Florida probate costs in 2026: attorney fees, commissions and court fees

Probate costs in Florida fall into four groups: attorney fees, the personal representative's commission, fees paid to the clerk of court, and other costs such as newspaper publication, bond and appraisals. The estate pays all four. Statutes set a presumed-reasonable schedule for the first two in a formal administration and set maximum amounts for the clerk's fees. No statute sets a mandatory attorney fee: § 733.6171(2)(b)1., Fla. Stat. (2026) requires an attorney who charges a fee based on the schedule to tell the personal representative in writing that “There is not a mandatory statutory attorney fee for estate administration.”

This page states government amounts only. It does not state what any law firm charges. Every amount links to the statute, rule or agency page it comes from. The Sources section lists each one, last checked October 16, 2026.

• Attorney fee: a schedule of $1,500 at the bottom and 1 percent to 3 percent of larger estates is presumed reasonable for ordinary services in a formal administration (Table 1). The parties may agree to a different arrangement.
• Personal representative commission: 3 percent of the first $1 million, falling to 1.5 percent above $10 million, is presumed reasonable in a formal administration (Table 2). Table 3 applies both schedules at sample estate values. The personal representative may give up all or part of it.
• Clerk filing fee: maximums of $230 for opening an estate, $340 or $230 for summary administration and $395 for formal administration, plus a $4 service charge on petitions for summary or formal administration (Table 4).
• Newspaper notice to creditors: once a week for 2 consecutive weeks at the rate in § 50.061 or the newspaper's higher minimum commercial rate (Table 6).
• Bond, appraisals, certified copies: set by the court, the surety, the professional or the agency involved, as shown in Tables 5 and 6.

Who pays probate costs, and in what order

The estate pays. § 733.6171(1) says attorneys for personal representatives “are entitled to reasonable compensation payable from the estate assets without court order,” and § 733.617(1) gives the personal representative a commission “payable from the estate assets without court order as compensation for ordinary services.”

When the estate cannot pay every obligation, § 733.707(1) sets the order of payment. Class 1 is “Costs, expenses of administration, and compensation of personal representatives and their attorneys fees.” Class 2 is reasonable funeral, interment and grave marker expenses “not to exceed the aggregate of $6,000.” Debts and taxes with federal preference, medical expenses of the last 60 days of the last illness, and later classes follow.

A court that awards costs and attorney fees from the estate “may direct from what part of the estate they shall be paid” and may assess them against one or more persons' parts of the estate in proportions it finds just and proper (§ 733.106(4)).

Attorney fees: the § 733.6171(3) schedule

For ordinary services in a formal administration, § 733.6171(3), Fla. Stat. (2026) presumes an attorney fee reasonable when it is based on “the compensable value of the estate, which is the inventory value of the probate estate assets and the income earned by the estate during the administration.” The inventory lists each item with “its estimated fair market value at the date of the decedent's death” (§ 733.604(1)(a)). Property that is not subject to administration is not estate property (§ 731.201: “Estate” means the property of a decedent that is the subject of administration).

The schedule is a presumption, not a price. Subsection (3) begins “Subject to subsection (2),” and subsection (2)(a) lets the attorney, the personal representative and “persons bearing the impact of the compensation” agree to compensation “determined in a different manner.” Compensation may also be set differently if the manner is disclosed to the parties bearing the impact and no objection is made as provided in the Florida Probate Rules.

Ch. 2026-57, Laws of Fla., effective July 1, 2026, amended § 733.6171 in section 6. It added paragraph (4)(l) (see extraordinary services below) and made wording changes in subsections (2)(b)5. and (6). The schedule in subsection (3) was not amended. Source: ch. 2026-57, Laws of Fla., sections 6 and 14 (“This act shall take effect July 1, 2026.”).

Disclosures the attorney must make

An attorney who intends to charge a fee based on the schedule must make five disclosures in writing to the personal representative (§ 733.6171(2)(b), Fla. Stat. (2026)). The calculator page quotes them in full.

• There is not a mandatory statutory attorney fee for estate administration.
• The fee is not required to be based on the size of the estate, and the presumed fee “may not be appropriate in all estate administrations.”
• The fee is subject to negotiation between the personal representative and the attorney.
• The personal representative chooses the attorney and “is not required to select the attorney who prepared the will.”
• At the end of the representation the personal representative is entitled to a summary of ordinary and extraordinary services, either the total hours or a detailed summary of the services performed.

