Florida Probate Rules Part II: Personal Representative Powers, Accountings, and Distribution (2026)

Florida Probate Rules 5.341 through 5.405 govern the middle and the end of a probate: what the personal representative has to disclose, how the estate accounts for every dollar, what the surviving spouse can elect against the will, how estate property is sold and delivered, and what has to be filed before the court will sign a discharge. Part I covered opening the case. This part covers running it and closing it.

The rules in this range are mostly deadline rules. Miss the 10-day safe deposit box inventory, the 20-day notice of election, the 12-month filing deadline for the final accounting, or the 90-day window to notice an objection for hearing, and the consequence is not a scolding. It is an abandoned objection, a compelled filing, a personal surcharge, or an estate that cannot close.

What Rules 5.341 Through 5.405 Cover

Part I of this series walked through Rules 5.200 through 5.340: the petition, proof of the will, notice, appointment of the personal representative, and the initial inventory. Everything after Rule 5.340 assumes the estate is already open and the personal representative is already serving.

The rules in this range are easiest to hold in your head as six groups rather than as a numbered list. Reporting rules tell the personal representative what to hand over on request. Accounting rules tell the personal representative how to present the numbers. Power rules say what the personal representative may do without going back to the judge. The elective share rules protect the surviving spouse. Transfer rules move property to the right people. Closing rules end the administration and release the personal representative.

Two of those groups are the ones that generate real disputes. Accountings generate disputes because an interested person who cannot follow the numbers will object on principle. The elective share generates disputes because it reaches assets that never entered the probate file at all, including pay on death accounts and revocable trust property (Fla. Stat. §732.2035).

Estate Information and the Safe Deposit Box (5.341, 5.342, 5.3425)

Florida probate is built on disclosure. Three rules in this range decide what an interested person can demand and what the personal representative has to file with the court.

Rule 5.341: Estate Information on Reasonable Written Request

Rule 5.341 is one sentence long. On reasonable request in writing, the personal representative shall provide an interested person with information about the estate and its administration. There is no form, no filing, and no deadline stated in the rule. There is also no discretion to simply ignore the request.

The committee note attached to the rule matters more than the text. It says the rule is not intended to overrule the holdings in In re Estate of Shaw, 340 So. 2d 491 (Fla. 3d DCA 1976), and In re Estate of Posner, 492 So. 2d 1093 (Fla. 3d DCA 1986). In practice that means Rule 5.341 is an information duty, not an open-ended license for a beneficiary to run discovery against the estate outside an adversary proceeding.

Rule 5.342: The 10-Day Safe Deposit Box Inventory

A safe deposit box gets its own inventory, separate from the Rule 5.340 estate inventory, and on a much shorter clock. Rule 5.342(a) requires the personal representative to file an inventory of the contents within 10 days of the initial opening of the box by the personal representative or the personal representative’s attorney of record. The filing must include a copy of the financial institution’s entry record for the box, running from a date 6 months prior to the date of death through the date of the initial opening.

The entry record is the part people forget to request, and it is the part that answers the question everyone in the family is actually asking, which is who went into the box before the funeral. Because the record reaches back six months before the date of death, it also captures visits the decedent made while still living, which occasionally explains a missing item better than any accusation does.

Rule 5.342(b) requires each person who was present at the initial opening to verify the contents by signing a copy of the inventory under penalties of perjury. The companion statute, Fla. Stat. §733.6065(1), controls who has to be in the room: the initial opening must be conducted in the presence of any two of an employee of the institution, the personal representative, or the personal representative’s attorney of record. The inventory is then served on the surviving spouse, each heir at law in an intestate estate, each residuary beneficiary in a testate estate, and any other interested person who requests it in writing.

Rule 5.3425: Searching the Box Before Anyone Is Appointed

Rule 5.3425 solves a timing problem. The will may be inside the box, and no one can be appointed personal representative until the will is filed. So the rule allows a verified petition for an order authorizing a search, filed before any appointment.

The order is narrow by design. It authorizes opening the box in the presence of an officer of the lessor and permits removal of only three categories: any writing purporting to be a will or codicil goes to the court having probate jurisdiction in the county where the lessor is located, a deed to a burial plot or a writing giving burial instructions goes to the petitioner, and an insurance policy on the decedent’s life goes to the beneficiary named in it. The officer must place a complete copy of anything removed, plus a memorandum of delivery, back in the box. The committee note confirms that this search is not an initial opening and does not trigger the Rule 5.342 inventory.

