Estate Planning in Florida: Key Reasons to Start Now

Estate planning in Florida is the process of deciding — in writing, in advance — who can act for you if you cannot act for yourself, and who receives what when you die. In Florida that means at least five documents, and it means working around three state-specific rules that defeat more estate plans here than anywhere else: the homestead devise restriction, the surviving spouse’s 30% elective share, and the fact that a springing power of attorney signed in Florida is void.

Most guides to this subject are written as though Florida were any other state. It is not. A will that leaves the house to your children is unenforceable if you are survived by a spouse or a minor child. A power of attorney that takes effect “upon incapacity” has no legal effect at all. A revocable trust does not keep your family out of court entirely, because the trustee must file a notice with the clerk when you die. This page covers what estate planning in Florida actually requires, what it costs, what changed in 2026, and the traps that cause plans drafted elsewhere — or from a template — to fail here.

What Is Estate Planning in Florida?

Estate planning in Florida is the set of legal documents that answers two questions: who acts for you if you cannot, and who gets what when you die. The first is the one people underestimate. A will does nothing while you are alive; if you are hospitalized and cannot sign, someone needs authority to pay your mortgage, talk to your doctors and manage your accounts — and most of the genuine emergencies in this practice area are incapacity emergencies, not death.

Without those documents, the only route is adult guardianship. Someone petitions the circuit court under Fla. Stat. ch. 744 to have you declared incapacitated, a three-member examining committee evaluates you, and a judge determines which rights you lose and appoints a guardian who may not be the person you would have chosen — after which that guardian files annual accountings and needs court approval for the acts listed in § 744.441. It is public, expensive, slow and contestable; contested guardianship is its own field of litigation. A durable power of attorney and a health care surrogate designation, signed while you have capacity, avoid it.

The second question is about probate assets — property still titled in your name alone at death. A will operates only on those. Assets that pass by beneficiary designation, by survivorship, or through a funded trust never enter probate and are not controlled by your will. That single distinction explains most of the Florida estate planning failures we litigate.

Florida’s vocabulary, translated

Florida uses different words than most states, and than most people.

What Florida law calls it	What most people call it	What it actually is
Personal representative	Executor, administrator, executrix	The person who administers a probate estate. Florida abolished “executor” as a statutory term.
Devisee / beneficiary	Heir	An “heir” inherits under intestacy; a “beneficiary” or “devisee” takes under a document.
Designation of health care surrogate	Health care proxy, medical power of attorney	The person who makes medical decisions for you.
Living will	Advance directive, end-of-life instructions	Your written instructions about life-prolonging procedures — not the same document as a health care surrogate designation.
Enhanced life estate deed	Lady bird deed (or ladybird deed)	The Florida deed that passes real property outside probate. Both spellings of “lady bird” are in common use.
Protected homestead	“My house”	A constitutionally protected category with its own descent rules — see below.
Funding a trust	“Putting things in the trust,” retitling	Changing the title of each asset into the trust’s name. An unfunded trust does nothing.

What Makes Estate Planning in Florida Different?

If you already know what a will is, this is the section you came for. Six rules make estate planning in Florida genuinely different from estate planning anywhere else, and a plan drafted in another state usually gets at least two of them wrong.

1. Homestead cannot be freely devised

This is the big one, and it surprises almost everyone. Under Art. X, § 4(c) of the Florida Constitution, if you are survived by a spouse or a minor child, your homestead is not subject to devise at all — with one exception: it may be left to your spouse if you have no minor child. It does not matter what your will says. Full explanation below.

2. A spouse cannot be disinherited

Fla. Stat. § 732.2065 gives a surviving spouse an elective share of 30% of the elective estate. The elective estate under § 732.2035 deliberately reaches past probate — it includes revocable trust property, joint accounts with survivorship, pay-on-death accounts, and property given away within the year before death. You cannot plan around it by moving assets out of the will.

3. Springing powers of attorney do not work here

Fla. Stat. § 709.2108(1) provides that “a power of attorney is exercisable when executed,” and § 709.2108(3) makes a POA ineffective if it becomes effective at a future date or on a future event. Many states permit — and many out-of-state lawyers still draft — a POA that springs into effect on incapacity. In Florida that document does not work.

The statute says “ineffective,” not “void,” and no Florida court has yet construed § 709.2108(3) to decide which. The practical result is the same: the agent has no authority, and the document cannot be activated by the event it names. It cannot be reformed, so anyone holding one signed in Florida after October 1, 2011 should assume they have no plan. Florida applies strict compliance to these formalities generally — in Parisi v. de Kingston, 357 So. 3d 1254 (Fla. 3d DCA 2023), a POA lacking the two witnesses § 709.2105 requires was invalid and any action under it void. Two narrow exceptions survive: a POA executed before October 1, 2011 conditioned on incapacity (§ 709.2108(2)), and a military power of attorney under 10 U.S.C. § 1044b (§ 709.2106(4)).

4. An unwitnessed handwritten will is void here even if it was valid where you signed it

Florida’s savings clause for out-of-state wills, Fla. Stat. § 732.502(2), honors a will valid where executed — but expressly excludes holographic and nuncupative wills. So an unwitnessed handwritten will that is perfectly valid in Texas or Virginia, or in most civil-law countries, is invalid in Florida.

Note carefully what that does not say. The same subsection provides that a will in the testator’s handwriting executed under subsection (1) “shall not be considered a holographic will.” Florida does not reject handwriting. It rejects the absence of two attesting witnesses.

5. A nonresident usually cannot serve as your personal representative

Under Fla. Stat. § 733.304 a nonresident may serve as personal representative only if related to you as a legally adopted child or adoptive parent; by lineal consanguinity (your direct bloodline); as a spouse, brother, sister, uncle, aunt, nephew or niece — or anyone related by lineal consanguinity to one of those people, which is why a nephew’s son can serve; or as the spouse of anyone otherwise qualified. A half-sibling qualifies as a brother or sister.

Now read it for who is missing: a nonresident cousin (collateral, not lineal), a nonresident stepchild never adopted (§ 731.201 defines “child” to exclude stepchildren), a friend, a business partner, an out-of-state professional fiduciary. Florida courts read the list strictly (In re Estate of Angeleri, 575 So. 2d 794 (Fla. 4th DCA 1991); In re Chadwick’s Estate, 309 So. 2d 587 (Fla. 2d DCA 1975)). Name someone disqualified and § 733.303 makes the nomination fail. But the restriction does not apply to trustees — Chapter 736 imposes no residency requirement, so the nonresident who cannot be your personal representative can be your trustee.

