Florida Statute 733.707
“Order of payment of expenses and obligations”
What it means
When an estate cannot pay everything, §733.707 decides the order. Costs of administration and fees are Class 1. Funeral, interment, and grave-marker expenses are Class 2, capped at $6,000 in aggregate no matter who paid. Debts and taxes with federal preference are Class 3, medical bills from the final 60 days of the last illness are Class 4, then family allowance, child-support arrears, and post-death business debts.
Class 8 is everyone else — including creditors holding judgments won against the decedent while alive, plus any funeral or medical amounts over the caps. Each class is paid in full before the next; a class that can't be paid fully shares ratably. Assets the decedent held in a revocable trust are reachable under subsection (3).
- Class 1: costs and expenses of administration, plus personal representative and attorney compensation.
- Class 2: funeral, interment, and grave-marker expenses, capped at $6,000 in aggregate, whoever paid them.
- Class 3: debts and taxes with federal preference; Class 4: medical and hospital bills of the last 60 days of the final illness.
- Class 5 family allowance; Class 6 court-ordered child-support arrearage; Class 7 debts of the decedent's continued business, to that business's assets.
- Class 8: all other claims — including judgments from the decedent's lifetime — plus any excess over the Class 2 and Class 4 caps.
- Within a short class, creditors share ratably; the decedent's revocable trust is liable under §733.707(3).
How it plays out
The order surprises families in both directions. A judgment creditor who chased the decedent for years discovers Class 8 means pennies. A daughter who paid a $9,000 funeral learns only $6,000 of it is preferred — the balance waits at the back. In any administration that might be insolvent, we build the class list before a single estate cheque is written, because a personal representative who pays out of order is personally exposed for the difference.
Where this shows up
Pages on this site where § 733.707 does real work:
Questions people ask
