Probate and guardianship — Indian River County, Florida

All Indian River County estates and guardianships go to one place: the Probate and Guardianship office of the Clerk of the Circuit Court, Room 158, at the courthouse on 16th Avenue in Vero Beach.

Florida venue rules decide the county, not the town. Section 733.101 sends the probate of a will and the granting of letters to the county where the person who died was domiciled, so an estate of a Fellsmere farmer, an Indian River Shores retiree or a Gifford homeowner opens in the same Vero Beach office (F.S. 733.101). A person with no Florida domicile who owned property in the county can also be probated there. A misfiled case is not lost: the court can move it, and what was done before the move stays valid.

The Clerk describes the office's reach on its probate page: the Civil Division handles all probate and guardianship cases in the Circuit Court, which takes in incapacity cases, court approval of settlements for minors and protective injunctions for vulnerable adults (Indian River County Clerk probate page). The phone for Room 158 is (772) 226-3164. That page also links the Probate Name Search, a Probate Statement of Claim form for creditors, a disposition of personal property checklist, guardianship forms and a vulnerable adult injunction brochure published in English, Spanish and Haitian Creole.

For filers without a lawyer, the Vero Beach Clerk's probate page links four YouTube videos for self-represented litigants, covering a request for a portal account, do-it-yourself documents in the portal, filing a new case and filing into an existing case.

The person who has the original will has 10 days from learning of the death to hand it to the Clerk of the Circuit Court in Vero Beach, even if nobody plans to open probate.

The 10-day rule that the Vero Beach Clerk applies is in section 732.901 (F.S. 732.901). At the counter the custodian supplies one identifier, either the date the testator died or the final four Social Security digits. A court can compel a custodian who holds back a will, and charge costs and attorney fees when there was no just cause. A will filed along with a petition counts as deposited.

The courthouse in Vero Beach then becomes the will's long-term home. The statute tells the clerk to keep the original, in original form, for at least 20 years, admitted to probate or not, and scanning or microfilming does not end that duty.

The Clerk of the Circuit Court charges little for this step. A will lodged without a case is indexed as a Miscellaneous Will for a $1.00 fee, and if the depositor asks the Clerk to prepare, sign and seal a receipt, the preparation fee is $7.00 (Clerk probate page). A copy of the plain payment receipt, showing the date received and the Miscellaneous Will case number, comes free. The Clerk adds a boundary: it records in the county's Official Records only the probate documents listed in sections 28.223 and 28.2401, and anything else, such as a death certificate, pays ordinary recording fees.

Under the current text of section 735.201, summary administration at the Vero Beach courthouse covers a Florida estate worth $150,000 or less after exempt property, or any estate of someone dead more than 2 years; larger estates need formal administration.

Section 735.201, which governs estates in Vero Beach and every other Florida county, sets both tests and adds a third for estates with a will: the will must not direct administration under chapter 733 (F.S. 735.201). Its history line lists chapter 2026-57 as the latest change. For the smallest estates, section 735.301 skips administration altogether when everything left is exempt personal property plus nonexempt personal items whose total value stays within the funeral bill and reasonable medical and hospital costs of the final 60 days of illness (F.S. 735.301). On an informal application the court can authorize transfer of that property by a letter under its seal, and anyone paying out under that letter is discharged.

Each route has a line on the Clerk of the Circuit Court fee schedule (Indian River County Clerk fee schedule). Opening a case by single petition is $231, the same price as a small estate disposition without administration. Summary administration costs $235 for an estate under $1,000 and $345 at $1,000 or more. Formal administration costs $400, the same as ancillary administration for a nonresident who owned property in Vero Beach or elsewhere in the county. A caveat is $41 plus postage, a Notice of Trust $41, admitting a foreign will $231, and reopening a closed estate $50.

A guardianship costs $400 to file at the Clerk of the Circuit Court in Vero Beach, or $235 when it covers the person only, and the guardian then faces background screening, an annual plan and audit fees on every accounting.

The fee lines come from the Indian River County schedule, which also prices audits of the initial verified inventory at $85 when property exceeds $25,000, and audits of annual and final accountings at $20 up to $25,000, $85 up to $100,000, $170 up to $500,000 and $250 for anything larger (Clerk fees).

Planning ahead is cheap. Filing a Declaration for Pre-Need Guardian costs $1.00 at the Vero Beach courthouse, with a $7.00 charge if the Clerk prepares a receipt, plus any recording fee (Clerk probate page). After appointment, section 744.367 puts a yearly plan on the guardian: per the Clerk, it is due within 90 days once the month marking the anniversary of the letters ends, and the accounting deadline does not move.

Screening comes first for Indian River County guardians. Under section 744.3135, anyone other than a corporate guardian who asks the court in Vero Beach for appointment pays for a credit history investigation and a level 2 background check, and the judge may waive either one (F.S. 744.3135). A nonprofessional guardian who is appointed can petition for reimbursement, and the clerk keeps a file on each guardian with the results. The Clerk's probate page links a fingerprinting brochure.

The Indian River County Clerk's Internal Auditor takes anonymous reports of financial fraud or waste in court-appointed guardianships on a hotline, 772-226-3108, the same number the Clerk lists for the Internal Auditor's office at the courthouse, 2000 16th Avenue, Vero Beach.

The Vero Beach hotline covers guardianships over elderly people, minor children and incapacitated adults (Clerk Guardianship Fraud page). The Clerk lists warning signs it wants reported: missing money or property; suspicious loans, transfers or newly opened or closed accounts and lines of credit; a suspicious purchase or sale of real or personal property; violations of federal, state or local rules; a guardian with a conflict of interest or signs of a more expensive lifestyle; and forced removal of a ward from home.

Reports can go by phone, in person to the Internal Auditor's office at the Vero Beach courthouse, or by email to the Clerk. Email is not anonymous: the page warns that under Florida law email addresses are public records, so a caller from Sebastian or Fellsmere who wants privacy should phone or write instead. Physical abuse or neglect is outside the hotline; the Clerk refers those concerns to the Florida Department of Children and Families at 1-800-962-2873.

Last verified: October 12, 2026, on the website of the Clerk of the Circuit Court in Vero Beach (probate, fee and guardianship fraud pages), with the Florida Statutes checked the same day.