Accountings: Rules 5.345 and 5.346

Two rules do different jobs here. Rule 5.345 decides when an accounting other than a personal representative’s final accounting has to be served and how long anyone has to object to it. Rule 5.346 decides what the document has to look like.

Rule 5.345: Interim, Resignation, and Curator Accountings

Rule 5.345(a) applies to three situations: the interim accounting of any fiduciary of a probate estate, the accounting of a personal representative who has resigned or been removed, and the accounting of a curator upon appointment of a successor fiduciary. A fiduciary may elect to file an interim accounting at any time, and the court may require one.

The ending date of the accounting period follows the situation. For an interim accounting, it is any date the fiduciary selects, including a fiscal or calendar year, or a date the court determines. For a resigned or removed personal representative, it is the date the letters are revoked. For a replaced curator, it is the date the successor fiduciary is appointed. If you are stepping into a case where a curator was appointed, that last cutoff date is the one to calendar first.

The objection mechanics are strict in both directions. Notice of filing and a copy of the accounting are served on all interested persons, and the notice must state that objections are due within 30 days from the date of service. An objection not filed within those 30 days is deemed abandoned. Conversely, if nobody objects, the accounting is deemed approved 30 days from the date of service. An objection must be in writing and must state with particularity the item or items objected to and the grounds.

Rule 5.346: The Format Rule

Rule 5.346(a) requires a fiduciary accounting to include all cash and property transactions since the date of the last accounting, or from the commencement of administration if there was none, plus a schedule of assets at the end of the accounting period. Rule 5.346(b) then imposes six drafting standards for transactions occurring on or after January 1, 1994. The accounting must be verified by the fiduciary filing it, and a model format is attached to the rule as Appendix A.

The committee note explains where the standards come from. Rule 5.346 substantially adopts the Uniform Fiduciary Accounting Principles and Model Formats, and accountings must also comply with the Florida principal and income law in chapter 738, Florida Statutes. Accountings that substantially conform to the model format are acceptable, so Appendix A is a suggested form rather than a mandatory one.

Standard (b)(4) is the one that catches people preparing an accounting for the first time. It requires two values for every asset in the closing schedule, not one: the acquisition or carrying value, and the estimated current value. An accounting that shows only what an asset is worth today gives an interested person no way to see what happened to it during the period, which is exactly what standard (b)(3) says the document has to disclose. Standard (b)(5) then requires gains and losses for the period to appear separately in that same schedule rather than being netted into a single figure.

Standard (b)(6) is easy to overlook and worth reading twice. It requires the accounting to show significant transactions that do not affect the amount for which the fiduciary is accountable. A non-pro-rata distribution, a change in how an asset is titled, or an exchange of one holding for another of equal value may not move the bottom line, but leaving it out of the accounting is how an otherwise accurate document ends up looking like it concealed something.

Personal Representative Powers: Business and Agents (5.330, 5.350, 5.355)

Rule 5.330 sits just before this range but governs everything in it. Notwithstanding any other provision of the rules, the personal representative must personally sign the inventory, the accountings, a petition for sale or confirmation of sale or encumbrance of real or personal property, a petition to continue the business of the decedent, a petition to compromise or settle a claim, a petition to purchase on credit, the petition for discharge, and any resignation. An attorney’s signature does not substitute for the fiduciary’s on those eight documents.

Rule 5.350: Continuing an Unincorporated Business

If the decedent owned a sole proprietorship or an unincorporated venture, Rule 5.350(a) requires the personal representative to keep separate, full, and accurate accounts of all receipts and expenditures for it and to make reports as the court may require. To continue the business beyond the time authorized by statute or will, the personal representative files a verified petition stating the nature of the business, a schedule of specific assets and liabilities, the reasons for continuation, the proposed form and times of accounting, the period requested, and any other pertinent information.

If the court authorizes the continuation, the order must state the period, the particular powers of the personal representative in running it, and the form and frequency of accounting. Rule 5.350(d) then leaves the door open: any interested person may petition at any time for an order regarding the operation, accounting for, or termination of the business, and the court shall enter an order on it.

Rule 5.355: Review of Agents and Compensation

Rule 5.355 allows an interested person who bears all or part of the impact of a payment to petition for review of both the propriety of an employment and the reasonableness of the compensation paid. The petition must state the grounds. The burden of proof then falls on the personal representative and the person employed, not on the objector, and anyone determined to have received excessive compensation may be ordered to make appropriate refunds.

