Loading page
MORTL → State Guides → Florida
State Guide
What Florida law actually says about death, probate, cremation, advance directives, and estate taxes. No legal jargon. No upselling. Just what you need to know.
Someone just died in Florida? The first 24 hours, step by step →
Guide Status
● Last reviewed August 2026
Laws change. Each section shows when it was last verified. Always confirm with a licensed Florida attorney for your specific situation.
This is general information, not legal advice. Florida law changes. Your situation is specific. For anything that matters, talk to a licensed Florida attorney. Our directory doesn't list attorneys, so you'll find one on your own.
The short answer
In Florida, estates under $75,000 can skip full probate through a simplified process or affidavit. Cremation has no statutory waiting period. There's no Florida estate or inheritance tax. Every figure below names its source and the date it was checked.
Reviewed August 2026 · Florida
Someone just died in Florida: the first 24 hours →Verified providers in Florida →
Last verified: August 7, 2026
Source: Florida Statutes §§ 382.008, 382.0255; Florida Bureau of Vital Statistics ↗At a Glance
File within 5 days · Restricted for 50 years · Then public
In Florida, a death certificate must be filed with the Florida Bureau of Vital Statistics within 5 days of death and before the body is buried, cremated, or transported out of state. The funeral director or person in charge of disposition is responsible for filing. The attending physician must certify the cause of death.
Ask each bank, insurer, court, agency, and property office whether it requires a certified copy. Order an initial quantity based on those actual needs, and confirm the current Florida fee and process for ordering more.
The funeral director or person in charge of disposition files the death certificate. The attending physician, advanced practice registered nurse, or physician assistant certifies the cause of death. If the death was sudden, unexpected, or violent, the medical examiner takes over.
Anyone 18 or over can get a certified Florida death certificate without the cause of death. Only the version showing the cause of death is restricted, and only for 50 years: to the decedent's spouse or parent; to a child, grandchild, or sibling who is 18 or over; to anyone who produces a will, insurance policy, or other document showing an interest in the estate; to someone acting on behalf of those people; or by court order. Photo ID is required for the cause-of-death version.
Order certified copies from Florida's vital records office; this section's source link is the official process. The funeral home or cremation provider usually orders the first copies for you. Ask each bank, insurer, court, and agency whether it needs its own certified copy before you decide how many to order.
$5 per certified copy in Florida, as shown above. Additional-copy pricing varies; the official source linked in this section has the current fee schedule.
Last verified: August 9, 2026
Source: Florida Statutes Chapter 735 (Summary Administration); Chapter 733 (Probate) ↗At a Glance
Small estate threshold vs. national average
Florida allows 'Summary Administration' (simplified probate) for estates with a total gross value of $75,000 or less, or when the decedent has been dead for more than 2 years. Summary Administration is faster and cheaper than formal probate. Estates above the threshold with a will generally require formal administration.
Florida is one of the more expensive and time-consuming states for formal probate. It typically takes 9 to 24 months and requires a licensed Florida attorney. If you have real estate in Florida, a living trust is often the most efficient way to avoid probate entirely.
If the estate qualifies (gross value under $75,000, or death more than 2 years ago), heirs can petition the court for Summary Administration. Unlike many states' small estate affidavits, Florida's Summary Administration still requires a court filing and judge's order. But it's significantly faster than formal probate.
Florida has some of the strongest homestead protections in the country. If the owner is survived by a minor child, the homestead can't be devised (left in a will) to anyone at all. If the owner is survived by a spouse and no minor child, it can be devised to the spouse and to no one else. This is a constitutional protection carried into Fla. Stat. § 732.4015, and it overrides contrary will provisions.
Living trusts, joint tenancy with right of survivorship, accounts with named beneficiaries (POD/TOD), life insurance, retirement accounts, and Florida Lady Bird (Enhanced Life Estate) deeds for real property all pass outside probate. Florida doesn't have a Transfer-on-Death deed statute, but the Lady Bird deed accomplishes a similar result.
