Florida Notice of Trust

What a notice of trust is, and what it is not

A notice of trust is a one-page court filing. It is not the trust. It is not recorded in the county's official records like a deed, it is not sent to the beneficiaries, and it does not satisfy any of the trustee's duties to inform them. Its whole job is to put on the court's file the fact that a trust exists which may answer for the decedent's debts and the expenses of the estate, so that creditors, a personal representative and the court can find the trustee.

Three documents are easy to confuse. The notice of trust under §736.05055 goes to the court. The notices to qualified beneficiaries under §736.0813 go to the beneficiaries and carry 60-day clocks. A certification of trust under §736.1017 goes to whoever needs proof of the trustee's authority, such as a bank or a title company, and states the trust's existence, its date, the settlor, the trustee and the trustee's powers without disclosing the dispositive terms. Each has its own audience and none replaces another.

Which trusts the statute reaches

The filing duty applies to a trust described in §733.707(3): a trust that the settlor could revoke at death, and whose property is therefore available to pay the expenses of administering the settlor's estate and the claims against it after the probate estate itself is exhausted. The ordinary Florida revocable living trust is exactly that trust. An irrevocable trust the settlor created and funded during life is generally not, and the notice is not filed for it.

If the settlor left several revocable trusts, each trustee files for the trust that trustee administers. If the same person is trustee of two, two notices are filed.

What the notice says

Section 736.05055(2) lists the contents, and the list is short: the settlor's name; the settlor's date of death; the title of the trust, if it has one; the date of the trust instrument; and the name and address of the trustee. The date of the trust is the date of the original instrument; a trustee who is unsure whether to list a restatement's date lists the instrument that governs today and, where the clerk's form has room, the original as well.

Nothing else belongs on it. The notice does not list the trust's assets, its value, its beneficiaries, its distribution scheme or any amendment's terms, and attaching the trust instrument to it makes a private document public for no reason the statute gives. Trustees who want to show authority to a bank use the certification of trust under §736.1017 instead.

Where and how it is filed

The notice is filed with the court of the county where the settlor was domiciled at death, and with the court that has jurisdiction over the settlor's estate if that is a different court. When no probate proceeding exists, the clerk files and indexes the notice the way a caveat is indexed, so that a later probate filing will surface it. When a probate proceeding has already been opened, the notice is filed in that proceeding and the clerk sends a copy to the personal representative; the clerk also tells the trustee in writing when the probate was commenced and under what file number, and sends the trustee a copy of any caveat filed about the settlor. The statute builds the cross-notice both ways.

Most Florida clerks accept the filing through the Florida Courts E-Filing Portal, which self-represented filers may use, or over the counter; the clerk's fee schedule sets the charge. The clerk's office will say which division receives it, usually probate. Keep the stamped copy: it is the trustee's proof of the filing date.

Why the filing exists: creditors and the estate

The notice of trust is the court's window onto a trust that Florida law makes answerable for the settlor's obligations. Under §733.707(3), when the probate estate cannot pay the expenses of administration and the enforceable claims, the property of the settlor's revocable trust is liable for them, and under §736.05053 the trustee pays the personal representative the amounts certified in writing as needed for that purpose. A creditor who finds the notice knows whom to serve; a personal representative who receives the clerk's copy knows where the trust's assets sit.

The clocks that matter here belong to the probate code. Claims against a decedent are barred two years after death whether or not an estate was opened (§733.710); a personal representative's notice to creditors shortens the window to three months after first publication, and to 30 days after service for a creditor who must be served (§733.702). A trustee who distributes the whole trust before those windows close, and then receives a certified demand under §736.05053, has taken on a personal problem the statute's reserve provision exists to prevent (§736.0817).

Timing in practice

The statute says the notice is filed upon the death of the settlor and gives no day-count. In practice the trustee files it once the death certificate is in hand and the trust instrument has been read, which is also the moment the 60-day clocks for the beneficiary notices under §736.0813 are running. Many trustees file the notice of trust and send the two beneficiary notices in the same week, from the same file, so that every date sits on one page.

Filing late is better than not filing; the statute names no penalty for delay, but the coordination it provides only works while there is something left to coordinate. A trustee who has already distributed everything and then files has documented the wrong order of events.

Florida trustee deadlines: what the statutes provide

Reviewed against the Florida Statutes on 2026-09-15. General information, not legal advice; the official text controls.

After the filing: what the clerk, creditors and the estate do with it

Once the notice is on file, the clerk indexes it so that anyone who searches the settlor's name in the probate records finds the trustee's name and address. A creditor who has been looking for someone to serve now has an address; a title examiner reviewing a later sale of trust property sees that the trust's existence was disclosed; and a personal representative appointed afterward receives the clerk's copy and knows where the assets that may have to answer for the estate's obligations are held. The notice creates none of those obligations. It makes the people who hold them findable.

The traffic runs the other way too. If someone files a caveat about the settlor — a creditor or an interested person asking to be told before the estate is administered — the clerk sends the trustee a copy. And when a probate proceeding is opened after the notice was filed, the clerk tells the trustee in writing when it began and under what file number, which is the trustee's signal that a personal representative may soon publish the notice to creditors under §733.2121 that starts the three-month window of §733.702. A trustee who receives that letter calendars the date, because it is the date after which the reserve can begin to shrink.

None of this reaches the beneficiaries through the court. Their information comes from the trustee under §736.0813, and a beneficiary who wants to see the notice of trust can request a copy from the trustee or read it in the clerk's file like anyone else.

The mistakes this filing attracts

The same five mistakes appear in clerk's files across the state.

• Filing the trust instrument itself, or attaching it, instead of the five facts the statute lists.
• Recording the notice or the trust in the county's official records, which the statute does not call for and which makes private terms public.
• Treating the notice of trust as the notice to the beneficiaries. The beneficiaries' notices under §736.0813 are separate and carry the 60-day clocks.
• Filing only in the county of domicile when a probate proceeding is already open in another court, so the personal representative never receives the clerk's copy.
• Distributing the trust before the creditor windows of §733.702 and §733.710 have closed, which the filing was meant to help the trustee avoid.

When a licensed Florida attorney is the right next call

TrusteeClear organizes the record; it does not give legal advice and it does not file anything with a court for you. The notice of trust is a filing many trustees make themselves, and the questions around it are the ones that call for a licensed Florida attorney of your choosing: whether the trust is one §733.707(3) reaches, whether a probate estate should be opened to shorten the creditor period, how large a reserve to hold and for how long, and what to do when a creditor's demand arrives. A stamped copy of the notice, the death certificate and the trust's asset list are what that conversation starts from.