What Can We Learn From Audrey Hepburn?

Audrey Hepburn died in 1993 at the age of 63, with a last will that left all of her personal memorabilia from her movie career to her two sons from separate marriages, in equal shares. Unfortunately, she didn’t clarify who gets what and those boys fought for the next 20 (!) years over her chachkas. The two finally agreed to mediation to avoid incurring costly litigation fees.

So, what can we learn from this story of memorabilia becoming the family battlefield?

We can discuss the recent changes to Florida’s probate (and trust) laws. You heard it here first, folks! We have some new laws on our hands and I’m gonna tell you all about ‘em. Starting July 1, 2026:

1. The Summary administration threshold doubles! Florida increases the estate value limit for summary administration from $75,000 to $150,000. This means that more estates can utilize the “quick and dirty” summary administration process, instead of the full formal administration. This also means faster, cheaper, less court-heavy probate for small-ish estates.

2. Small intestate personal property threshold increases. For intestate (no last will) estates consisting only of certain personal property, the amount that may be handled without full administration increases from $10,000 to $20,000. Families may be able to transfer modest personal property without opening a formal estate. This is helpful for low-asset estates where formal probate would be expensive compared to what is actually being transferred.

3. Income tax refund amount increases. The amount of a decedent’s income tax refund that may be claimed by a surviving spouse (or child) without administration increases from $2,500 to $5,000. This will reduce the need to open probate just to collect a small tax refund.

4. Financial institution affidavit threshold increases. The maximum amount in a qualified account held by a financial institution that may be distributed to a family member using affidavit procedures increases from $1,000 to $2,000. Still not huge money, but it helps with tincy-wincy (yes, that’s a legal term) accounts that otherwise create unnecessary paperwork.

5. Personal representatives get clearer authority to enforce their powers. The bill expressly authorizes a personal representative to bring proceedings to enforce their authority under the Florida Probate Code and to recover associated costs, including attorney’s fees. This is directly relevant when someone is holding estate property and refusing to turn it over. The personal representative can seek court enforcement, and the statute gives clearer support for recovering costs and fees (very important for my strongly -worded-letters).

6. Personal representatives get clearer safe deposit box access. Financial institutions must give a personal representative access to a decedent’s safe deposit box if the personal representative provides letters of administration. The personal representative may also pay accumulated charges and terminate the lease. This is intended to reduce bank runarounds when the personal representative already has court-issued authority.

7. Trustee Settlement and Discharge, effective April 29, 2026.  It creates a summary procedure for trustee settlement and discharge in certain non-adversarial irrevocable trust administrations where the trustee sends a trust disclosure document and no timely written objection is made.

So, there you have it! We learn that the Florida legislature is making our lives (er…deaths?) easier. We also learn that it will be very difficult for me to get my EGOT if I don’t get out of the office more LOL.