6. Florida has no transfer-on-death deed

Florida has never adopted the Uniform Real Property Transfer on Death Act, and no Florida statute authorizes a beneficiary deed for real estate. Two things cause the confusion. Florida does have transfer-on-death registration for securities and investment accounts under Ch. 711, and for deposit accounts under § 655.82 — but neither reaches real property. And Florida’s substitute, the lady bird deed (enhanced life estate deed), is a common-law instrument recognized by title insurers and the Department of Revenue rather than a creature of statute. It passes the remainder outside probate while you keep the right to sell, mortgage or revoke without the remainderman’s consent.

What Documents Does a Florida Estate Plan Need?

Five documents form the base of a Florida estate plan; a sixth, the revocable trust, is common but not universal. They interlock — the will handles death, the power of attorney and health care documents handle incapacity, and a gap in either half leaves your family in court.

Document	What it does	When it operates	Florida requirement
Last Will and Testament	Directs probate assets; nominates a personal representative and a guardian for minor children	At death only, and only for assets titled in your name alone	Signed at the end by you before two attesting witnesses, who sign in your presence and each other’s — § 732.502
Durable Power of Attorney	Financial authority for your agent	Immediately on signing — § 709.2108(1)	Signed by you before two witnesses and a notary — § 709.2105
Designation of Health Care Surrogate	Names who makes medical decisions and receives your health information	On incapacity, or immediately if you say so — § 765.202(6)	Two subscribing adult witnesses; the surrogate cannot witness, and one witness must be neither spouse nor blood relative — § 765.202(1)–(2)
Living Will	Your instructions on life-prolonging procedures	On a terminal condition, end-stage condition, or persistent vegetative state	Two subscribing witnesses, one neither spouse nor blood relative — § 765.302(1)
HIPAA Authorization	Lets named people receive medical information	Immediately	Federal; often folded into the surrogate designation, but a standalone release avoids hospital arguments
Revocable Living Trust (optional)	Holds title to assets so they pass without probate	Immediately, and continues after death	Ch. 736. Only works for assets actually retitled into it

Why the durable power of attorney is the document that fails most often

Two reasons, both avoidable. First, the springing-POA problem above. Second, Florida requires certain powers to be separately enumerated and separately signed or initialed by you — a general grant is not enough. Under § 709.2202 that list includes creating or amending a trust, making a gift, creating or changing rights of survivorship, creating or changing a beneficiary designation, waiving rights to a joint and survivor annuity, and disclaiming property — precisely the powers a family needs in a long-term-care crisis. A generic internet form will not carry them with your separate initials, and a Florida bank will refuse to act on it.

Two further traps in the same statute:

• Trust powers need authority in the trust too. Under § 709.2202(1)(b) an agent may amend, revoke or terminate your trust “only if the trust instrument explicitly provides for” the settlor’s agent to do so. Initialing the power in the POA is necessary but not sufficient.
• A remotely witnessed power of attorney cannot carry any of these powers. Section 709.2202(6) provides that a POA executed by a Florida resident using remote online witnessing under § 117.285 may not grant the authority listed above — the document is validly executed and every power that matters in a crisis is missing from it. Only those enumerated powers fail; the rest of the instrument remains valid.

Execution is stricter here too: under § 709.2105(2) a Florida power of attorney must be signed by you and by two subscribing witnesses and acknowledged before a notary. Our Florida power of attorney guide covers execution and what to do when a bank refuses one.

Living will vs. advance directive vs. health care surrogate — what’s the difference?

People use these three terms as though they were one document. Advance directive is the umbrella term for any written or oral statement about future health care. A living will states what you want: whether life-prolonging procedures should be withheld or withdrawn in a terminal condition, an end-stage condition, or a persistent vegetative state. A designation of health care surrogate names who decides.

You want both. (The term is also written “advanced directive” — same document.) Neither needs to be notarized in Florida. Both require two subscribing witnesses, at least one of whom is neither your spouse nor a blood relative — § 765.202(2) for the surrogate designation, which also bars the surrogate from witnessing, and § 765.302(1) for the living will. Using two family members will invalidate it. One feature worth using: under § 765.202(6) you may make your surrogate’s authority exercisable immediately, without any determination of incapacity — which solves the hospital that demands proof of incapacity before it will speak to your spouse. It does not displace you; § 765.204(1) makes your own wishes controlling while you have capacity.

Are electronic wills valid in Florida?

Yes. Florida has a full electronic wills statute, §§ 732.521–.525: a will may be signed with an electronic signature, and witnesses may appear remotely by audio-video technology supervised by a Florida remote online notary. To be self-proved it must designate a qualified custodian who holds the record and certifies it was never altered (§ 732.523).

And there is a trap that voids wills. Under § 117.285(5)(g) remote witnessing “is not effective” for a principal who is a vulnerable adult. The witnessing is a legal nullity, so the will lacks the two attesting witnesses § 732.502 requires — and an improperly attested Florida will is invalid. Section 415.102 reaches anyone whose ability to perform daily activities is impaired by disability “or the infirmities of aging”: macular degeneration, limited mobility or needing help with daily care can qualify someone who appears entirely sharp on a video call and has full testamentary capacity. Capacity and vulnerable-adult status are different questions, and only one of them voids the will. If there is any real doubt, use witnesses physically in the room. Two caveats worth knowing: the contestant bears the burden of proving vulnerable-adult status, and as of 2026 no Florida appellate court has decided a case under the statute — this is genuinely unsettled law.

How Much Does Estate Planning Cost in Florida?

Attorney fees for estate planning in Florida are not set by statute and vary by firm and complexity. The ranges below reflect what Florida firms commonly charge for flat-fee work; ask for a written flat fee before engaging.

What you are buying	Typical Florida flat-fee range	Who it fits
Simple will only	$400 – $1,200	Rarely adequate on its own — it does nothing for incapacity
Core document package — will, durable POA, health care surrogate, living will, HIPAA	$1,200 – $3,000	Most Florida families
Revocable trust package, individual	$2,500 – $5,000	Real property, privacy concerns, out-of-state property
Revocable trust package, married couple	$3,000 – $7,000	Same, plus blended-family or tax planning
Lady bird deed (added to a plan)	$400 – $1,000 plus recording	Homestead probate avoidance without a full trust
Special needs trust	$3,000 – $7,500	A beneficiary receiving SSI or Medicaid
Irrevocable / Medicaid asset protection trust	$5,000 – $12,000+	Long-term care planning, asset protection

What probate costs if you do nothing — and this part is in the statute

This is the comparison that matters, and Florida publishes the numbers. Fla. Stat. § 733.6171(3) sets attorney compensation presumed reasonable in a formal administration, computed on the compensable value of the estate — inventory value of the probate assets plus income earned during administration.