A surviving spouse in Florida is entitled to an 'elective share' of 30% of the decedent's elective estate, regardless of what the will says (Fla. Stat. §§ 732.201, 732.2065). This prevents a spouse from being completely disinherited. The elective estate includes probate assets, certain trusts, and other property.
A straightforward Florida probate typically runs 9 to 24 months, as shown in this section. Contested wills, missing heirs, or real property in other states stretch it well past that.
$75,000. Estates under that figure can use the simplified process or affidavit covered above instead of full probate.
Not always. If the estate qualifies for the simplified process covered above, many people handle it without a lawyer. Hire one for full probate, a contested will, or property in more than one state. Before you hire anyone, know the fee structures: hourly, flat, and (in a few states) statutory percentages. Our probate attorney cost guide covers what each should run you.
No will yet, or one that's out of date? How to write a will covers what belongs in one and the signing requirements, step by step. The rules on this page are what Florida law adds.
No. Florida has no transfer-on-death deed statute. An enhanced life estate (Lady Bird) deed, recognized by case law rather than statute, or a living trust does the same job here. Have a Florida attorney prepare it.
Florida doesn't require a private employer to give bereavement leave, paid or unpaid. Whatever you get is your employer's policy, and it can be changed or refused.
Who it covers. No one, for bereavement. The quoted § 741.313 leave reaches employers with 50 or more employees and employees with 3 or more months of service, and it says nothing about bereavement or the death of a family member.
How much. 0 required. The 3 days in the quote are violence-related leave under § 741.313, not bereavement leave.
Paid or unpaid. n/a (no bereavement mandate). The § 741.313 violence leave is paid or unpaid at the employer's discretion under subsection (2)(a).
Nothing for pregnancy loss either. Florida also blocks cities and counties from filling the gap. Fla. Stat. § 218.077(2) bars a political subdivision from requiring an employer to provide employment benefits not otherwise required by state or federal law, and § 218.077(1)(d) defines employment benefits to include "paid or unpaid days off for holidays, sick leave, vacation, and personal necessity." The carve-outs at § 218.077(3) reach only a subdivision's own employees, employees of its contractors, and employees of an employer taking a direct tax abatement or subsidy, so a private-sector worker has no local bereavement ordinance to point at.
Yes. Florida enforces pet trusts under Fla. Stat. § 736.0408, so money you set aside for an animal is legally binding on whoever you put in charge of it. The trust ends when your animal dies, or when the last of them dies if you covered more than one, and Florida sets no year limit on it. Whoever you name in the trust enforces it, and if you name nobody a court appoints someone. Anyone who cares about your animal can ask the court to appoint an enforcer or to remove one who isn't doing the job. A judge can cut the amount back if it's more than your animal could plausibly need, and unless your trust says where the extra should go, it comes back to you if you're living and otherwise passes as part of your estate. Florida covers an animal that was alive during your lifetime, so a pet your family takes in after you die isn't protected by the same trust. Name a caretaker and a backup in the trust itself; the statute won't pick one for you.
Last verified: July 17, 2026
Source: Fla. Stat. §§ 732.101 to 732.111 ↗If you die intestate (without a valid will) in Florida, Fla. Stat. §§ 732.101 to 732.111 decides who inherits everything a will would have covered. The shares depend on exactly who survives you: spouse, children, parents, siblings. What you told people you wanted doesn't matter. Only a signed will changes these defaults.
Half-blood collateral relatives take half as much as whole-blood relatives (§ 732.105), and representation is strict per stirpes. Before escheat, the estate goes to the family of the decedent's last deceased spouse.
What your spouse inherits depends on who else survives you. The four common family shapes:
With no spouse, the decedent's descendants take everything per stirpes.
After descendants come parents, then siblings and their descendants, then half to each side of the family (grandparents, then uncles and aunts and their descendants), then the kindred of the decedent's last deceased spouse, and only then does the estate escheat to the state (Fla. Stat. § 732.107).