The attorney must obtain the personal representative's timely signature acknowledging the disclosures (§ 733.6171(2)(c)). Without the disclosures, the attorney “may not be paid for legal services without prior court approval of the fees or the written consent of all interested parties” (§ 733.6171(2)(d)).

If the decedent signed a separate written fee agreement with the attorney, the attorney must give a copy to the personal representative before employment starts and promptly file and serve it on all interested persons. If the attorney who is a party to that agreement, or who drafted the will, is employed, the compensation paid “may not exceed the compensation provided in the agreement or in the will” (§ 733.6171(6)).

Extraordinary attorney services

In addition to fees for ordinary services, the attorney “shall be allowed further reasonable compensation for any extraordinary service.” What counts “may vary depending on many factors, including the size and complexity of the estate” (§ 733.6171(4), Fla. Stat. (2026)). The statute lists these examples, “including, but not limited to”:

• (a) A will contest, will construction, proceeding for determination of beneficiaries, contested claim, elective share proceeding, apportionment of estate taxes, or any adversarial proceeding or litigation by or against the estate.
• (b) Representing the personal representative in a tax audit or any proceeding to adjust, determine or collect taxes.
• (c) Tax advice on postmortem planning, including disclaimers, renunciation of fiduciary commission, alternate valuation date, the QTIP or reverse QTIP election, GST exemption allocation, and handling employee benefit or retirement proceeds.
• (d) Review of the estate tax return and preparation or review of other tax returns the personal representative must file.
• (e) Preparing the federal estate tax return. If the attorney prepares it, a fee of one-half of 1 percent up to a gross estate value of $10 million, and one-fourth of 1 percent above that, is presumed reasonable. It includes routine audit services not beyond the examining agent level.
• (f) Purchase, sale, lease or encumbrance of real property by the personal representative, or involvement in zoning, land use, environmental or similar matters.
• (g) Legal advice on carrying on the decedent's business.
• (h) Legal advice on claims for damage to the environment.
• (i) Legal advice on the homestead status of real property or proceedings involving that status, and services related to protected homestead.
• (j) Involvement in fiduciary, employee or attorney compensation disputes.
• (k) Proceedings involving ancillary administration of assets not subject to administration in this state.
• (l) “Involvement in any proceeding to enforce the authority of a personal representative as conferred by this code.” Paragraph (l) is new in ch. 2026-57, section 6, effective July 1, 2026.

Ch. 2026-57 also created § 733.6125. In a proceeding to enforce a personal representative's authority, “the court shall award to a prevailing personal representative taxable costs as in chancery actions, including attorney fees,” and may direct payment “from any person whose action or inaction necessitated the enforcement proceeding or from any person having an interest in the estate.”

The statute gives no schedule for extraordinary services other than the estate tax return in paragraph (e). The amount is agreed under subsection (2) or set by the court under subsection (5).

Personal representative commission: the § 733.617 schedule

A personal representative “shall be entitled to a commission payable from the estate assets without court order as compensation for ordinary services,” based on the same compensable value (§ 733.617(1), Fla. Stat. (2026)). In a formal administration, a commission at the rates in Table 2 “is presumed to be reasonable compensation” (§ 733.617(2)).

• Waiver. “A personal representative may also renounce the right to all or any part of the compensation” (§ 733.617(4)).
• Will terms. If the will bases compensation on specific criteria, such as rates, amounts or the personal representative's published fee schedule, the personal representative is entitled to compensation under the will. Except where the will refers to that published schedule, a personal representative with no written contract with the decedent may renounce the will's terms and take compensation under § 733.617 (§ 733.617(4)).
• Two or more personal representatives. At a compensable value of $100,000 or more, each of two personal representatives is entitled to the full commission. With more than two, the compensation to which two would be entitled is apportioned. Below $100,000, one full commission is apportioned by services rendered (§ 733.617(5)).
• Extraordinary services. A personal representative “shall be allowed further compensation as is reasonable” for extraordinary services such as selling real or personal property, conducting litigation for or against the estate, tax proceedings, carrying on the decedent's business, and dealing with protected homestead (§ 733.617(3)).
• Attorney as personal representative. A personal representative who is a member of The Florida Bar and renders legal services in the administration is allowed a fee for those services in addition to the personal representative's fee (§ 733.617(6)). An attorney who prepared or supervised the execution of the will that nominates the attorney, or a person related to the attorney, is not entitled to compensation as personal representative unless related to the testator or unless the attorney made the disclosures listed in § 733.617(8)(a) to the testator before the will is executed. The testator must execute a written statement acknowledging the disclosures (§ 733.617(8)(b)1.). Subsection (8)(f) applies that rule to nominations in wills executed by a Florida resident on or after October 1, 2020, and to certain wills republished on or after that date.

