Florida Statute 733.805
“Order in which assets abate”
What it means
When the money runs short — debts, expenses, or a spouse's elective share — §733.805 decides whose inheritance funds the shortfall. Funds the will designates are used first; past that, property goes in a fixed order: property not disposed of by the will, then the residuary estate, then general devises, and last specific and demonstrative devises.
Within each class, gifts abate equally and ratably, with no preference between real and personal property. A demonstrative devise whose named source fails is treated as general to the extent of the shortfall, and if specifically devised property must be sold, the other devisees contribute so the burden still falls in statutory order.
- Default order: intestate property → residuary devises → general devises → specific and demonstrative devises last.
- The will's own designation of funds to pay debts and devises is honored first — the statutory order is the default, not a mandate.
- Within a class, devises abate equally and ratably, with no preference between real and personal property.
- Devises to the spouse in satisfaction of statutory rights, and devises supported by valuable consideration, abate after others in their class.
- Estate taxes follow their own apportionment rule in §733.817, not this order.
How it plays out
Abatement is the math behind hard conversations. A will leaves $50,000 to a friend and the house to a child; debts eat the residue, then the cash gift, before the house is touched — which rarely matches what the family assumed. When we draft, we surface the order so clients can reorder it deliberately. When we administer, we run the abatement schedule before proposing distributions, so no beneficiary is promised money the classes below them already owe.
Questions people ask
