Florida law allows twelve months to complete a formal estate administration. However, unless there are complications or disputes, most nontaxable estates take between four and six months for formal administration, but just a matter of weeks for summary administration.
Taxable estates cannot close until the IRS signs off on the Estate 706 Tax Return, which has to be filed within nine months after the date of death and often takes that long to prepare. Taxable estates are doing well to close in two years. However, the work is often primarily done in the first nine months of a taxable estate, and the rest of the time is spent mainly waiting for IRS review and approval to close the estate.