Compensable value of the estate	Presumed reasonable attorney’s fee — § 733.6171(3)
$40,000 or less	$1,500
More than $40,000 up to $70,000	An additional $750
More than $70,000 up to $100,000	An additional $750
More than $100,000	3% of the next $900,000
$1 million – $3 million	2.5%
$3 million – $5 million	2%
$5 million – $10 million	1.5%
Over $10 million	1%

The personal representative’s commission runs on a separate schedule under § 733.617(2) — 3% of the first $1 million, 2.5% to $5 million, 2% to $10 million, 1.5% above — and both can apply to the same estate. Both are rebuttable presumptions: under § 733.6171(5) any interested person may petition to increase or decrease them, and under § 733.6171(2) an attorney relying on the schedule must make five written disclosures to the personal representative and obtain a signed acknowledgment. On a $500,000 probate estate the presumed attorney’s fee is roughly $15,000 and the presumed PR commission roughly $15,000 — before costs and before extraordinary services. Set that against the cost of a trust package and the arithmetic usually makes itself. Our full breakdown of Florida probate costs works through the extraordinary-fee categories.

Do you need a lawyer for probate in Florida?

Usually yes, and it is a rule rather than a recommendation. Fla. Prob. R. 5.030(a) requires every personal representative and guardian to be represented by a Florida-admitted attorney, unless the personal representative is the sole interested person, is themselves a Florida attorney, or is a guardian advocate whom no law or court order requires to be represented.

What Happens If You Die Without a Will in Florida?

Florida’s intestacy statutes distribute your probate assets by a fixed formula. It is not unreasonable, but it is nobody’s actual estate plan — and it is the default for every Florida resident who never signs one.

Who survives you	Who inherits your probate estate	Statute
Spouse, no descendants	Entire estate to spouse	§ 732.102(1)
Spouse; all descendants shared; spouse has no others	Entire estate to spouse	§ 732.102(2)
Spouse and descendants not all the spouse’s	Half to the spouse, half to your descendants	§ 732.102(3)
Spouse, all descendants shared, but spouse has other descendants	Half to the spouse, half to your descendants	§ 732.102(4)
Descendants, no spouse	All to your descendants, per stirpes	§ 732.103(1); § 732.104
No spouse, no descendants	To your parents equally, or the survivor; then siblings and their descendants	§ 732.103(2)–(3)
None of the above	Estate splits in half — paternal and maternal kindred; each half to grandparents, then aunts, uncles and their descendants. If one side has none, the other takes all	§ 732.103(4)
No kindred on either side	To the kindred of your last deceased spouse, as if that spouse had survived and then died intestate	§ 732.103(5)
No one in the statutory chain at all	Escheat to the State of Florida; a claimant may reopen the administration within 10 years	§ 732.107

Two consequences people never anticipate. Blended families split the estate in half — rows three and four are the second-marriage cases, and half to the spouse, half to the children is very often the opposite of what both spouses assumed. And an unmarried partner receives nothing: a partner of thirty years who is not named in a document and not on a title inherits nothing, cannot serve as personal representative, and has no right to make medical decisions. Stepchildren are not descendants for intestacy purposes unless legally adopted.

Can I Leave My House to My Children in Florida?

If you are survived by a spouse or a minor child — no. This is the most consequential rule in Florida estate planning and the one most often missing from plans drafted out of state.

Article X, § 4(c), Fla. Const.: “The homestead shall not be subject to devise if the owner is survived by spouse or minor child, except the homestead may be devised to the owner’s spouse if there be no minor child.”

Fla. Stat. § 732.4015(1) restates it, and § 732.4015(2) closes the obvious workaround: “owner” includes the grantor of a revocable trust described in § 733.707(3), and “devise” includes a disposition by trust. Putting the house into your revocable living trust does not escape the restriction. The Trust Code supplies the consequence — under § 736.1109(1), if a trust devise of homestead violates Art. X, § 4(c), “title shall pass as provided in s. 732.401 at the moment of death,” instantly and without any court proceeding.

What happens if homestead is devised anyway?

The devise fails and § 732.401 supplies the result instead. Under § 732.401(1), if you are survived by a spouse and one or more descendants, the spouse takes a life estate in the homestead, with a vested remainder to your descendants living at your death, per stirpes.

That outcome is frequently worse for everyone than the plan it replaced. A life tenant cannot sell without the remaindermen and the remaindermen cannot sell without the life tenant, while the life tenant carries taxes, insurance and upkeep on a house they cannot liquidate. In a second-marriage case it locks a surviving spouse and adult stepchildren into forced co-ownership indefinitely, and those disputes end as partition actions.

The surviving spouse has six months to change that result

Section 732.401(2) lets the surviving spouse elect, instead of the life estate, an undivided one-half interest as tenant in common, with the other half vesting in the decedent’s descendants. Four things about that election decide cases:

• Six months after death, and during the spouse’s lifetime — § 732.401(2)(b). Both conditions.
• The clock runs from death, not from service of anything. Homestead never enters the estate — “[t]he homestead is in no wise an asset of the estate of a decedent,” Cavanaugh v. Cavanaugh, 542 So. 2d 1345 (Fla. 1st DCA 1989) — so no probate and no notice are needed for the deadline to expire.
• No court can extend it. Samad v. Pla, 267 So. 3d 476 (Fla. 2d DCA 2019), reversed an extension granted for excusable neglect: Fla. Prob. R. 5.042(b) reaches acts required by rules, not by statute.
• It must be recorded in the county where the property sits, with the legal description — § 732.401(2)(e). Filing it in the probate case is not enough, and once made it is irrevocable.

A surviving spouse who does not know the right exists loses it at month six, permanently — and unlike almost every other deadline in this area, nobody is obliged to warn them. Spousal homestead rights can be waived in advance — by a written agreement under § 732.702 signed before two subscribing witnesses, or by joining a deed containing the waiver language § 732.7025 supplies. That deed waiver releases only the devise restriction; it does not waive creditor protection, and both spouses must still join to sell or mortgage.

Can I put my homestead in a revocable trust?

Yes, and it keeps both protections — but it does not escape the devise restriction. The Fourth District held in Engelke v. Estate of Engelke, 921 So. 2d 693 (Fla. 4th DCA 2006), that homestead in a revocable trust is still “owned by a natural person,” because the retained right of revocation means you never stopped owning it; the Second District reaffirmed that this year in Schiro v. Elliott, 2026 WL 1501045 (Fla. 2d DCA May 29, 2026). The settlor also keeps the ad valorem exemption under § 196.031(1).

