Manatee County probate help.

Looking for a probate or estate planning attorney near you in Manatee County?

We serve all of Manatee County — Bradenton, Palmetto, Lakewood Ranch, Anna Maria, and the surrounding communities — with flat-fee probate, estate planning, wills, and trusts. Most of it happens by phone, email, and e-signature, so “near me” really means wherever you are in Manatee County. Call 941.352.1006 or book a free 30-minute consult.

Probate in Manatee County, as we see it.

Manatee County shares the 12th Judicial Circuit with Sarasota and DeSoto, which means we're in the Manatee courthouse on a regular schedule. Most of the work feels familiar — the clerk's office, the e-filing rhythm, the local judges. The differences are demographic: Bradenton is more working-family than Sarasota proper, Lakewood Ranch is fast-growing and skews younger, and the Gulf barrier islands carry some of the highest property values in the region.

Probate cases in Manatee tend to split between standard summary administration for Bradenton and Palmetto families and higher-end formal administration for Anna Maria Island and Longboat Key estates. The 2026 reform doubling the summary threshold to $150k brought a lot more Manatee estates into the fast path — many homes that previously triggered formal admin now qualify.

We serve every neighborhood from Cortez (still a working fishing village) to the master-planned communities of Lakewood Ranch (parts of which sit in Sarasota County — we sort that on intake). Same flat fees, same 5-minute response, same calm process you'd get if you walked into our Sarasota office.

Local quirks worth knowing.

• Same 12th Circuit as Sarasota. Files run through the Bradenton clerk's office instead of Sarasota's, but the rules and timelines are identical. We're at the Manatee courthouse weekly.
• Anna Maria Island short-term-rental complications. Many AMI homes are vacation rentals owned by out-of-state LLCs. When the owner dies, the LLC dissolution and ancillary administration run together. We've handled dozens.
• Lakewood Ranch is multi-county. The development sits across Manatee and Sarasota lines — your case might file in either depending on the parcel. We confirm at intake.
• Cortez fishing village. One of Florida's last working commercial fishing villages. Property here often involves multi-generational ownership, fishing licenses as estate assets, and unique zoning.
• Longboat Key is split. The northern half is Manatee County, the southern half is Sarasota. Same town, different probate divisions. Important when ordering certified copies and recording deeds.

You're going to get through this.

Tell us what's happening. We'll tell you exactly which path applies, what it'll cost, and how long it'll take. No sales pitch. Most calls end with a 4-step plan and zero stress.