Yes, wills are public record in Florida once the person who made the will has died and the document has been filed with the Clerk of the Circuit Court. During the testator’s lifetime, the will is a private document with no legal effect. After death, whoever holds the original must deposit it with the clerk in the county where the decedent lived, and from that point forward anyone can request a copy.
When a Florida Will Becomes Public
The trigger is filing, not death. Florida law requires the custodian of an original will to deposit it with the Clerk of the Circuit Court within 10 days of learning the testator has died.1Florida Senate. Florida Code 732.901 – Production of Wills The custodian also has to provide the decedent’s date of death or the last four digits of their Social Security number.
The correct county is where the decedent was domiciled. If the decedent had no Florida domicile, the will is filed in any county where they owned property.2Florida Senate. Florida Code 733.101 – Venue of Probate Proceedings The deposit requirement applies even if no one is ready to open a full probate proceeding.
How to Find a Will in Florida
To search, you need the decedent’s full legal name and the county where they lived. A date of death helps narrow common names. If you already have a probate case number, use it.
Searching Online
Most Florida county Clerk of Court offices run online portals where you can search probate cases by name. The docket shows the case number, filing date, and parties.3Florida Court Clerks & Comptrollers. How Do I Access Probate Records? Cases filed before the early 2000s may not appear online and can require a separate records request.
The online docket is where the trail ends on the internet. Florida law prohibits the clerk from posting images or copies of any probate court file on a publicly available website.4Florida Senate. Florida Code 28.2221 – Electronic Access to Official Records You can confirm the case exists and grab the case number, but you cannot download the will itself.
Getting the Actual Document
Two options. Visit the records department of the county courthouse in person, or send a written request to the Clerk of Court. Bring or include the decedent’s name and, if you have it, the case number. The clerk charges a per-page copy fee that varies by county, and certified copies cost more than plain ones.
What the Will Shows
Once you have the copy, you can read the full contents. A typical Florida will contains:
- The personal representative appointed to manage the estate (what other states call an executor)
- The names of beneficiaries, often with their relationship to the testator
- Distribution instructions, including specific bequests of particular items or property
- The witness signatures the court uses to validate the will
A will does not necessarily list every asset. It may refer to “the rest of my estate” without naming individual bank accounts or properties. The detailed dollar figures live in a different document.
What Stays Confidential
Not everything in a probate file is open. The estate inventory and the accountings are confidential under Florida law, and only the personal representative, their attorney, and people with a legally recognized interest in the estate can view them.3Florida Court Clerks & Comptrollers. How Do I Access Probate Records? So a member of the public can read who inherits what, but not the balance of every account.
Death certificates filed with the probate court get partial protection too. The cause-of-death section is confidential and not open to public inspection.3Florida Court Clerks & Comptrollers. How Do I Access Probate Records?
Summary Administration Does Not Change This
Florida offers a faster probate track called summary administration for smaller estates: available when the estate’s value (minus exempt property) is $75,000 or less, or when the decedent has been dead more than two years.5Justia Law. Florida Code 735.201 – Summary Administration; Nature of Proceedings The process is shorter, but the will and the petition are still filed with the court and still become public. Summary administration is not a way to keep a will private.
How to Keep an Estate Plan Out of the Public Record
The usual tool is a revocable living trust. A trust holds title to assets you transfer into it. When you die, the trust controls how those assets pass, and because the trust owns the property rather than you personally, there is nothing to probate and no trust document filed with the court.
The privacy is real but not total. Real estate transfers into and out of the trust show up in the county’s public property records, so anyone can see the trust owns a given house. Once the trust becomes irrevocable, typically at the creator’s death, the trustee must notify beneficiaries within 60 days and hand over a full copy of the trust document to any qualified beneficiary who asks.6Justia Law. Florida Code 736.0813 – Duty to Inform and Account If the trust ends up in litigation, the document can be filed with the court and become public that way.
Most trust-based plans also include a “pour-over” will that captures anything the person did not transfer into the trust during their lifetime. That pour-over will still goes through probate and still becomes public. The point of a trust is not absolute secrecy; it is keeping the detailed financial picture off the public docket while the will handles what is left.