One drafting warning worth the price of the consultation: a boilerplate “pay all my debts and expenses from the trust” clause does not defeat homestead protection — codified at § 736.1109(2). But a clause specifically directing that the homestead be sold, or that a homestead devise be reduced to pay debts, does.

Does homestead creditor protection survive death?

Yes. Article X, § 4(b) provides that “[t]hese exemptions shall inure to the surviving spouse or heirs of the owner.” The protection is unlimited in value — the constitutional limits are on area, not dollars: one-half acre within a municipality, 160 contiguous acres outside one. Florida homestead is exempt from forced sale except for property taxes and assessments, obligations contracted for its purchase, improvement or repair, and obligations for labor performed on it.

How Do You Avoid Probate in Florida?

Avoiding probate is achieved by making sure that at death no asset is titled in your name alone without an automatic transfer mechanism attached. Seven routes do that and they are not interchangeable — plus two small-estate shortcuts that appoint no personal representative at all: disposition without administration (§ 735.301) and the intestate small-estate affidavit (§ 735.304).

Method	Cost	Covers	Creditor protection	Main drawback
Funded revocable trust	$$$	Everything you retitle	None during life — Florida creditors can reach it	Fails completely if unfunded; trustee must still file a notice of trust
Beneficiary designation	Free	Insurance, retirement accounts, annuities	Some, by asset type	Goes stale; overrides your will silently
POD / TOD registration	Free	Bank and brokerage accounts	None	No contingency if the beneficiary predeceases
Lady bird deed	$	One parcel of real property	Homestead protections continue	Real property only; not statutory
Tenancy by the entireties	Free	Assets held with a spouse	Strong — protected from creditors of one spouse alone	Ends at the first death or divorce
JTWROS with a non-spouse	Free	Anything jointly titled	None — exposes the asset to the co-owner’s creditors	Makes a present gift; exposes the asset to their divorce and lawsuits
Summary administration	$$	Estates at or under $150,000, or 2+ years after death	—	Still a court proceeding, still public

What is a contingent beneficiary, and why does it matter?

Your primary beneficiary receives the asset; your contingent beneficiary receives it only if the primary dies before you or cannot take. Naming one costs nothing and is the most commonly skipped line on the form. Skip it and, if your primary predeceases you, the asset usually reverts to your estate — dropping it straight into the probate you were trying to avoid and handing it to whoever your will or intestacy names. Name contingents on every policy, retirement account, annuity and POD registration, and revisit them whenever someone on the list dies, divorces or is born.

Joint ownership: the three kinds, and why the difference matters

“Joint” is three different things in Florida, and they produce three different outcomes.

• Tenancy by the entireties (TBE) — available only to married couples. Passes automatically to the survivor, and is protected from the creditors of one spouse individually. The strongest form of joint ownership in Florida.
• Joint tenancy with right of survivorship (JTWROS) — available to anyone. Passes automatically to the survivor, but carries no creditor protection and exposes the asset to the co-owner’s creditors, divorce and lawsuits.
• Tenants in common — no survivorship at all. Each owner’s share passes under their will or by intestacy, which means it goes through probate.

Adding an adult child to your bank account or deed as a “convenience” is the most common informal estate plan in Florida and one of the worst: it makes a present gift, exposes the asset to their creditors and divorce, gives the other children a claim that it was really a convenience arrangement, and can wreck a Medicaid application. Our guide to Florida survivorship accounts covers what happens when the family disputes it.

Does a revocable trust really keep everything private?

Mostly. What it does achieve: the trust assets are not administered through probate, and the trust’s terms, your beneficiaries and the value of what you owned stay out of the public record. What it does not: under § 736.05055 the trustee must file a notice of trust with the clerk when you die, whether or not probate is opened. It discloses exactly five things — your name, date of death, the trust’s title and date, and the trustee’s name and address — and under § 28.2221(5)(a) a clerk may not post probate-rule records online, so it is not searchable through the public portal. Someone must go to the courthouse in person, and all they learn is that a trust exists.

Two further limits. Under § 736.05053(1) the trustee must pay the personal representative any amount certified in writing as needed for estate expenses, and under § 733.707(3) trust assets are liable to the extent the probate estate is insufficient. And a revocable trust gives no creditor protection during your lifetime: § 736.0505(1)(a) treats the property as reachable to the same extent as if you owned it outright.

The mistake that defeats more trusts than any other: not funding it

A trust controls only what is titled in its name. Signing a trust and leaving the house, the brokerage account and the bank accounts in your own name produces the worst of both worlds — the cost of a trust and a full probate anyway.

Funding means recording a deed transferring real property to the trust, changing the account registration at each institution, and updating beneficiary designations where the trust is meant to be the beneficiary. It takes weeks, and it is the step families skip — reviewing plans after a death, an unfunded or partially funded trust is the single most common defect we find. The safety net is a pour-over will, which directs anything still in your name into the trust at death — but it works through probate, which is the thing the trust was meant to avoid.

What Changed in Florida Estate Law in 2026?

Three changes matter to Florida estate planning this year, and the first is significant enough that a great deal of published Florida content — including the Legislature’s own older statute pages — is still wrong about it.

The summary administration threshold rose to $150,000 on July 1, 2026

Effective July 1, 2026, Florida raised the summary administration ceiling from $75,000 to $150,000. Fla. Stat. § 735.201 now permits summary administration when “the value of the entire estate subject to administration in this state, less the value of property exempt from the claims of creditors, does not exceed $150,000 or that the decedent has been dead for more than 2 years” — enacted as Ch. 2026-57, Laws of Florida (CS/HB 1337). Two points the summaries get wrong: the deduction is for all property exempt from creditors’ claims, not only homestead, and the two-year alternative has no dollar limit at all. The same act raised three other figures and added § 733.6125, requiring a court to award costs and fees to a personal representative who prevails in enforcing their authority.

Provision	Before	From July 1, 2026
Summary administration — § 735.201	$75,000	$150,000
Intestate small-estate affidavit — § 735.304	$10,000	$20,000
Income tax refund claims by affidavit	$2,500	$5,000
Qualified account distribution by affidavit	$1,000	$2,000

The practical effect: many Florida estates that required full formal administration a year ago now qualify for the short process. If a family was told in 2025 that an estate was too large, that advice may no longer be right. See our guide to summary administration in Florida.

