By Steven C. Fraser, Esq. | FL Bar No. 625825 | DC Bar No. 460026
Chapter 2026-57, Laws of Florida, took effect July 1, 2026. I wrote about the statute when it was signed, in Florida's 2026 Estates Law. The statute changes thresholds and procedures, but the forms and petitions that lawyers and families actually file are governed by the Florida Probate Rules. On July 16, 2026, the Florida Supreme Court amended three of those rules to match: In re Amendments to Florida Probate Rules, 2026 Legislation, No. SC2026-0690 (Fla. July 16, 2026) (per curiam). A corrected opinion with the same date was issued on August 7, 2026, and the text below is taken from the corrected version.
How the amendments were made
This was a "fast-track" report from The Florida Bar's Probate Rules Committee, responding to recent legislation. The Committee approved the amendments by votes of 22-1-1 (Rule 5.025), 24-0-0 (Rule 5.425), and 24-0-0 (Rule 5.530). The Court adopted all three as proposed.
Two procedural points matter for anyone relying on these rules:
- They are effective immediately. The Court said so, and added that a motion for rehearing does not alter the effective date.
- They were adopted without prior publication for comment. The Court therefore gave interested persons 75 days from the date of the opinion to file comments. Comments were due September 29, 2026, and the Committee co-chairs have until October 20, 2026 to respond. The rules are in force today, but the comment process is the reason to watch the Court's docket before treating the exact wording as final.
Rule 5.025: a new adversary proceeding
Rule 5.025(a) lists the proceedings that are adversary proceedings unless the court orders otherwise. The Court added a new item (14): proceedings "to enforce the authority of a personal representative under section 733.612, Florida Statutes." That follows the change Chapter 2026-57, section 4, made to section 733.612.
Classification matters because of what an adversary proceeding is. Under Rule 5.025(d), after service of formal notice, the proceeding is conducted, as nearly as practicable, like a suit of a civil nature, including entry of defaults, with the Florida Rules of Civil Procedure governing. A personal representative who must go to court to enforce statutory authority now starts from a rule that labels that proceeding adversary, which tells the lawyer which procedure to expect and which caption to use.
Rule 5.025 was amended twice in 2026. This order adds subdivision (a)(14) with immediate effect. A separate order, In re Amendments to Florida Probate Rules, No. SC2025-1462 (Fla. June 18, 2026), made a grammatical amendment to subdivision (d)(2), effective October 1, 2026. Read the current rule with both in mind.
Rule 5.425: the small-estate limit moves from $10,000 to $20,000
Rule 5.425 governs disposition without administration of intestate personal property in small estates. The Court amended subdivisions (a)(2)(C) and (b)(3) to raise the value of nonexempt personal property eligible for disposition without administration from $10,000 to $20,000, consistent with Chapter 2026-57, section 10, which amended section 735.304.
The operative text of (a)(2)(C) now reads: non-exempt personal property the value of which does not exceed the sum of $20,000 and the amount of preferred funeral expenses and reasonable and necessary medical and hospital expenses of the last 60 days of the last illness. The affidavit contents in (b)(3) carry the same $20,000 figure.
The practical consequence is on the form. The affidavit must contain a statement about the value of nonexempt personal property, so an affidavit template that still says $10,000 is out of date. The rule's other requirements are unchanged, including service on the Agency for Health Care Administration if the decedent was over 55 at death. The remaining edits are grammatical ("shall" becomes "must").
Rule 5.530: the summary administration limit moves from $75,000 to $150,000
Rule 5.530(a)(7) now requires the petition for summary administration to state that the value of the entire estate subject to administration in this state, less the value of property exempt from the claims of creditors, does not exceed $150,000, or that the decedent has been dead for more than 2 years. The prior figure was $75,000. The change tracks section 735.201, as amended by Chapter 2026-57, section 7.
As with Rule 5.425, the practical work is in the template. A summary administration petition with the old figure in paragraph (7) recites the wrong statement. The limit is measured against the estate subject to administration in Florida less exempt property, so the same caution I gave about the statute applies to the rule: eligibility is not the same as advisability, and creditor, title, homestead, and tax questions do not disappear below the line.
A short checklist
- Update the nonexempt personal property figure in any Rule 5.425 affidavit form to $20,000, in both the eligibility language and the affidavit statement.
- Update paragraph (7) of any summary administration petition to $150,000.
- For a personal representative who is being stonewalled, classify the enforcement proceeding under Rule 5.025(a)(14) and plan for adversary procedure and formal notice.
- Confirm which date applies to the decedent's estate. The statute took effect July 1, 2026, and the rule amendments are effective immediately from the Court's order; check both before choosing a lane for a death that occurred before those dates.
- Check the Court's docket in SC2026-0690 for any later order revising the amendments after the comment period.
Why this is worth an article
Statutes get the headlines, but probate is practiced from forms. When a threshold changes in the statute and not on the form, the filing either goes in with the wrong recital or gets rejected, and a family that qualified under the new limit is told otherwise. The Court moved quickly here to put the new numbers into the rules, and the practical task for practitioners is to put them into their templates.
Sources: In re Amendments to Florida Probate Rules, 2026 Legislation, No. SC2026-0690 (Fla. July 16, 2026) (corrected opinion issued Aug. 7, 2026), including the appendix of amended rules and rule histories; In re Amendments to Florida Probate Rules, No. SC2025-1462 (Fla. June 18, 2026); Chapter 2026-57, Laws of Florida.
Steven C. Fraser is admitted in the District of Columbia (1998) and Florida (2003) and practices in bankruptcy, tax controversy, consumer protection, probate, and related litigation. This article summarizes a published court order and rule text. It is not legal advice, and it is not an opinion on any particular estate.