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Snowbird estates · nonresident personal representatives

Florida Probate Bond

Florida requires a bond from most personal representatives unless the will or the court waives it — but under Fla. Stat. § 733.402(4) a judge can still order one on the court's own motion even after a waiver, and the amount isn't a fixed percentage: § 733.403 has the court weigh six factors (estate value, exempt property, creditors, and more) to set whatever penal sum it "deems sufficient." That override gets used most often against exactly one fact pattern: a nonresident fiduciary.

Your mother retired to Naples. She named you — living in Michigan — as personal representative, and her will waives bond "for my child, without exception." The clerk still wants a bond filed before Letters issue. This isn't a mistake: Florida is one of a handful of states that treats a nonresident personal representative differently at two separate points — whether you can serve at all under Fla. Stat. § 733.304, and whether the court will still order a bond despite the waiver. This page walks through both, plus how Florida guardianship bonds differ.

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Before the bond question — can you even serve?

Florida restricts who a nonresident personal representative can be

Most states let a will name anyone as executor, resident or not. Florida does not. Under Fla. Stat. § 733.304, a person who is not domiciled in Florida cannot qualify as personal representative unless they fall into one of a short list of family relationships to the decedent. It doesn't matter if the will names them — the appointment fails regardless.

Qualifies

Child, grandchild, or parent (lineal consanguinity)

Qualifies

Legally adopted child or adoptive parent

Qualifies

Spouse, sibling, aunt, uncle, niece, or nephew

Qualifies

Spouse of a relative in one of the categories above

Does not qualify

Close friend, domestic partner (unmarried), or in-law

Does not qualify

Business partner, accountant, or unrelated advisor

If a nonresident who doesn't qualify accepts the appointment anyway — and only discovers the problem later — Fla. Stat. § 733.3101 requires them to resign immediately once the disqualification comes to light. Sorting this out before you petition avoids a mid-administration resignation and a scramble to find a qualifying co-representative.

Why the will's bond waiver doesn't always survive nonresidency

Say the relationship test is satisfied — you're the decedent's child, so you qualify under § 733.304. The will still might not get you out of a bond.

Official Florida Requirements

"Unless the bond requirement has been waived by the will or by the court, every fiduciary to whom letters are granted shall execute and file a bond with surety... On petition by any interested person or on the court's own motion, the court may waive the requirement of filing a bond, require a bond, increase or decrease the bond, or require additional surety."
The Florida Senate — 2025 Florida Statutes • Fla. Stat. § 733.402(1), (4)

Read closely: § 733.402 gives the court its own, free-standing power to require a bond on the court's own motion — no interested party has to object, and the will's waiver language doesn't block it. Nothing in the statute singles out nonresidents by name, but Florida probate judges use that discretion for exactly this fact pattern: a personal representative who lives outside the court's subpoena power is harder to compel into an accounting or hold personally liable than one who lives in-state, so a bond becomes the court's practical substitute for jurisdiction it doesn't otherwise have. Practice varies by circuit and by judge — some ask about residency directly on the petition, others raise it only if a beneficiary flags it — so the safest assumption for an out-of-state fiduciary is that a bond will be ordered, and to price one before the hearing rather than after.

Banks and trust companies sidestep this entirely: § 733.402(3) exempts them from the bonding requirement outright, which is one reason contested or high-value out-of-state estates sometimes name a corporate fiduciary instead of the out-of-state relative.

No multiplier — a judgment call

How a Florida judge sets the penal sum — six factors, not a formula

California fixes the bond at personal property plus a year's income under Probate Code § 8482(a). Texas lets a will waiver eliminate it outright under Estates Code § 305.101, and even without a waiver sets the amount by a similar personal-property-plus-income formula under § 305.153. Florida does neither. Fla. Stat. § 733.403 tells the court to set the penal sum at whatever amount it "deems sufficient" after weighing:

  • The gross value of the estate
  • The personal representative’s relationship to the beneficiaries
  • Exempt property and any family allowance
  • The type and nature of the estate’s assets
  • Known creditors of the estate
  • Liens and encumbrances on estate assets

That means two Florida estates of the same headline value can carry different bonds — a $600,000 estate that's mostly a paid-off homestead and a brokerage account bonds differently than a $600,000 estate with a disputed business interest and three known creditors. There is no worksheet to hand the clerk; it's the judge's call inside those six factors. For how other states set the number, see the probate bond cost by state guide and the California probate bond page for a contrasting formula-based state.