The federal estate tax exclusion is $15 million — and it is now permanent

For decedents dying in 2026 the federal estate and gift tax basic exclusion amount is $15,000,000 per person (IRS Rev. Proc. 2025-32) — a flat statutory figure, not an inflation-adjusted one. P.L. 119-21, signed July 4, 2025, amended IRC § 2010(c)(3) to set it there permanently. Two points follow. There is no scheduled sunset, so urgency framed around “use it before it disappears in 2026” is obsolete. And the $30 million figure for couples is not automatic: it requires a portability election on a timely filed Form 706 after the first spouse’s death, even when no tax is owed — families miss this and lose the second exclusion permanently. The 2026 annual gift tax exclusion is $19,000 per recipient.

And the Florida answer: Florida has no state estate tax and no inheritance tax. Art. VII, § 5 of the Florida Constitution permits such a tax only to the extent of a credit against the federal tax, and Fla. Stat. ch. 198 operates only as a “pick-up” tax the federal credit no longer triggers. Our full answer on Florida inheritance tax covers what beneficiaries do and do not owe.

UFIPA governs trust income and principal allocation

Florida adopted the Uniform Fiduciary Income and Principal Act, Fla. Stat. ch. 738, effective January 1, 2025, replacing the prior Florida Uniform Principal and Income Act. It gives trustees broader authority to adjust between income and principal to treat beneficiaries fairly. That matters most for trusts with an income beneficiary and separate remainder beneficiaries — the classic second-marriage structure. If your trust was drafted before 2025 and uses it, it is worth a review.

Who Needs an Estate Plan in Florida — and What Changes for You?

Parents of minor children

For parents, estate planning in Florida starts with a single fact: a will is where most parents nominate a guardian for their children, and without one a judge chooses from among whoever petitions. Florida adds a second tool most parents have never heard of — a designation of preneed guardian for a minor under § 744.3046, filed with the court, which takes effect on incapacity as well as death.

The other half is money. A minor cannot inherit directly. Without a trust, an inheritance goes into a court-supervised guardianship of the property until age 18 — annual accountings, court approval for expenditures, then the entire balance handed to an 18-year-old. A contingent trust inside your will solves this in a paragraph.

Parents of children who have just turned 18

The day your child turns 18 you lose the legal right to see their medical records or manage their money — including the account you have been funding. If they are hospitalized at college, HIPAA prevents the hospital from telling you anything. The fix is small: a durable power of attorney, a designation of health care surrogate, and a HIPAA authorization signed by the young adult. It takes one appointment and is the least expensive genuinely urgent item in this practice.

Blended families and second marriages

Blended-family estate planning is where Florida law and family intention diverge most sharply, and where we see the most litigation. Three rules collide: intestacy splits the estate in half between the surviving spouse and the children; the homestead devise restriction means the house cannot go to the children if there is a surviving spouse; and the elective share gives the spouse 30% of an elective estate that reaches trusts, joint accounts and beneficiary designations.

Mirror wills — each spouse leaving everything to the other, then to “our children” — fail predictably, because nothing stops the survivor from executing a new will the following year. What holds is a QTIP or marital trust giving the surviving spouse income for life with the remainder legally committed to your biological children, or a waiver of spousal rights under § 732.702 — signed before two subscribing witnesses, with fair disclosure required only if signed after marriage, and treated as though that spouse predeceased you (City National Bank of Florida v. Tescher, 578 So. 2d 701 (Fla. 1991)). And a stepchild inherits nothing under Florida intestacy unless legally adopted.

Unmarried partners

Florida recognizes no common-law marriage entered into after 1968 and no state-level domestic partnership rights. An unmarried partner inherits nothing under intestacy, cannot serve as personal representative, and has no standing in the probate case. For medical decisions they are not powerless, but they are last in line: absent a designated surrogate, § 765.401(1) puts a judicially appointed guardian, then a spouse, adult children, parents, adult siblings and other adult relatives ahead of “a close friend of the patient” — the only category an unmarried partner fits. Everything has to be done by document — a will, a health care surrogate designation, a durable power of attorney, and beneficiary designations. It is entirely fixable, and the failure to do it produces some of the harshest outcomes in Florida estate law.

Seniors and long-term care planning

For most Florida retirees, the risk that should drive the plan is not estate tax. It is the cost of long-term care and losing the home to Medicaid estate recovery. The critical timing fact is the five-year look-back under 42 U.S.C. § 1396p(c) — an uncompensated transfer within 60 months of a Medicaid application can create a penalty period. Deeding the house to a child to “protect” it frequently does the opposite, at exactly the moment care is needed.

A lady bird deed is the usual answer, for two reasons. Because you keep the right to sell, mortgage and revoke without the remainderman’s consent, the remainder never vests during your lifetime, so no completed transfer occurs — unlike an ordinary life estate deed, whose actuarial value is an uncompensated transfer. And it stays outside Medicaid estate recovery: Florida recovers only against the probate estate under § 409.9101, and § 409.9101(10) bars selling protected homestead to satisfy the claim. It also preserves the step-up in basis. The other tools are irrevocable Medicaid asset protection trusts and qualified income trusts.

Families with a beneficiary who has special needs

Leaving an inheritance outright to someone receiving SSI or Medicaid can disqualify them until the money is spent. A special needs trust holds it for their benefit without counting as their resource. The authority depends on whose money funds it:

• First-party (self-settled) SNT — 42 U.S.C. § 1396p(d)(4)(A). Disabled beneficiary under 65; established by the individual, a parent, grandparent, legal guardian or a court; State Medicaid payback on death.
• Pooled trust — 42 U.S.C. § 1396p(d)(4)(C). Established and managed by a nonprofit association, separate accounts pooled for investment, no age-65 cap.
• Third-party SNT — funded with your money, so no payback requirement. This is what a parent creates. Florida has no third-party supplemental needs trust statute; these rest on general Ch. 736 trust law with the federal resource rules and SSA POMS SI 01120.200.

Two cautions, because both errors circulate widely: § 744.441 is not authority for a special needs trust (it is titled “Powers of guardian upon court approval”), and neither is § 736.0506 (“Overdue distribution”). An ABLE account may serve alongside a trust for smaller amounts; our Florida special needs trust guide covers the choice.

Business owners

A business interest is an asset like any other, and if it is titled in your name alone it goes through probate — during which the personal representative, not your partner or your successor, controls it. The instruments are a buy-sell agreement (often funded with life insurance), operating agreement provisions addressing a member’s death, and coordination with your personal documents. The most common failure is an operating agreement that contradicts the will. Chapter 711’s definition of “security” may reach some closely held interests, but transfer-on-death registration requires a registering entity willing to accept it — which a family LLC usually does not have.

Families planning across generations should look at a Florida dynasty trust: under § 689.225(2)(g) a trust created on or after July 1, 2022 may run up to 1,000 years.