Fla. Stat. §733.6175(2) adds the cost consequence. The costs of the person assuming that burden of proof, including attorneys’ fees, are determined by the court and paid from estate assets, unless the court finds the requested compensation to be substantially unreasonable. For a fuller treatment of how those amounts are set in the first place, see our guide to attorney and personal representative compensation.

The Elective Share (5.360, 5.365)

The elective share is the largest single number in this part of the rules. Fla. Stat. §732.2065 fixes it at 30 percent of the elective estate. Section 732.2035 then defines the elective estate to include not only the probate estate but the decedent’s interest in protected homestead, pay on death and transfer on death accounts, in trust for accounts, co-ownership with right of survivorship, and fractional interests in joint tenancy and tenancy by the entirety property, among other categories. That is why the elective estate is routinely larger than the inventory.

The Deadline Most People Get Backwards

Under Fla. Stat. §732.2135(1), the election must be filed on or before the earlier of two dates: 6 months after service of a copy of the notice of administration on the surviving spouse or the spouse’s attorney in fact or guardian of the property, or 2 years after the date of death. Earlier, not later. Because the notice of administration is normally served in the first weeks of the case, the practical deadline in most estates is the 6-month one, and the 2-year date is a backstop for estates where the notice was never served on the spouse.

The spouse may petition for an extension for good cause shown within that same period, and §732.2135(3) allows an election to be withdrawn at any time within 8 months after the decedent’s death and before the court’s order of contribution.

Rule 5.360: The 20-Day Sequence After the Election Is Filed

Once the election is filed, Rule 5.360(b)(3) puts the personal representative on a clock. Within 20 days following service of the election, the personal representative must serve a notice of election, together with a copy of the election, on all interested persons in the manner provided for service of formal notice. The notice must give the names and addresses of the attorneys for the surviving spouse and the personal representative, and must state three things: that persons receiving it may be required to contribute toward satisfaction of the elective share, that objections must be served within 20 days after service of the copy of the notice of election, and that if no objection is timely served an order determining entitlement may be granted without further notice.

Where an agent or guardian of the property elects on the spouse’s behalf, Rule 5.360(a)(2) adds a front-end step. The agent or guardian must petition for approval before filing, the personal representative promptly serves that petition by formal notice on all interested persons, and any order approving the election must include a finding that the election is in the best interests of the surviving spouse during the spouse’s probable lifetime.

Rule 5.365: Why the Dower Petition Is Still in the Book

Rule 5.365 permits a widow to file an extraordinary petition for assignment of dower. It is not a live remedy for modern estates. Dower and curtesy are abolished by Fla. Stat. §732.111, and the rule itself limits the petition to the court of each county where the widow’s husband had conveyed land in which she had not relinquished her right of dower before October 1, 1973. Formal notice is served on persons adversely affected. Every current surviving spouse claim runs through Rule 5.360 instead.

Moving Property Out of the Estate (5.370, 5.380, 5.385, 5.386)

Once debts and spousal rights are addressed, the personal representative’s job is to get the right assets to the right people, and the rules build in checks so nothing leaves the estate improperly.

Rule 5.370: When a Real Property Sale Needs a Court Order

Whether Rule 5.370 applies at all is a question about the will, not about the sale. Fla. Stat. §733.613(2) says that when the will confers a specific power to sell or mortgage real property, or a general power to sell any asset of the estate, the personal representative may sell, mortgage, or lease without court authorization or confirmation, and the sale need not be justified by a showing of necessity. Section 733.613(1) covers the opposite case, an intestate estate or a will with no power of sale or a power too limited to be conveniently exercised, and states the consequence plainly: no title shall pass until the court authorizes or confirms the sale.

When authorization or confirmation is required, Rule 5.370(a) requires a verified petition setting out the reasons for the sale, a description of the property, and the price and terms. The order must describe the real property. An order authorizing a private sale must specify the price and terms; an order authorizing a public sale must specify the type of notice of sale the personal representative will give.

