Broward County
Probate Court.

The statutes are identical in every Florida county. What differs is the local practice: which division hears the matter, what the Clerk expects a filing to look like, how quickly orders come back, and which defects get a case bounced. This guide covers Broward specifically, which is where our office files most weeks.

If you are still working out whether probate is required at all, start with the probate calculator instead. This page assumes you already know a case has to be opened.

Where the case goes

Venue follows the decedent’s residence. Someone who lived in Broward has their estate opened in the probate division of the 17th Judicial Circuit, regardless of where they died or where the beneficiaries live. The Broward County Courthouse is at 201 SE 6th Street in Fort Lauderdale, and the Broward County Clerk of the Circuit Court maintains the file.

If the decedent lived elsewhere in Florida but owned Broward real property, the main administration goes in the county of residence and Broward gets an ancillary proceeding limited to the local property. If they lived out of state entirely and owned a Broward condo, the same logic applies. See the ancillary probate entry for the mechanics.

What gets filed to open the estate

A formal administration opens with a petition for administration, the original will if one exists, a certified death certificate, an oath of personal representative, and a designation of resident agent accepted by that agent. If the will nominates someone, they also file an acceptance. Broward, like every Florida court, files through the statewide e-portal rather than at a counter.

The most common reason a Broward petition stalls in its first month is a proposed personal representative who cannot serve. Florida requires that person to be a Florida resident, or, if out of state, a close relative: a spouse, parent, child, sibling, or certain other blood relatives. An out-of-state friend, business partner, or unrelated caretaker is disqualified no matter what the will says, and the court then has to appoint an alternate.

Fees you should actually budget for

The filing fee for a petition for administration is about $401, with summary administration lower. That is the number people plan around, and it is the smallest one. Publishing the notice to creditors in a newspaper of general circulation, certified copies of the letters (banks and title companies each want their own), and recording fees for any deed all sit on top, generally adding a few hundred dollars.

Attorney fees are separate. Florida Statute §733.6171 sets a presumptively reasonable schedule at 3 percent of the first $1 million of estate value, 2.5 percent of the next $4 million, and 2 percent of the next $5 million, and the personal representative may claim a comparable commission under §733.617. We do not quote from that schedule on ordinary estates: summary administration is a flat $3,000 and formal administration starts at $4,500, quoted before we begin. Full detail is on the probate cost guide and the pricing page.

What controls the timeline

Letters of administration typically issue 2 to 4 weeks after a clean filing, and nothing meaningful happens before that, because no institution will release assets without them. After letters, the three-month creditor claim period sets the real floor on how fast the case can close. A clean Broward formal administration runs 8 to 12 months; summary administration, where the estate qualifies, finishes in 4 to 8 weeks. The Broward timeline guide breaks the schedule down month by month.

Homestead, which is where Broward cases actually slow down

Florida homestead is constitutional, not merely statutory, and it is handled separately from the rest of the estate. It does not count toward the summary administration threshold, it is shielded from most creditors, and it cannot be freely devised when there is a surviving spouse or a minor child. In practice the estate files a petition to determine homestead status and the court enters an order, and that order is what a title company will insist on before the property can be sold or refinanced.

Given how much Broward property is homestead, this single step drives the schedule on a large share of local files. It is also where disputes between a surviving spouse and adult children surface. Our homestead glossary entry covers the rules, and the estate planning page covers planning around them before anyone dies.