Snowbirds and new Florida residents

If you have moved to Florida, your existing documents are probably still valid but very likely no longer optimal. Three specific problems:

• A springing power of attorney brought from your prior state will not be honored here — § 709.2108(3) makes one ineffective, and a Florida bank may balk at an out-of-state form regardless.
• Your personal representative may be disqualified under § 733.304 if they are a nonresident who is not one of the listed relatives.
• Your will may devise your Florida home in a way the homestead restriction does not permit.

If you keep property in another state it will require ancillary probate there — a second proceeding, in a second state, with second counsel. A trust is usually the cleanest solution. Filing a Declaration of Domicile under § 222.17 helps establish Florida residency for homestead and income tax purposes.

Digital assets and cryptocurrency

Florida’s statute is the Florida Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act, Fla. Stat. ch. 740. It gives a personal representative, trustee or agent a pathway to digital accounts — but the priority under § 740.003 is not what most people assume. A provider’s online tool (Google’s Inactive Account Manager, Facebook’s Legacy Contact) overrides your will. Only if you never used one does your will, trust or power of attorney control — and either of those beats the provider’s terms of service. Fifteen minutes in your Google and Facebook settings can silently outrank the document you paid a lawyer to draft.

Cryptocurrency in self-custody is a different problem, and not a legal one: no statute recovers a lost seed phrase. The answer is a written inventory of what exists and where the credentials are stored, kept separately from the documents.

Pets

An animal is property in Florida and cannot inherit, but Fla. Stat. § 736.0408 authorizes a pet trust — an enforceable trust for an animal alive during the settlor’s lifetime, terminating on the death of the last surviving animal. Name a caregiver, a trustee to hold and disburse funds, and a person with standing to enforce it. A line in a will asking someone to “take care of the dog” creates no obligation.

Charitable giving

A charitable bequest can be a specific dollar amount, a percentage of the residue, or a named asset. The most tax-efficient charitable gift is usually a beneficiary designation on a traditional IRA or 401(k), because a charity pays no income tax on the distribution while an individual beneficiary would. For larger gifts, a charitable remainder trust provides an income stream with a remainder to charity. Name the charity precisely — legal name, city, and EIN — because a misidentified charity is a common construction dispute.

When Should You Update Your Florida Estate Plan?

Review your Florida estate planning documents every three to five years, and immediately on any of these nine triggers:

1. Marriage or divorce. Florida does some of this for you, but not all of it, and the line runs through the middle of your retirement accounts. Fla. Stat. § 732.507(2) voids will provisions affecting a former spouse on dissolution, and § 732.703(2) voids most beneficiary designations naming a former spouse, expressly including IRAs (§ 732.703(3)(c)). But § 732.703(4)(a) carves out anything governed by controlling federal law — so a Florida divorce does not remove your ex-spouse from a 401(k), a pension, or employer group life insurance, because ERISA preempts the state statute (Egelhoff v. Egelhoff, 532 U.S. 141 (2001)). File a new beneficiary form with the plan administrator by hand.
2. A birth or adoption.
3. A death — of a spouse, a named beneficiary, or a named fiduciary; also the trigger for the portability election and its Form 706 deadline.
4. Moving to or from Florida.
5. A significant change in assets — selling a business, buying real property, an inheritance, a liquidity event.
6. Buying property in another state, which creates ancillary probate exposure.
7. A child turning 18.
8. A beneficiary’s circumstances changing — a disability, an addiction, a divorce or a creditor problem. Each is a reason to convert an outright gift into a trust.
9. A change in the law.

One item not on the list but that should be: audit your beneficiary designations annually. They override your will, they are held by institutions that never remind you, and a form completed in 2009 naming an ex-spouse will do exactly what it says.

What Happens After Death: Florida Probate and Estate Administration

Even a well-planned estate usually involves some court process, and every cost and delay below is something a plan is designed to reduce.

The four Florida probate procedures

Disposition without administration (§ 735.301) covers non-exempt personal property worth no more than preferred funeral expenses plus the medical and hospital expenses of the last 60 days of the last illness — no dollar cap, no personal representative appointed. The intestate small-estate affidavit (§ 735.304) applies where the decedent died intestate, has been dead more than a year, no administration is pending, and non-exempt personal property is at or under $20,000 plus those same expenses. Summary administration (§ 735.201) applies at or under $150,000 net of exempt property, or where the decedent has been dead more than two years, and commonly runs one to four months. Everything else is formal administration under Ch. 733 — commonly six to twelve months uncontested.

On timing, the court’s own standards are in Fla. R. Gen. Prac. & Jud. Admin. 2.250: 12 months from issuance of letters to final discharge for an uncontested estate, 24 months for a contested one. Those are administrative goals, not party deadlines.

The deadlines that actually bind

Deadline	Period	Authority
Custodian of the will must deposit it with the clerk	10 days after receiving information that the testator has died	§ 732.901(1)
Creditor claims	The later of 3 months from first publication of the notice to creditors, or 30 days from service on a served creditor	§ 733.702
Objections to the will’s validity, venue or jurisdiction after service of the notice of administration	3 months	§ 733.212
Surviving spouse’s homestead election (½ tenancy in common instead of a life estate)	6 months after death, and during the spouse’s lifetime	§ 732.401(2)(b)
Elective share election	The earlier of 6 months after service of the notice of administration, or 2 years after death	§ 732.2135
Absolute bar on claims against the estate	2 years after death — a statute of repose: not tolled, whether or not letters were issued	§ 733.710

The two six-month deadlines run from different events: the homestead election runs from death, the elective share from service of the notice of administration or two years from death, whichever is earlier. A surviving spouse can lose the § 732.401(2) election while still well inside the elective share window. (There is no 120-day case management deadline in Florida probate, despite that figure appearing on a number of law firm websites.)

What the personal representative actually does

The personal representative petitions for administration and obtains Letters of Administration; publishes the notice to creditors and serves it on known or reasonably ascertainable creditors; serves the notice of administration, which starts the § 733.212 objection period; marshals assets, files a verified inventory, and determines protected homestead and exempt property; pays valid claims in the § 733.707 statutory order — administration costs first, then funeral expenses capped at $6,000, then taxes, then medical and hospital expenses of the last 60 days of the last illness, and only then ordinary creditors; files final income tax returns and any federal estate tax return, including where portability is elected; and finally distributes, obtains receipts, and files a petition for discharge.

The personal representative is a fiduciary and is personally liable for getting it wrong — paying beneficiaries before creditors, or distributing before the claims period closes, is the usual way that happens.

