Probate vs. trust settlement agreements

Florida's two statutes for settling a matter by private agreement instead of court: §733.815's probate-code contract and §736.0111's trust-code agreement.

Florida law gives interested persons two different statutory routes to resolve a matter by private agreement instead of asking a court to decide, depending on whether the matter involves a probate estate or a trust. Florida's probate code has one mechanism; Florida's trust code has a separate one, built specifically for trust matters. This page contrasts what each statute's own text actually provides. It does not address how often either gets used, or how either compares to litigation on cost or time; those are separate questions this page does not take on.

This is general information about Florida law specifically, not legal advice, and it isn't a substitute for advice from a lawyer admitted in the state where the estate or trust is being administered. Settlement-by-agreement rules differ by state.

The two statutes side by side

	§733.815 (probate code)	§736.0111 (trust code)
What it governs	A probate estate	A trust
What interested persons may do	Agree among themselves, in a written contract, to alter the interests, shares or amounts they'd otherwise receive, subject to the rights of creditors and taxing authorities	Enter a binding nonjudicial settlement agreement about any matter involving the trust, except as otherwise provided in subsection (3)
Scope of what it can resolve	The statute's own text names no subject-matter limit on the contract itself	Subsection (4) lists examples; the statute's own word is "include," so the list illustrates rather than closes the category
Court-approval mechanism in the statute's own text	None. No approval or disapproval language appears anywhere in §733.815's text	Yes. Any interested person may request the court approve or disapprove the agreement
Validity limit	The personal representative must still administer the estate for interested persons who didn't sign, and pay administration costs	An agreement among the trustee and trust beneficiaries is valid only to the extent a court could itself have approved it

Both statutes' full text, with citations, is quoted below. A short cell here is not a claim that Florida law is silent on that point generally, only that this particular statute's own text is.

Fla. Stat. §733.815: private contracts under Florida's probate code

Subject to the rights of creditors and taxing authorities, interested persons in a Florida probate estate may agree among themselves to alter the interests, shares, or amounts to which they are entitled, in a written contract executed by them. That proviso is the only limit the statute's own text places on the power.

The personal representative must abide by the contract, but a duty keeps running underneath it: administering the estate for the benefit of interested persons who didn't sign, and paying the costs of administration. Trustees of a testamentary trust count as interested persons for this section too, and nothing in it relieves a trustee of any duty owed to beneficiaries.

Source: Fla. Stat. §733.815, Private contracts among interested persons

Fla. Stat. §736.0111: nonjudicial settlement agreements under Florida's trust code

Except as otherwise provided in subsection (3) (the validity limit below), interested persons may enter into a binding nonjudicial settlement agreement with respect to any matter involving a trust.

Subsection (4) opens "Matters that may be resolved by a nonjudicial settlement agreement include," then names:

• The interpretation or construction of the terms of the trust.
• The approval of a trustee's report or accounting.
• The direction to a trustee to refrain from performing a particular act, or the grant to a trustee of a necessary or desirable power.
• The resignation or appointment of a trustee, and the determination of a trustee's compensation.
• The transfer of a trust's principal place of administration.
• The liability of a trustee for an action relating to the trust.

Source: Fla. Stat. §736.0111, Nonjudicial settlement agreements

An agreement among the trustee and trust beneficiaries is valid only to the extent its terms and conditions could themselves be properly approved by the court, and it can't be used to produce a result the trust code doesn't otherwise authorize, including, the statute specifies, terminating or modifying a trust in an impermissible manner.

Any interested person may request the court approve or disapprove a nonjudicial settlement agreement.

Source: Fla. Stat. §736.0111, Nonjudicial settlement agreements

Matching the statute to the matter

§733.815 sits inside a Florida probate estate: it is what lets interested persons in that estate alter, by contract, the interests, shares or amounts they would otherwise receive, subject to the rights of creditors and taxing authorities.

§736.0111 sits inside a Florida trust: it is what lets interested persons resolve, by agreement, any matter involving the trust, except as otherwise provided in subsection (3), including the six kinds of matter subsection (4) names as examples.

For a dispute over whether the will or trust is valid in the first place, grounds for contesting a will covers what that kind of challenge argues.

If a matter instead needs a court to act, for example removing a trustee, trust litigation attorney: trustee removal explained covers that separate route under Florida law.

This page describes what these two Florida statutes provide, read from their own text. It isn't a complete statement of either one, and settlement-by-agreement rules differ by state. Whether either mechanism fits a specific estate or trust, and what a court would actually approve, are questions for a lawyer admitted in the state where the estate or trust is being administered.