Last verified: August 7, 2026
Source: Florida Statutes §§ 765.202, 765.302 (Health Care Advance Directives) ↗At a Glance
Living Will
Specifies end-of-life care wishes
Healthcare Proxy
Names a decision-maker for you
DNR / POLST
Do-not-resuscitate orders
Florida recognizes two key advance directive documents: (1) the Living Will, which specifies your wishes for end-of-life care including life-prolonging procedures; and (2) the Designation of Health Care Surrogate, which names a person to make healthcare decisions for you when you can't.
Florida's Living Will is straightforward but specific. It only takes effect when you have a terminal condition, end-stage condition, or are in a persistent vegetative state AND your attending physician and one other physician have determined that life-prolonging procedures offer no reasonable medical probability of recovery.
Both documents have to be signed by you in front of two adult witnesses. The person you name as surrogate can't be one of the witnesses. At least one of the two witnesses has to be someone who is neither your spouse nor a blood relative, which means the other one can be. Florida doesn't require a notary, and it doesn't disqualify a witness for standing to inherit from you. (Fla. Stat. §§ 765.202(1)-(2), 765.302(1))
Your healthcare surrogate can make any healthcare decision you could make yourself when you lack capacity. The designation must be in writing, signed, and witnessed. Your surrogate can't be your healthcare provider or an employee of your healthcare facility unless they're a relative.
Florida uses a Do Not Resuscitate Order (DNRO) form, which is a physician order that instructs emergency medical personnel not to attempt resuscitation. It must be signed by your physician and either you or your healthcare surrogate. The standard form is bright yellow.
Start with Florida Statutes §§ 765.202, 765.302 (Health Care Advance Directives), linked as this section's source. Use the current form or sample that the official source provides or identifies. Form authority and execution requirements vary by state, so confirm the source before signing and get legal help if your situation or the instructions are unclear.
Florida requires 2 adult witnesses; notarization isn’t required. Anyone 18 or older of sound mind can make one.
Last verified: August 7, 2026
Source: Florida Statutes §§ 497.005, 497.607, 406.11 (cremation and disposition) ↗At a Glance
Florida doesn't make you wait 48 hours after a death before cremating. Fla. Stat. § 497.607(1) runs the other way: once the legally authorized person signs the written authorization and agrees to a time in writing, the cremation has to be performed within 48 hours of that time. What actually gates a Florida cremation is the paperwork. The district medical examiner has jurisdiction over every body that is to be cremated and has to approve it (Fla. Stat. § 406.11(1)(c)), and a burial-transit permit is required before final disposition (Fla. Stat. § 382.006).
You're not required to purchase a casket or urn from a funeral home. Florida law requires funeral homes to accept caskets purchased elsewhere and to provide itemized price lists. The FTC Funeral Rule applies. Always get an itemized price list before agreeing to anything.
Cremation requires written authorization from the legally authorized person, along with a signed declaration of what happens to the ashes. Fla. Stat. § 497.005(43) sets the order: (1) the decedent, through written instructions made during life, (2) a person named on the decedent's Department of Defense DD Form 93 if they died in military service, (3) surviving spouse, (4) adult child, (5) parent, (6) adult sibling, (7) adult grandchild, (8) grandparent, (9) the next degree of kinship.
Florida doesn't use a majority vote inside a category. A funeral establishment can act on any one person's authorization from the highest available class, as long as that person states they know of no objection from anyone in their class or a higher one. If you object, say so before the arrangements are signed.
A body can't be held anywhere or in transit more than 24 hours after death, or while final disposition is pending, unless it's refrigerated at 40 degrees Fahrenheit or below, embalmed, or otherwise preserved in an approved way. (Fla. Stat. § 497.386(2))
Florida allows scattering of cremated remains at sea (at least 3 nautical miles from shore under 40 CFR 229.1) and on private property with the owner's permission. Florida doesn't have a specific statute governing land scattering on private property.