What beneficiaries actually receive: the step-up in basis

Under IRC § 1014, property acquired from a decedent generally takes a basis equal to its fair market value at the date of death. A house bought for $80,000 and worth $600,000 at death passes with a $600,000 basis, and the heirs can sell immediately with little or no capital gains tax. This is why giving property away during life is usually a tax mistake: a lifetime gift carries your original basis to the recipient (IRC § 1015), while an inheritance resets it. Parents who deed the house to a child to avoid probate frequently hand that child a large capital gains liability that would have vanished at death. A lady bird deed avoids probate and preserves the step-up, and assets in a revocable trust receive it too.

Frequently Asked Questions About Estate Planning in Florida

Do I need a will in Florida?

If you have minor children, an unmarried partner, a blended family, or any preference that differs from the intestacy table above, yes. Without a will, Fla. Stat. §§ 732.101–.108 decide, you cannot nominate a guardian for your children, and you cannot choose your personal representative. A will alone is rarely a complete plan, though — it does nothing while you are alive.

What are the requirements for a valid will in Florida?

Under Fla. Stat. § 732.502 the will must be in writing, signed by the testator at the end (or by another at the testator’s direction and in their presence), before at least two attesting witnesses, who must sign in the presence of the testator and of each other. A self-proving affidavit under § 732.503 is not required for validity but avoids locating witnesses years later.

Is a handwritten will valid in Florida?

Yes — if it was properly witnessed. Florida rejects unwitnessed handwritten (holographic) wills, and § 732.502(2) refuses to honor them even when valid where signed. But that subsection provides that a will in the testator’s handwriting executed with two attesting witnesses “shall not be considered a holographic will.” Florida objects to the missing witnesses, not the handwriting. Oral (nuncupative) wills are never valid.

Can I write my own will in Florida?

Legally yes, if you meet the § 732.502 formalities. The risk is the drafting, not the signing. Homemade wills routinely misdescribe assets, name a personal representative disqualified under § 733.304, attempt to devise homestead in a way the constitution does not permit, or contradict beneficiary designations that override the will anyway.

Are online wills legal in Florida?

Yes, with two conditions that decide real cases. Florida recognizes electronic wills under Fla. Stat. §§ 732.521–.525, including remote witnessing by audio-video technology through a Florida remote online notary. But § 117.285(5)(g) makes remote witnessing ineffective for a “vulnerable adult” — the witnessing is a nullity, so the will lacks the two attesting witnesses § 732.502 requires and is invalid. The § 415.102 definition reaches anyone whose ability to perform daily activities is impaired by disability or “the infirmities of aging.” Second, self-proof requires a Florida qualified custodian holding the record continuously (§ 732.523). If there is any doubt, use witnesses physically in the room.

Who inherits if there is no will in Florida?

A surviving spouse takes the entire probate estate if there are no descendants, or if all descendants are shared and the spouse has no others. If there are descendants from another relationship on either side, the spouse and the descendants each take half. With no spouse, everything passes to descendants per stirpes, then parents, siblings, grandparents, aunts and uncles. Full table above. An unmarried partner and an unadopted stepchild inherit nothing.

Can I leave my house to my child in Florida?

Not if you are survived by a spouse or a minor child. Art. X, § 4(c), Fla. Const. and § 732.4015 prohibit devising homestead in that situation — the only permitted devise is to your spouse, and only if you have no minor child. A trust does not help: § 732.4015(2) defines “devise” to include a disposition by trust. With no spouse and no minor child, you may leave the homestead to anyone. Full explanation above.

Can a spouse be disinherited in Florida?

No, not without a valid waiver. Fla. Stat. § 732.2065 makes the elective share “an amount equal to 30 percent of the elective estate” — exactly 30%, not a minimum. The elective estate under § 732.2035 reaches revocable trust property, joint and POD accounts, and property transferred within a year of death. The election must be filed by the earlier of 6 months after service of the notice of administration or 2 years after death (§ 732.2135). Spousal rights can be waived under § 732.702 before two subscribing witnesses.

Do I need a trust in Florida, or is a will enough?

Case-specific. A trust is worth the cost when you own Florida real property you want to pass without probate, own property in more than one state, want privacy, want to control when beneficiaries receive money, or have a beneficiary who needs protection. A will plus properly set beneficiary designations, POD registrations and a lady bird deed can achieve probate avoidance for many simpler estates at a fraction of the cost.

How much does a will cost in Florida?

A simple will alone commonly runs $400–$1,200 from a Florida estate planning attorney. A core package including the durable power of attorney, health care surrogate designation, living will and HIPAA authorization typically runs $1,200–$3,000. Ask for a written flat fee. Full cost table above, including the statutory probate fee schedule for comparison.

How much does a living trust cost in Florida?

Commonly $2,500–$5,000 for an individual and $3,000–$7,000 for a married couple, including the pour-over will and incapacity documents. Ask specifically whether funding — preparing and recording the deed, and assisting with account retitling — is included. A trust that is never funded does nothing, and funding is where the work actually is.

How can I avoid probate in Florida?

By ensuring nothing is titled in your name alone at death without an automatic transfer mechanism: a funded revocable trust, beneficiary designations, POD/TOD registrations, a lady bird deed, survivorship ownership including tenancy by the entireties, summary administration, or disposition without administration. Comparison table above.

What assets do not go through probate in Florida?

Assets with a named beneficiary (life insurance, IRAs, 401(k)s, annuities), POD and TOD accounts, property held jointly with right of survivorship or as tenancy by the entireties, property titled in a funded trust, and real property subject to a lady bird deed. Protected homestead passing to heirs is also generally not subject to administration for creditor purposes.

What is the summary administration limit in Florida?

$150,000, effective July 1, 2026. Fla. Stat. § 735.201 permits summary administration when the estate subject to administration in Florida, less property exempt from creditors’ claims, does not exceed $150,000 — or when the decedent has been dead more than two years, with no dollar limit. The prior figure was $75,000, raised by CS/HB 1337, Ch. 2026-57, Laws of Florida.

Does Florida have an inheritance tax or estate tax?

No to both. Art. VII, § 5 of the Florida Constitution allows such a tax only to the extent of a credit against the federal tax, and Ch. 198 operates only as a dormant “pick-up” tax. Beneficiaries pay no Florida tax on an inheritance. Federal estate tax applies only above the $15,000,000 2026 exclusion. Income generated by inherited assets after death is taxable normally.

Does Florida have a transfer on death deed?

No. Florida has never adopted the Uniform Real Property Transfer on Death Act, and no Florida statute authorizes a beneficiary deed for real estate. Chapter 711 applies to securities and investment accounts only. For real property, Florida uses the lady bird deed (enhanced life estate deed), which passes the remainder outside probate while the owner keeps the right to sell, mortgage or revoke.

Does a power of attorney take effect immediately in Florida?

