence that the estate has been fully administered and distributed (Rule 5.400).

General information for Florida practitioners, reviewed in October 2026 against the statute and rule text linked above. It is not legal advice. Rules, statutes and local circuit practices change, so confirm against the current text and your circuit's requirements before relying on it.

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