Two Florida fiduciary bonds that get confused: personal representative vs. guardian

"Florida probate bond" gets used loosely for both. They run under different statutes with different rules for how the amount is set — and an intestate administrator loses a waiver route a named executor has.

Executor bonds nationwideHow the will-named role works outside FloridaAdministrator bonds nationwideIntestate estates, where a will can't waive anythingGuardianship bonds nationwideHow other states size a guardian-of-property bondMinors’ estate bondsWhen a Florida minor inherits directly

The bond isn't the only nonresident paperwork — the resident agent is the other one

Before letters issue, Florida Probate Rule 5.110 requires a nonresident personal representative to designate a Florida resident agent for service of process and notices — someone the court and creditors can reach without serving papers out of state. The agent must be a member of The Florida Bar or a resident of the county where the case is pending, and must file a written acceptance of the designation. Clerks reject petitions that skip it, and it's easy to miss because it isn't framed as a bond requirement at all — it's an address-filing requirement that runs alongside the bond, not instead of it.

Line both up together: we quote and file the bond on the accepted form for your circuit, and can point you to counsel for the resident-agent designation if you don't already have Florida counsel handling the petition. For the cost side of the bond itself, see what determines your surety bond cost and run your numbers through the probate bond calculator. Probate isn't in Florida but you still live out of state? Florida's kinship-and-resident-agent combination is only one of several patterns states use — see our executor bond guide for the national overview, then the page for the state where the estate is being probated.

Getting the bond filed before your Letters hearing

1

Confirm you qualify to serve

If you’re a nonresident, check your relationship to the decedent against § 733.304 first — there’s no bond that fixes an appointment that can’t legally happen.

2

Read the order or estimate the figure

If a judge has already set the penal sum, we bond to that exact number. No order yet? We work from your estimate of the estate’s gross value and known creditors.

3

Tell us the county and the role

Executor, administrator, or guardian of the property — and which of Florida’s 20 judicial circuits is the obligee court. Each clerk has its own accepted bond form.

4

We underwrite and issue

A quick look at the fiduciary’s credit and the estate. Most Florida probate bonds clear underwriting fast with an admitted, Treasury-listed surety.

5

File before the hearing

We deliver the executed bond on the court-accepted form in time for your Letters hearing — no bond on file, no Letters, no authority to act on estate assets.

Have a judge's order or an estate estimate? We'll write the bond to the figure and file it on your circuit's accepted form.

Start my Florida probate bond quote

Related Florida and probate bonds

Florida fiduciaries and estates often need more than the probate bond itself:

Florida surety bondsEvery bond type Florida requires, in one placeTrustee bondsWhen a trust — not the probate estate — needs a bonded fiduciaryProbate bonds nationwideHow the rules shift from state to stateProbate bond cost by stateSee Florida's rules next to every other state'sProbate bond calculatorEstimate your figure from estate value and creditorsFiduciary bonds overviewCourt-appointed, bank, and pension fiduciary bonds

What Florida fiduciaries ask about this bond

Can an out-of-state family member serve as personal representative in Florida?

Sometimes — Florida is one of the few states that restricts who can serve based on residency. Fla. Stat. § 733.304 says a person not domiciled in Florida cannot qualify as personal representative unless they are a legally adopted child or adoptive parent of the decedent, related by lineal consanguinity (a child, grandchild, or parent), a spouse or a sibling, aunt, uncle, niece, or nephew of the decedent (or someone related by blood to one of those relatives), or the spouse of a person who qualifies under one of those categories. A close friend, unmarried partner, in-law, or business associate living outside Florida cannot serve, no matter what the will says. If a nonresident who does not qualify accepts anyway, § 733.3101 requires them to resign as soon as the disqualification is discovered.