Yes. Fla. Stat. § 709.2108(1): “a power of attorney is exercisable when executed.” Florida does not permit springing powers — § 709.2108(3) makes a POA ineffective if it takes effect on a future date or contingency. The exceptions are POAs executed before October 1, 2011 that were conditioned on incapacity (§ 709.2108(2)), and military powers of attorney under 10 U.S.C. § 1044b (§ 709.2106(4)).

What is the difference between a living will and an advance directive?

“Advance directive” is the umbrella term for any written or oral instruction about future health care. A living will is one type — your instructions about life-prolonging procedures in a terminal condition, end-stage condition, or persistent vegetative state. A designation of health care surrogate is another, naming the person who decides. The living will says what; the surrogate designation says who. You want both.

Can my out-of-state brother be my personal representative in Florida?

Yes — a brother is on the § 733.304 list. A nonresident may serve if they are a legally adopted child or adoptive parent, related to you by lineal consanguinity, or a spouse, brother, sister, uncle, aunt, nephew or niece — or anyone related by lineal consanguinity to one of those people, which is why a nephew’s son can serve. A half-sibling qualifies. A nonresident cousin, stepchild, friend or business partner does not. Name someone disqualified and § 733.303 makes the nomination fail. Note that a trustee faces no residency restriction at all.

How do I protect a disabled loved one’s inheritance?

With a special needs trust rather than an outright gift. Funded with your own money it is a third-party SNT with no Medicaid payback; funded with the beneficiary’s own funds it must meet 42 U.S.C. § 1396p(d)(4)(A) (under 65, State payback) or (d)(4)(C) (a nonprofit-managed pooled trust).

Who will raise my children if I don’t name a guardian?

A judge decides, choosing among whoever petitions the court — which may not be who you would have chosen, and can become a contested proceeding between relatives at the worst possible moment. Name a guardian in your will, and consider also filing a designation of preneed guardian for a minor under § 744.3046, which covers incapacity as well as death.

How often should I update my estate plan?

Every three to five years as a baseline, and immediately on marriage, divorce, a birth, a death, a move to or from Florida, a significant change in assets, buying out-of-state property, a child turning 18, a beneficiary’s circumstances changing, or a change in the law. Full list above. Review beneficiary designations annually — they override your will and nobody reminds you.

What is a pour-over will?

A will used alongside a trust that directs any asset still titled in your name at death into the trust. It is a safety net for imperfect funding — but it operates through probate, which is what the trust was meant to avoid. Treat it as a backstop, not a substitute for funding the trust properly.

Talk to a Florida Estate Planning Attorney

Most of what goes wrong in estate planning in Florida is not exotic. It is a springing power of attorney that does not work, a homestead devise the constitution does not permit, a nonresident personal representative who cannot serve, a trust nobody funded, or a beneficiary designation from a prior marriage that quietly overrides everything else. All of it is fixable while you are here to fix it.

Lorenzo Law handles Florida estate planning, probate and probate litigation statewide, in English and Spanish — wills, revocable and irrevocable trusts, powers of attorney, advance directives, homestead planning, special needs trusts and business succession. Because we also litigate contested estates, we draft with an eye to how these documents fail.

Call (305) 224-6811 or send us a message.

---

Authorities Cited

Florida Constitution. Art. VII, §§ 4(d), 6 · Art. X, § 4(a)–(c).

Florida Statutes. §§ 28.2221 · 117.285 · 196.031 · 198.02 · 222.17 · 409.9101 · 415.102 · 655.82 · 689.225 · 709.2105–709.2108 · 709.2202 · Ch. 711 · 731.201 · 732.101–732.108 · 732.401 · 732.4015 · 732.502–732.503 · 732.507 · 732.521–732.525 · 732.702 · 732.7025 · 732.703 · 732.901 · 732.2035 · 732.2065 · 732.2135 · Ch. 733 · 733.212 · 733.303–733.304 · 733.6125 · 733.617 · 733.6171 · 733.702 · 733.707 · 733.710 · 735.201 · 735.301 · 735.304 · Ch. 736 · 736.0408 · 736.0505–736.0506 · 736.05053 · 736.05055 · 736.1109 · Ch. 738 (UFIPA) · Ch. 740 (Florida Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act) · 740.003 · Ch. 744 · 744.441 · 744.3046 · 765.202 · 765.204 · 765.302.

Cases. In re Estate of Angeleri, 575 So. 2d 794 (Fla. 4th DCA 1991) · Cavanaugh v. Cavanaugh, 542 So. 2d 1345 (Fla. 1st DCA 1989) · In re Chadwick’s Estate, 309 So. 2d 587 (Fla. 2d DCA 1975) · City National Bank of Florida v. Tescher, 578 So. 2d 701 (Fla. 1991) · Engelke v. Estate of Engelke, 921 So. 2d 693 (Fla. 4th DCA 2006) · Parisi v. de Kingston, 357 So. 3d 1254 (Fla. 3d DCA 2023) · Samad v. Pla, 267 So. 3d 476 (Fla. 2d DCA 2019) · Schiro v. Elliott, 2026 WL 1501045 (Fla. 2d DCA May 29, 2026).

Rules, session laws and federal authority. Fla. Prob. R. 5.030 · 5.042(b) · 5.405 · Fla. R. Gen. Prac. & Jud. Admin. 2.250 · Fla. Admin. Code R. 12D-7.010–7.011 · Ch. 2026-57, Laws of Florida (CS/HB 1337), eff. July 1, 2026 · Ch. 2024-216 (UFIPA, eff. Jan. 1, 2025) · IRC §§ 1014, 1015, 2010(c)(3), 2036(a), 2038 · P.L. 119-21 · IRS Rev. Proc. 2025-32 · 42 U.S.C. § 1396p(c), (d)(4)(A), (d)(4)(C) · 10 U.S.C. § 1044b · SSA POMS SI 01120.200 · Egelhoff v. Egelhoff, 532 U.S. 141 (2001).

---

About the author. Jose M. Lorenzo, Jr., Florida Bar No. 107002, is a Florida estate planning, probate and probate litigation attorney at Lorenzo Law. He has been a member of The Florida Bar since 2013, earned his J.D. from Florida International University, and clerked for the Honorable Maria M. Korvick in the Miami-Dade County probate division. The firm serves clients throughout Florida in English and Spanish. Contact the firm or call (305) 224-6811.

This article is general information about Florida law and is not legal advice, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship. Florida estate planning deadlines are short and fact-dependent, and the application of these rules to your circumstances should be evaluated by a lawyer. Written and reviewed by Jose M. Lorenzo, Jr., Florida Bar No. 107002. Last reviewed September 2, 2026.