A Boca Raton family can lose weeks of probate time before anyone picks up the phone to hire a lawyer. Florida gives the person holding an original will just ten days to deposit it with the court after learning of the death. That clock is one of several a probate attorney in Boca Raton starts watching on day one, and it runs whether or not counsel has been retained.

Here is the part most families get backward. When a Palm Beach County estate stretches past a year, the holdup is usually not the judge, the docket, or a courthouse backlog. It is a short stack of filing decisions made in the first month. Most of them are small. Almost all of them are made by the family, not the court.

Nine of those decisions come up over and over. Each takes a few minutes to get right and months to fix later.

1. Mail the original will on paper

Under Florida Statute 732.901, the custodian of a will has ten days from learning of the death to file it with the Clerk of the Circuit Court in Palm Beach County. The Clerk accepts the death certificate through the e-filing portal. The original will is different. It has to be hand delivered or mailed to the Probate Division at P.O. Box 4667, West Palm Beach, FL 33402.

There is no filing fee to deposit a will. Families who upload a scan and assume it landed often learn otherwise weeks later.

2. Check the $150,000 line before assuming you need full probate

This one changed recently and a lot of published guidance has not caught up. Summary administration is Florida’s shortened track. No personal representative is appointed, and the case ends with a single order distributing assets. For years the value ceiling was $75,000. CS/HB 1337, now Chapter 2026-57, Laws of Florida, raised it to $150,000 effective July 1, 2026. The Clerk’s probate page already lists the new figure. The separate two-year path, available when the person died more than two years ago, was left alone.

Homestead property is generally excluded from that calculation, along with other assets exempt from creditor claims. A Boca Raton estate with a house and a modest bank account can look far too large on paper and still qualify. Which ceiling applies may depend on the date of death, so confirm it with counsel.

3. Ask whether the estate needs any administration at all

Florida Statute 735.301 allows disposition of personal property without administration in narrow situations. It generally applies when the estate holds exempt personal property with a net value up to $20,000, plus non-exempt property no greater than funeral costs (up to $20,000) and the reasonable medical bills from the last 60 days of the final illness.

The Clerk provides the form free and will mail the packet if you call the Self-Service Center at 561-355-7048.

4. Find out which courthouse your case is headed to

Palm Beach County probate is not handled in one building. Cases are assigned to divisions, and the two-letter code appears on the paperwork. The circuit’s website lists each division, its judge, and that judge’s instructions for setting hearings and submitting orders. Reading them before your first filing saves a round of corrections.

5. File the checklist with the petition

The Fifteenth Judicial Circuit requires completed checklists with probate petitions under Administrative Order 6.202. The Clerk’s office stopped supplying its own closing checklist and now points filers to the circuit’s probate division page, where the current versions live.

A petition submitted without the right checklist tends to sit.

6. Arrange the newspaper publication yourself

This surprises almost everyone. The Clerk’s office does not send your Notice to Creditors to a newspaper. That job belongs to you or your attorney, and the paper must have print circulation in Palm Beach County. Once it runs, proof of publication has to be filed back with the Clerk before the case moves forward.

The court is often not waiting on a ruling. It is waiting on a piece of paper nobody knew to order.

7. Send proposed orders through the scheduling system, not the portal

Proposed probate orders in the Fifteenth Circuit go through the court’s online scheduling system. The Clerk states the rule plainly on its own site: these orders cannot go through the e-filing portal, and cannot be delivered in person, by mail, or by email. An order sent the wrong way is not rejected loudly. It simply never reaches a judge.

8. Know when Florida actually requires a lawyer

Florida law requires representation by an attorney to file for formal administration. For summary administration or disposition without administration, the Clerk confirms that representation is not required.

But letters of administration are issued only in formal administration cases, and banks generally will not release funds without them. A family that assumed the shorter track was available can discover otherwise once the assets are tallied.

9. If assets are exposed before letters issue, ask about a curator

Under Florida Statute 733.501, a judge can appoint a curator to take charge of an estate while the appointment of a personal representative is pending. It is not routine, but vacant property, an unsecured business, or an account someone else can reach are the kinds of facts that make it worth raising.

Anyone worried an estate might be opened without their knowledge can also file a caveat under Florida Statute 731.110. The Clerk then notifies them if a case is filed.

Worth saying clearly: none of these steps guarantee a fast result. Contested estates, missing heirs, and creditor disputes follow their own timelines regardless of how clean the paperwork is.

Do these four things this week

If someone in your family died recently and probate has not opened yet, start here.

• Locate the original will and mail it to the Probate Division at P.O. Box 4667, West Palm Beach, FL 33402, along with a short cover letter and the decedent’s full legal name.
• Order at least five certified copies of the death certificate. Banks, title companies, and insurers each keep one.
• List every account, deed, and vehicle title held in the decedent’s sole name, with a rough value beside each. That list determines whether the estate falls under the $150,000 ceiling.
• Call a probate lawyer and ask two questions: which administration track this estate qualifies for, and what the preliminary court costs will be. A firm that answers both in the first conversation is easier to work with.

The families who finish probate quickly in Boca Raton are rarely the ones with the simplest estates. They are the ones who got the first month right.