Home burial on private property is permitted in Florida, subject to local zoning ordinances and county regulations. Fla. Stat. § 497.260(1)(g) exempts family cemeteries of less than 2 acres that don't sell burial spaces or merchandise from the state's cemetery rules, which leaves the question to your county. Contact your county health department and local zoning authority before proceeding. Requirements vary significantly by county.
Florida sets this order by statute. The first person on the list who is available and willing decides, and a funeral home takes its instructions from them.
Naming someone in advance. Florida recognizes the decedent's own "written inter vivos authorizations and directions," which sit at the top of the priority list, but § 497.005(43) prescribes no statutory form for them. For a service member, the DD Form 93 designee ranks second. An attorney in fact or health care surrogate is NOT a top-tier disposition agent in Florida: both appear only in paragraph (b), reachable only when no family member from paragraph (a) exists or is available.
When the same tier disagrees. The statute states no court procedure. It resolves intra-class conflict operationally: a funeral establishment must rely on the authorization of any one legally authorized person in a class if that person represents that she or he is unaware of any objection from others in the same class or from anyone in a higher priority class. A known objection therefore stops the funeral home rather than being outvoted.
Anyone arrested for an act of domestic violence against the decedent as defined in s. 741.28, or for any act that resulted in or contributed to the death, gets no legally recognizable interest, and the cross-reference to s. 732.802 ties this to Florida's slayer statute. Note the tier is arrest-based, not conviction-based. Because the priority list lives inside a definition, it drives the rest of chapter 497 (cremation and other disposition authorizations) rather than reading as a standalone right-of-disposition section.
Source: Fla. Stat. § 497.005(43) (definition of "legally authorized person") ↗
Three separate pots of money, on three different agencies' websites, collected nowhere. A family that qualifies for all three usually claims none of them.
1. When nobody can pay. No statewide program. Florida law leaves it to counties: Fla. Stat. § 406.50(5) says that if the state anatomical board declines the remains, "the board of county commissioners or its designated county department of the county in which the death occurred or the remains were found may authorize and arrange for the burial or cremation of the entire remains," and "may by resolution or ordinance ... prescribe policies and procedures for final disposition of unclaimed remains." Families find their county's version by calling the human services or social services office of the county where the death occurred, not where the family lives. Two live examples read: Escambia County's "The Indigent Burial Program" and Leon County's "Indigent Cremation and Burial Programs." County board of county commissioners or its designated county department. Escambia County: Neighborhood & Human Services, Human Assistance. Leon County: Office of Human Services and Community Partnerships (850-606-1900), with "final disposition ... coordinated between local funeral homes and Leon County Public Works."
What it pays. not published. Neither § 406.50 nor either county page names a dollar figure. Escambia County states only: "If the deceased is determined eligible for program services, there is no cost to the family."
What disqualifies you. Set county by county. Escambia County: the deceased must be "declared indigent or unclaimed, resident or non-resident, if the death occurred within Escambia County," with the financial test being "the poverty threshold of 100 percent of the poverty income guidelines as established and published annually in the Federal Register," and "Application for services must be requested by the legal next-of-kin of the deceased." Leon County: "Eligibility is based on federal poverty guidelines. Insurance, income, and assets will be reviewed to determine eligibility."
2. If the death was caused by a crime. "Funeral/Burial ... $7,500" (Office of the Attorney General, Bureau of Victim Compensation, Schedule of Benefits). The same table shows the timeframe within which the loss must be incurred for funeral/burial as "n/a," unlike wage loss, which is capped at one year.
Florida crime victim compensation ↗
3. Money the person was already owed. Search Florida's unclaimed property before you borrow anything. Searching and claiming are free.
Unclaimed remains go to the state anatomical board first, and the county pays only if the board turns them down (§ 406.50(1), (5)). Before any disposition the county has to try to identify the person, reach relatives, and check whether the deceased was a veteran eligible for a national cemetery, which is free. In Escambia County the request has to come from the legal next of kin, so a friend or landlord can't start it.