The committee note to Rule 5.370 points at the trap that catches otherwise careful fiduciaries. Under Fla. Stat. §733.610, any sale or encumbrance to the personal representative or the personal representative’s spouse, agent, or attorney, or to an entity in which any of them holds a substantial beneficial or ownership interest, and any transaction affected by a conflict of interest, is voidable by any interested person other than one who consented after fair disclosure, unless the will or a contract entered into by the decedent expressly authorized it or the court approved it after notice to interested persons. Our discussion of the personal representative’s right to sell real property covers the practical side of that decision.

Rules 5.380, 5.385, and 5.386

Rule 5.380 lets a beneficiary petition to compel payment of a devise or distributive interest, but only on a specific showing: that the property will not be required for payment of debts, family allowance, the spouse’s elective share, estate and inheritance taxes, claims, charges, and expenses of administration, or for contribution or equalization of advancements.

Rule 5.385 is the vehicle for resolving who takes and in what shares. It implements Fla. Stat. §733.105, and the petition must name all persons who may have an interest other than creditors, state the nature of each interest, flag anyone believed to be a minor or incapacitated, and state whether the petitioner believes there may be persons whose names are unknown. The order issues after formal notice and hearing. For how Florida sets shares when there is no will, see our intestate succession guide.

Rule 5.386 handles the estate that has no one to take it. If it appears the estate may escheat, or there is doubt about the existence of any person entitled to it, the personal representative must institute a proceeding to determine beneficiaries within 1 year after letters have been issued, with notice served on the Department of Legal Affairs. If the personal representative does not, the Department may. Each court must furnish the Department a list of qualifying estates on or before January 15 each year. Under Fla. Stat. §732.107, escheated property is sold as provided in the rules and the proceeds are paid to the Chief Financial Officer and deposited in the State School Fund, and a person claiming entitlement may reopen the administration within 10 years of that payment. After 10 years the state’s rights become absolute. If you are working an estate where heirs cannot be located, our guide to the hunt for missing heirs covers the search itself.

Protected Homestead: Rules 5.402 Through 5.405

Four rules sit between the closing rules and the exempt property rules that Part III covers, and they are easy to skip because they only fire when the decedent owned a home. In Florida, that is most estates. Protected homestead is a constitutional category under article X, section 4 of the Florida Constitution, and the court’s jurisdiction to determine it was established in In re Noble’s Estate, 73 So. 2d 873 (Fla. 1954).

Rule 5.404 comes first in practice. If the personal representative takes possession of what reasonably appears to be protected homestead while its status is undetermined, the personal representative must file a notice of that act stating the legal description, the limited purpose of preserving, insuring, and protecting it for the heirs or devisees pending a determination, the name and address of the personal representative and the attorney, and the date possession was taken.

Rule 5.405 is the determination itself. An interested person may petition to determine the protected homestead status of real property owned by the decedent, or owned by the trustee of a trust described in Fla. Stat. §733.707(3) of which the deceased settlor was treated as the owner under §732.4015. The verified petition must state ten items, including the county of domicile at death, whether the decedent died testate or intestate, whether a surviving spouse waived homestead rights and by what method, the names of surviving descendants and whether there were minor children as of the date of death, how the property was titled, and whether the property was the decedent’s domicile.

Rules 5.402 and 5.403 handle money the personal representative has put into a house that may not be an estate asset. If a notice of lien on protected homestead has been recorded, Rule 5.402 requires filing a copy of the recorded notice in the probate proceeding and serving it on interested persons by formal notice. The notice must state that the personal representative has expended or is obligated to expend funds to preserve, maintain, insure, or protect the property, and that the lien stands as security for recovery of those expenditures and obligations, including fees and costs. Rule 5.403 then provides the verified petition to determine the amount of that lien.

Closing the Estate (5.395, 5.400, 5.401)

Three rules end the administration, and the first one is a deadline that has nothing to do with whether tax is actually owed.

Rule 5.395: The Federal Estate Tax Notice

When a federal estate tax return is filed, required to be filed, or will be filed, Rule 5.395 requires the personal representative to file a notice stating the due date of the return. That notice must be filed within 12 months from the date letters are issued, with copies served on interested persons, and a similar notice must be filed and served whenever the due date is later extended. The 2013 revision to the rule clarified that it also reaches a return the estate chooses to file even though no law requires it.