Does the will's bond waiver still work if the personal representative lives out of state?

Not automatically. Fla. Stat. § 733.402(1) lets a will (or the court) waive the bond, but § 733.402 separately preserves the court's standing authority — on its own motion, without anyone filing a petition — to require a bond, increase it, or demand additional surety. Florida probate judges use that authority routinely for out-of-state fiduciaries: a judgment against a personal representative who lives outside the court's subpoena power is harder for beneficiaries and creditors to enforce than one against a Florida resident, and judges weigh that practical reality even when the will says no bond is needed. Budget for a bond the moment you know the proposed personal representative lives outside Florida.

How much is a Florida personal representative bond?

There is no statewide formula. Fla. Stat. § 733.403 tells the court to fix the penal sum at whatever amount it "deems sufficient" after weighing six things: the gross value of the estate, the personal representative's relationship to the beneficiaries, exempt property and any family allowance, the type and nature of the assets, known creditors, and any liens or encumbrances on estate property. That is a judgment call bounded by those factors, not a fixed formula — unlike California's personal-property-plus-income formula under Probate Code § 8482(a) or Texas's similar personal-property-plus-anticipated-income formula under Estates Code § 305.153 (which a Texas will can waive outright under § 305.101). Two Florida estates of identical size can carry different bonds depending on how much of that value is encumbered, contested, or already earmarked for exempt property.

What is a Florida resident agent, and do I need one?

Before letters can be issued, every personal representative — resident or not — must file an address designation, and Florida Probate Rule 5.110 requires a nonresident personal representative to also designate a Florida resident agent to accept service of process and notices on their behalf. The agent must be a Florida Bar member or a resident of the county where the case is pending, and must file a written acceptance. It is a separate requirement from the bond, and it is easy for an out-of-state family member to miss until the clerk rejects the filing for a missing designation.

Is a Florida guardian bond the same as a personal representative bond?

No — they run under different statutes and different formulas. A personal representative bond (F.S. § 733.402–733.403) covers a probate estate and is sized by the six-factor judgment call above. A guardian-of-the-property bond (F.S. § 744.351) covers a ward's assets under a guardianship proceeding, and its penal sum has a floor set by statute: not less than the full amount of the ward's cash on hand and on deposit, plus the value of any bearer notes or bonds, plus the value of all other intangible personal property the guardian controls. The court can waive a guardian bond for compelling reasons or order the assets into a designated depository instead — financial institutions and public guardians are exempt from bonding under § 744.351(5) either way.

Can banks or trust companies skip the Florida probate bond?

Yes. Fla. Stat. § 733.402(3) exempts banks and trust companies authorized to act as personal representative from the bonding requirement entirely — the exemption applies regardless of estate size or whether the will says anything about bond. It is one reason families with a contested or high-value estate sometimes name a corporate fiduciary instead of an individual: it removes the bond question altogether, at the cost of the corporate fiduciary's administration fee.

Eric Drummond, Licensed Surety Producer
Reviewed by
Eric Drummond, Licensed Surety Producer
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All content is researched from official state and federal sources (.gov). BuySuretyBonds.com works with Treasury-certified, A-minimum rated surety carriers.

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General information, not legal, tax, or underwriting advice. Florida probate bond requirements, amounts, and qualification rules are set by statute (Fla. Stat. §§ 733.304, 733.402, 733.403, 733.3101, 744.351) and the Florida Probate Rules, and they change over time. Confirm the current requirement with the circuit court handling your matter — and with Florida probate counsel on qualification and resident-agent questions — before relying on this page, then request a quote for your specific bond form and amount.

Out of state or in-state, get your Florida probate bond filed

Tell us your county, your role, and the figure on your order (or your estate estimate). We write the bond on your circuit's accepted form and get it filed before your Letters hearing — free quote, no obligation.

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