Florida quietly doubled the dollar cap on its shorter probate track this summer. That helps some families close a modest estate. It does not replace a will, a funded trust, or a plan that names the people you actually intend to protect.

On April 29, 2026, CS/HB 1337 was approved. It is now Chapter 2026-57, Laws of Florida, and it took effect July 1, 2026. The headline change amends section 735.201, Florida Statutes. Summary administration is available when the value of the entire estate subject to administration in this state, less property exempt from the claims of creditors, does not exceed $150,000. The prior figure was $75,000. The other door into summary administration is unchanged: the decedent has been dead more than two years.

Read the formula slowly. The cap is not “everything the person owned.” It is the Florida estate that is subject to administration, minus property exempt from creditors. Homestead that is protected from creditors generally does not count toward that number (Art. X, § 4, Fla. Const.). Assets that already pass outside probate — a payable-on-death account, life insurance with a living named beneficiary, jointly owned property, property already titled in a funded revocable trust — are not part of that probate estate in the first place.

So a homestead worth several times $150,000, plus a smaller pile of solely owned accounts, can still fit summary administration after July 1, 2026. That is how the statute is built, not a guarantee that any particular house-and-accounts mix will qualify.

Until the chapter law's application language is confirmed on a given file, treat the $150,000 figure as applying to deaths on or after July 1, 2026. For a death before that date, the old $75,000 cap likely still governs.

The same act raised other small-estate shortcuts. Disposition of intestate personal property without administration moved from $10,000 to $20,000 (§ 735.304). An income-tax refund payable to a spouse or child without administration moved from $2,500 to $5,000 (§ 735.302). Funds a family member may collect from a financial institution by affidavit moved from $1,000 to $2,000 (§ 735.303). Personal representatives also received a clearer path to a decedent's safe-deposit box on presentation of letters of administration (§§ 655.933, 655.936). And a new statute, section 733.6125, directs the court to award taxable costs and attorney fees in certain proceedings brought to enforce a personal representative's authority.

None of that is a substitute for probate. Summary administration is still a public court file. People who receive the assets can remain liable to creditors for two years after death (§ 735.206). Formal administration under chapter 733 remains the usual path for larger, indebted, or contested estates, and whenever letters of administration are needed.

The 2026 statute also does not change who inherits. Florida's intestate list still runs to a legal spouse, then to blood or adoptive relatives — not to an unmarried partner. Making small-estate procedure easier for an estate that belongs to siblings is not protection for the person who shared the house.

If the goal is to keep a partner, a spouse, or chosen family from fighting a default statute, the work is still a valid will, a funded revocable trust, and beneficiary designations that match the plan. The new cap can make an uncontested, modest estate easier to close. It is not the plan.

This article is general information, not advice about a particular estate. If you want to talk through whether summary administration, a will, or a trust is the right next step, the Law Office of Shawn C. Newman, P.A. offers a free consultation in person or by Zoom. Call (954) 563-9160 or visit www.shawnnewman.com. The office is at 710 NE 26th Street, Wilton Manors, Florida 33305, and serves Broward, Palm Beach, and Miami-Dade Counties.