Is a Living Trust Worth It in Florida? (2026)

Updated July 27, 2026. Short answer for Florida: this is one of only seven states where the arithmetic is not a guess. Florida writes probate compensation into statute, so the fee can be computed rather than estimated — and against the national premium of about $1,700 that a trust package costs over a will package, the statutory fee alone passes that figure at a gross estate of roughly $40,000.

Does your estate even face probate in Florida?

A living trust earns its cost by keeping assets out of probate. So the first question is not what a trust costs — it is whether the estate would go through probate anyway. In Florida the shortcut is: Summary administration: $150,000 as of July 1, 2026 (Fla. Stat. §735.201, amended by CS/HB 1337, Ch. 2026-57, approved by the Governor April 30, 2026; was $75,000), or death more than 2 years ago regardless of value; exempt homestead not counted. Disposition without administration (§735.304): the same act raised the limit on nonexempt personal property from $10,000 to $20,000 (plus preferred funeral and last-illness medical expenses), for an intestate decedent dead more than 1 year.

Summary administration under §735.201 looks at the entire estate subject to administration, less property exempt from creditors, so it is not limited to personal property; whether a particular house fits depends on its value and whether it is exempt. For most households the house is the estate, so its value and whether it is exempt are what decide the trust question. Full detail and citations: Florida probate cost.

What probate would cost in Florida, in dollars

Applying Fla. Stat. §733.6171 (attorney) to the estate value, against a trust package priced at the national median of $2,700 (middle half $2,500–$3,500, 2026 study of 909 firms) — a premium of about $1,700 over the $1,000 will-package median:

PRESUMPTIVE, not mandatory — presumed reasonable and must be disclosed to the client as negotiable. The PR schedule (§733.617) is separate: 3% of the first $1M, 2.5% of the next $4M, 2% of the next $5M, 1.5% above $10M.

What a living trust costs, and what it does not fix in Florida

An attorney-drafted revocable living trust package runs a median of $2,700, with the middle half of firms charging $2,500–$3,500 — roughly $1,700 more than the $1,000 median for an attorney-drafted will package. Full breakdown: what a living trust costs.

A trust only avoids probate for assets actually retitled into it. An unfunded trust is the most expensive document in estate planning: you pay for it and the estate goes through probate anyway. Budget for the retitling, not just the drafting.

And a revocable trust does not reduce Florida death taxes. Florida levies estate tax (none (constitutionally prohibited)). A revocable living trust is a probate-avoidance and privacy tool, not a tax shelter — the assets remain in the taxable estate. Detail: estate tax by state.

Where this usually goes wrong

The two failures that cost the most in Florida are not choosing the wrong document. They are buying a trust and never retitling the house into it, and assuming the trust solved a death-tax exposure it cannot touch. Both are decided years before an estate is settled, which is the only time either is cheap to fix. If the estate is large enough for the arithmetic above to matter, here is what to look for in an advisor who prices the whole estate picture.

Run your own numbers

The break-even depends on your estate, not the average one. The will-vs-trust break-even calculator computes it from the statutory schedules, and the probate cost calculator prices administration in Florida against any other state.

Cite or share this guide: “Is a Living Trust Worth It in Florida? (2026),” statute-cited; clearmoneyguide.com/is-a-living-trust-worth-it-in-florida/. Free to cite with attribution.