Pinellas County, FL Probate Information

The most common Pinellas misstep is filing before you know what the estate holds and which administration path fits. Florida has three routes: formal administration (F.S. Chapter 733), summary administration (F.S. 735.201), and disposition of personal property without administration (F.S. 735.301). Which one applies depends on the value and type of the assets, whether the decedent left Florida real property, and how long ago the death occurred; the thresholds are statewide and are covered on the Florida state page. Homestead real property often passes outside the probate estate, so a Clearwater or St. Petersburg home can transfer to the family while the estate subject to administration stays small.

Before you file, identify every bank, credit-union, brokerage, and retirement account, life-insurance policy, vehicle, business interest, and parcel of Pinellas County real estate, along with every debt, and identify each heir and beneficiary by name. Only then can you pick the right path, calculate the correct filing fee, and decide whether counsel is needed. Sunset's asset-discovery work, searching more than 2,300 financial institutions, exists for this step.

The Sixth Judicial Circuit serves Pinellas and Pasco counties. Within Pinellas, the court covers the whole county, including Clearwater (the county seat), St. Petersburg (the largest city), Largo, Dunedin, Palm Harbor, Pinellas Park, Seminole, Tarpon Springs, and the county's other cities and communities. Pinellas probate is filed with the Clerk of the Circuit Court & Comptroller, whose Probate Court Records department is at the Pinellas County Courthouse, 315 Court Street, Room 106, Clearwater; the Clerk also accepts new probate cases and pleadings at its St. Petersburg Branch, 545 1st Avenue North, Room 153, and its North County service center on McMullen Booth Road. The probate judges themselves sit at the St. Petersburg Judicial Building, 545 First Avenue North. Under Florida's venue rule (F.S. 733.101), administration is proper in the county where the decedent was domiciled at death; if the decedent had no Florida domicile, in any county where the decedent owned property; and otherwise in the county where a debtor of the decedent resides. In practice, the estate of a Pinellas resident, or one holding Pinellas real property, is filed here.

Pinellas runs a dedicated Probate, Guardianship and Mental Health Division. The division carries a large ongoing caseload of estate, trust, guardianship, and mental health matters, and general magistrates assist the probate judges by conducting incapacity and restoration hearings and reviewing the annual reports guardians must file. A general magistrate may hear and make recommendations on referred matters, while a circuit judge enters the orders. The Sixth Circuit publishes its own division procedures, judicial preferences, and administrative orders for probate on jud6.org.

Filing in Clearwater, judges in St. Petersburg. The Clerk's Probate Court Records department is at the Pinellas County Courthouse, 315 Court Street, Room 106, Clearwater, and the Clerk also accepts new probate cases and pleadings at its St. Petersburg Branch, 545 1st Avenue North, Room 153, and its North County service center, 3165 McMullen Booth Road, Clearwater. The probate judges themselves, Sections 3 and 4, sit at the St. Petersburg Judicial Building, 545 First Avenue North. Older directories sometimes list Room 400 for probate; that room houses the Clerk's administrative offices, not the probate counter.

The Clerk publishes its own probate packets and checklists. Unlike many Florida counties, the Pinellas Clerk posts probate resources in the Estate section of its Forms page: summary administration packets for testate and intestate estates, a disposition of personal property without administration packet, a statement of claim form, and sample order checklists showing the documents the court requires on a petition for administration and a petition for discharge. These are the county's own materials, not a statewide form set, and the Clerk states that summary administration can be filed without an attorney using them.

The Clerk audits every new estate before the judge acts. Under the probate judges' published practice preferences, the Clerk's office reviews and audits each new estate filing, which can take several weeks, and when documents are missing the court issues an Order to File Required Documents, known locally as an order checklist. The case is not sent to the judge until every item is filed or answered in a written response, so a complete first filing is the fastest path to Letters of Administration.

A dedicated Probate, Guardianship and Mental Health Division. The Sixth Circuit runs a dedicated probate division with a large ongoing caseload of estate, trust, guardianship, and mental health matters. General magistrates conduct incapacity and restoration hearings and review the annual reports guardians must file, and the circuit publishes each probate section's judicial practice preferences and its probate administrative orders on jud6.org.

E-filing for attorneys, paper for original wills. Attorneys must e-file through the Florida Courts E-Filing Portal (myflcourtaccess.com); self-represented filers may e-file or file on paper. Original wills and death certificates are filed in paper form, and the custodian of a will must deposit the original with the Clerk within 10 days of learning of the death (F.S. 732.901), supplying the date of death or the last four digits of the decedent's Social Security number.

Probate records are restricted online. The Clerk's court records search at courtrecords.mypinellasclerk.gov is free, but the anonymous public view does not display probate cases. Florida law (F.S. 28.2221) bars death certificates and probate-rules court documents from publicly available websites, so viewing non-confidential probate documents online requires a free registered account, and attorneys of record see the documents on their own cases. Probate documents remain viewable on the public terminals at the Clerk's offices, and you can confirm a filing by calling Probate Court Records at (727) 464-3321.

Florida is an attorney-forward probate state. Under Florida Probate Rule 5.030, the personal representative must be represented by a Florida-licensed attorney unless the personal representative is the sole interested person or is a licensed attorney, so Pinellas formal administrations almost always involve counsel, and the Clerk's self-help center cannot assist with probate matters. Beyond the rule, counsel makes practical sense when the estate is contested, when Pinellas real property must be sold, when the estate is insolvent or its solvency is in doubt, when a business interest or an out-of-state asset complicates administration, or when heirs are in conflict. Summary administration, disposition of personal property without administration, and sole-interested-person matters can proceed without a lawyer, and the Clerk publishes packets for the first two. Sunset can connect families to a vetted Pinellas probate attorney when the situation calls for counsel.

Find the accounts and assets. Sunset searches more than 2,300 financial institutions and public records to surface bank and credit-union accounts, retirement plans, brokerage holdings, life insurance, Pinellas County real estate, business interests, and unclaimed property, so you know the estate's value for estate settlement and can pick the right Florida probate path before you file.

Generate the probate packet. Sunset assembles the Pinellas filing: the petition for administration, the notice of administration and notice to creditors, the inventory, and the supporting documents, formatted for e-filing through the Florida Courts E-Filing Portal and built to pass the Clerk's new-estate audit without an order checklist for missing documents.

Find a local probate attorney. Because Florida Probate Rule 5.030 requires counsel in most administrations, Sunset connects families to a vetted Pinellas probate attorney to file and appear.

Sunset is free for families. Revenue comes from bank partners that pay Sunset while estate funds sit in an FDIC-insured estate account ($3M coverage).