Presumed attorney fee and commission at sample estate values

Table 3 applies the schedules in Tables 1 and 2 at sample compensable values. Example: at $450,000 the attorney schedule gives $3,000 plus 3 percent of the $350,000 above $100,000, which is $3,000 + $10,500 = $13,500. The calculator runs any value from $25,000 to $3 million.

Clerk of court filing fees

§ 28.2401(1), Fla. Stat. (2026) lets the clerk impose probate service charges and filing fees “not to exceed” the amounts in Table 4. Subsection (3) adds a $4 service charge on petitions seeking summary administration, formal administration, ancillary administration, guardianship, curatorship and conservatorship. The last column shows what the Sarasota County Clerk posts.

Under § 28.2401(2), on the clerk's application and a showing of extraordinary circumstances, the circuit court may increase a fee in an individual matter.

Copies, certification and recording at the clerk

§ 28.24, Fla. Stat. (2026) caps the clerk's service charges for copies, certification and recording.

Publication, bond, appraisals and other costs

These costs are paid to newspapers, sureties, professionals and agencies, not to the court. Statutes set the rules and, for newspapers, the rate. They do not set a price for bonds or appraisals.

Costs by type of proceeding

The schedules in Tables 1 and 2 are written for formal administration: § 733.6171(3) covers “ordinary services of attorneys in a formal estate administration” and § 733.617(2) covers “a personal representative in formal administration.” Chapter 735, which governs summary administration and disposition without administration, contains no attorney fee schedule.

Reviewing or contesting fees

The schedules are presumptions the court can change. On petition of any interested person, the court may increase or decrease compensation for ordinary services or award compensation for extraordinary services “if the facts and circumstances of the particular administration warrant” (§ 733.6171(5) for the attorney; § 733.617(7) for the personal representative). Among the factors the court weighs are the promptness, efficiency and skill of the work; the responsibilities assumed and potential liabilities; the nature and value of the assets; the benefits or detriments to the estate; the complexity of the administration and novelty of the issues; any delay in payment; and any fee agreement and whether written disclosures were made in a timely manner.

Under § 733.6175, the court may review the employment of any person hired by the personal representative and the reasonableness of any compensation paid. The burden of proof rests on the personal representative and the person employed, and a person who received excessive compensation “may be ordered to make appropriate refunds.” The court may set reasonable compensation without expert testimony. A petition for review is filed and served on all interested persons under Fla. Prob. R. 5.355.

At the end of the estate, the petition for discharge must show the compensation paid or to be paid to the personal representative, attorneys, accountants, appraisers and other agents and how it was determined. Objections to the accounting, the compensation or the distribution must be filed within 30 days after service of the last of the petition for discharge or final accounting, and a notice of hearing on an objection must be served within 90 days after the objection is filed or the objection is abandoned (Fla. Prob. R. 5.400(b)(4), (6)).

Choices that change the cost

• Proceeding. An estate that qualifies for summary administration or disposition without administration has a lower filing fee maximum and no fee schedule in the statute (Table 7).
• Representation. “Every guardian and every personal representative, unless the personal representative remains the sole interested person, must be represented by an attorney admitted to practice in Florida” (Fla. Prob. R. 5.030(a)).
• Choice of attorney. The personal representative selects the attorney and need not select the one who drafted the will (§ 733.6171(2)(b)4.).
• Fee arrangement. The fee is negotiable and may be set in a manner other than the schedule if disclosed (§ 733.6171(2)(a), (2)(b)3.).
• Commission. The personal representative may renounce all or part of the commission (§ 733.617(4)).
• Bond. The will or the court may waive bond (§ 733.402(1), (4)).
• Summary of services. The personal representative is entitled to a summary of ordinary and extraordinary services at the end of the representation (§ 733.6171(2)(b)5.).