Most Florida estates never reach the threshold. Under IRS Rev. Proc. 2025-32, section 70106 of the 2025 federal tax act amended Internal Revenue Code section 2010(c)(3) to set the basic exclusion amount at $15,000,000 for calendar year 2026, up from $13,990,000 for estates of decedents who died in 2025, and set the generation-skipping transfer exemption at the same $15,000,000 figure for 2026. Where a return is required, IRS instructions for Form 706 put it due within 9 months after the date of death, with an automatic 6-month extension available on Form 4768. Florida imposes no separate state estate tax.

Rule 5.400: The 12-Month Closing Deadline

Rule 5.400(a) requires a personal representative who has completed administration except for distribution to file a final accounting and a petition for discharge that includes a plan of distribution. Rule 5.400(b) lists what the petition must state, including a statement that the estate has been fully administered, that presented claims have been paid, settled, or otherwise disposed of, that taxes and expenses of administration have been paid or provided for, and the amount of compensation paid or to be paid to the personal representative, attorneys, accountants, appraisers, and other agents, together with the manner of determining that compensation.

Rule 5.400(c) is the deadline that most often goes unnoticed. The final accounting and petition for discharge must be filed and served on interested persons within 12 months after issuance of letters for an estate not filing a federal estate tax return, and otherwise within 12 months from the date the return is due, unless the court extends the time for cause shown after notice to interested persons. A petition to extend must state the status of the estate and the reason for the extension.

Rule 5.401: Objections, and the 90-Day Trap

An interested person may object to the petition for discharge or the final accounting within 30 days after service of the later of the two. The objection must state with particularity the items objected to and the grounds. Copies are served on the personal representative and interested persons no later than 30 days after the last date on which the petition or final accounting was served on the objector.

Then comes the part that decides most contested closings. Any interested person may set a hearing on the objections, but under Rule 5.401(d), if a notice of hearing on the objections is not served within 90 days of filing of the objections, the objections are deemed abandoned and the personal representative may make distribution as set forth in the plan of distribution. Filing an objection is not enough. Someone has to notice it for hearing.

Once the court has ruled on any objections and determined a plan of distribution, and on receipt of evidence that the estate has been distributed according to that plan and creditor claims are paid or otherwise disposed of, the court enters an order discharging the personal representative and releasing the surety on any bond. Under Fla. Stat. §733.901(2), that discharge releases the personal representative and bars any action against the personal representative, as such or individually, and against the surety.

What Changed in 2025 and 2026

Three court actions touch this material. None of them rewrote the accounting or closing rules, but one changes how a common dispute is procedurally classified and one changes what a homestead petition must say.

Effective October 1, 2025, the Florida Supreme Court amended Rule 5.405 (417 So. 3d 283). The amendment requires the petition to determine protected homestead status to state whether the decedent died testate or intestate and, where the surviving spouse waived homestead rights, the method through which those rights were waived. It also amended subdivision (d) to avoid conflict with Fla. Stat. §731.201(33).

On July 16, 2026, in SC2026-0690, the court adopted fast-track amendments responding to chapter 2026-57, Laws of Florida, effective immediately. New Rule 5.025(a)(14) classifies a proceeding to enforce a personal representative’s authority under Fla. Stat. §733.612 as an adversary proceeding unless the court orders otherwise, which changes the pleading and service posture of exactly the kind of authority fight that arises in the middle of an administration. The same opinion raised the Rule 5.425 disposition without administration figure from $10,000 to $20,000 and the Rule 5.530 summary administration figure from $75,000 to $150,000. Interested persons had until September 29, 2026 to comment.

Separately, on June 18, 2026, in SC2025-1462, the court amended Rules 5.025, 5.122, 5.200, 5.320, and 5.470 effective October 1, 2026 at 12:01 a.m. Those changes fall in Part I and Part III territory rather than this one, and Part I covers them in detail.

The Full Series and Next Steps

This range of rules is where most of the estate’s value actually moves, and where the deadlines are shortest relative to how routine the underlying tasks look. If an accounting, an elective share notice, a sale, or a discharge petition is in front of you and you are not certain it is right, a review before filing keeps the question inside the administration rather than inside a contested objection.

• Part I: Filing, Venue, and Notice (Rules 5.200 to 5.340), which covers opening the estate.
• Part III: Rules 5.406 to 5.530, which covers exempt property, family allowance, ancillary administration, lost wills, and summary administration.
• Formal administration and summary administration, and how to choose between them in summary versus formal.
• Florida probate fees in 2026 and how long Florida probate takes.

For a consultation about a Florida probate estate, call 863.250.2990 or use our contact page.

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