Last verified: August 7, 2026
Source: Florida Department of Revenue (No State Estate Tax); IRS Publication 559 ↗At a Glance
Florida doesn't impose a state estate tax or an inheritance tax. Florida's estate tax was tied to the federal estate tax credit, which was eliminated in 2005. Since then, Florida has had no state estate tax. Beneficiaries who inherit from a Florida estate pay no Florida tax on what they receive.
Florida is one of the most tax-favorable states for retirees and estate planning. No state income tax, no estate tax, no inheritance tax. The only tax concern for most Florida estates is the federal estate tax, which only applies to estates over $15 million per individual in 2026.
The federal estate tax exemption is $15 million per individual in 2026 ($30 million for married couples with proper planning). Estates below this threshold owe no federal estate tax. The Working Families Tax Cuts Bill (Public Law 119-21) made the higher exemption permanent in 2025.
Florida charges a documentary stamp tax on deeds, 70 cents per $100 of consideration in every county except Miami-Dade, which charges 60 cents plus a surtax. The tax is computed on consideration, not on what the property is worth. That matters when someone dies. The Department of Revenue lists a personal representative's deed given under a duly probated will among the documents generally not subject to the tax, and when a deed recites only nominal consideration such as "$10 or other good and valuable consideration," the tax due is 70 cents total. A mortgage the heir takes on is consideration, so an inherited property with debt on it can owe real money. Ask a Florida title agent or attorney to price your specific deed.
No. Florida has no state estate tax. Only the federal estate tax applies, and only to estates over $15 million per person (2026), $30 million for a married couple.
No. Florida doesn’t tax inheritances. Heirs owe no state tax on what they receive.
$15 million per person, $30 million for a married couple, indexed for inflation. The Working Families Tax Cuts Bill (Public Law 119-21, 2025) made the higher exemption permanent. Estates below the threshold owe no federal estate tax.
Last verified: August 8, 2026
Source: Florida Statutes Chapter 765.512 (UAGA, 2024) ↗At a Glance
Florida uses an opt-in donor registry. You can register when you get or renew your driver's license or ID at the DHSMV, or online at DonateLifeFlorida.org. Registration is legally binding. Family members can't override a registered donor's decision.
Register your wishes. Tell your family. Both. The registry is legally binding, but family conflict can delay the process in a crisis. Make sure the people around you know what you want. And why.
A registered donor's decision is legally binding. A gift you haven't revoked is irrevocable after your death, and no family member, guardian, or health care surrogate may modify, deny, or prevent it (Fla. Stat. 765.512(1)(b)). Only the donor can amend or revoke the gift (Fla. Stat. 765.516). If you're not registered, your next of kin, in priority order, can authorize donation.
Organs (heart, lungs, liver, kidneys, pancreas, intestines), tissues (corneas, skin, bone, heart valves, tendons), and the whole body for medical research. One donor can save up to 8 lives and improve the lives of more than 75 people through tissue donation.
Need Help in Florida?
Wills, trusts, advance directives, and probate all benefit from a licensed professional. We've compiled a directory of funeral directors, grief counselors, hospice providers, and financial advisors. Sorted by state. Before a listing appears, we check the provider's phone and address against the provider's own website.
Find Help in Florida →From The MORTL Edit
Sources: Florida Statutes (leg.state.fl.us), Florida Bureau of Vital Statistics (floridahealth.gov), Florida Department of Revenue (floridarevenue.com), Donate Life Florida, The Florida Bar. Individual sections are updated and re-dated whenever a law changes, which is why the date at the top of the guide can be newer than this one. The whole guide also gets a front-to-back review on a schedule. Last front-to-back review: June 2026.
Planning tools
The Death Dispatch
This guide is correct today. Statutes move, thresholds shift, and a figure on this page can change with one legislative session. Subscribe and we'll flag the Florida changes that matter. No noise, no euphemisms.