Updating your estate plan after divorce, marriage, or a move to Florida means reviewing and revising your will, trust, powers of attorney, and beneficiary designations so they reflect your current family, your current wishes, and the law of your current home state. Each of these three events changes who inherits, who can act for you, and whose rights the law protects automatically. In Florida, a fresh review is not optional housekeeping, because Florida’s homestead, elective-share, and spousal-protection rules can quietly override documents you signed in another state.
I have sat across the table from too many surviving spouses and adult children who assumed an old set of documents would still do the job. They almost never do. Below is how an experienced Florida estate planning attorney thinks about these three life changes, and what you should actually fix.
Why these three events demand an estate plan review
Divorce, marriage, and relocation each break one of the three assumptions every estate plan rests on: who is in your family, what you own and how you own it, and which state’s law governs your documents. When even one of those shifts, the plan you signed years ago may now do the opposite of what you intend.
The common thread is that the law fills gaps with default rules. If your documents are silent or stale, the statute decides, and the statute does not know about your divorce decree, your new spouse, or the condo you just bought in Boca Raton. A current plan replaces those defaults with your own choices.
Updating your estate plan after divorce
Florida law gives you a partial safety net here, but leaning on it is a mistake. Under Florida Statutes section 732.507(2), a provision in your will that benefits a spouse becomes void the moment the marriage is judicially dissolved, and the will is read as if the former spouse died at the time of the divorce. Section 732.703 applies a similar revocation-by-divorce rule to many beneficiary designations on assets like life insurance and certain accounts.
That sounds tidy. The problem is everything the statute does not reach.
- Revocable trusts and contractual arrangements may not be cleanly unwound by the divorce statutes, depending on how they were drafted and funded.
- Retirement accounts governed by federal law, such as 401(k) plans subject to ERISA, follow the named beneficiary regardless of a Florida divorce statute. The federal designation controls, and your ex-spouse can collect.
- Powers of attorney and health care surrogate designations naming your former spouse may still be sitting in a drawer, giving the last person you would choose authority over your money and medical decisions.
- Contingent beneficiaries, like your former in-laws or stepchildren, may remain in line even after the primary gift to your ex is voided.
After a divorce, you should sign a new will or amend your trust, revoke and re-execute your durable power of attorney and health care surrogate, and personally re-file beneficiary forms with every plan administrator, insurer, and bank. Do not assume the divorce did the work for you. The statute is a backstop, not a plan.
If you are divorcing and have minor children
Use this moment to name a guardian and, ideally, to direct assets into a trust rather than outright to a child. A child who inherits outright at eighteen rarely benefits from it. A trust lets you control timing and protect a child with special needs without disqualifying them from public benefits.
Updating your estate plan after marriage or remarriage
Marriage is the event people most often skip, and in Florida it is the one most likely to blow up a plan, because Florida grants a surviving spouse rights you cannot accidentally write out of existence.
The Florida elective share
Under Florida Statutes sections 732.201 through 732.2155, a surviving spouse who is dissatisfied with what a will or trust leaves them can claim the elective share: 30 percent of the elective estate. Critically, the elective estate is broad. It reaches well beyond the probate estate to include revocable trust assets, certain pay-on-death accounts, some jointly held property, and even particular transfers made before death. You cannot simply title everything in a trust and assume your prior children take it all. A new spouse has a statutory floor.
If you remarry and want your children from a first marriage to inherit, you must plan around the elective share deliberately, often with a marital trust, a properly drafted and executed prenuptial or postnuptial agreement waiving spousal rights, or a combination. Silence does not protect your kids. It hands your new spouse leverage.
The pretermitted spouse rule
There is a sharper trap. Under Florida Statutes section 732.301, if you marry after signing your will and that will neither provides for the new spouse nor shows the omission was intentional, your spouse takes an intestate share as a pretermitted spouse, as if you had no will at all for that portion. An old will plus a new marriage can quietly rewrite your entire distribution.
Florida homestead and the surviving spouse
Homestead deserves its own warning. The Florida Constitution, Article X, section 4, restricts how you can devise homestead property when you are survived by a spouse or minor child. If you leave your homestead to anyone other than your spouse while a spouse survives, the devise can be invalid, and the law instead gives the surviving spouse a life estate with a remainder to descendants, or, by election, an undivided one-half interest under section 732.401. Couples who think they have neatly divided the house in their wills are frequently shocked to learn the Constitution overrides them.
After marriage or remarriage, review beneficiary designations to add or replace your spouse where you intend, decide consciously how to handle the homestead, and address the elective share head-on rather than hoping it never comes up. For families blending children from prior relationships, this is where careful drafting earns its keep, and it is exactly the kind of work our team handles for Florida families through our Florida estate planning practice.
Updating your estate plan after moving to Florida
A will that was perfectly valid in New York, New Jersey, or Illinois is usually still valid in Florida, but valid is not the same as optimal, and a few out-of-state features are actively dangerous here.
- Out-of-state holographic or oral wills. Some states honor handwritten or unwitnessed wills. Florida does not recognize holographic wills executed by Florida residents, and a will valid only because it was handwritten elsewhere can fail under section 732.502. Florida requires a signed, written will witnessed by two people.
- Non-resident personal representatives. Florida sharply limits who may serve as your personal representative (executor). Under Florida Statutes section 733.304, a non-resident can serve only if they are closely related to you by blood, marriage, or adoption. The trusted friend or out-of-state professional named in your old will may be legally disqualified to administer your Florida estate.
- Homestead and creditor protection. Florida’s homestead is one of the strongest creditor protections in the country, but capturing it requires owning and titling property correctly and aligning your documents with the constitutional devise restrictions described above.
- No state estate or inheritance tax. Florida imposes neither, which is welcome news, but it also means a plan built around another state’s death tax may now contain unnecessary complexity worth simplifying.
When you establish Florida residency, have an attorney re-execute your core documents under Florida formalities, confirm your personal representative and trustee choices still qualify, and update your durable power of attorney and health care surrogate to the Florida statutory forms so banks and hospitals honor them without argument. Practically speaking, a clean Florida will and a funded revocable trust prevent most of the friction. If you want to understand the building blocks first, start with our overview of Florida wills and trusts and how they fit together.
What a move does not change
Relocation does not, by itself, revoke your old documents. That is the trap. The stale plan keeps governing until you replace it, so the risk is complacency, not automatic loss. Treat the move as a hard deadline for a full review rather than assuming Florida law quietly cleaned things up for you.
A practical checklist for any major life change
- Re-read your will and any trust, out loud, and confirm the named people are who you would choose today.
- Pull every beneficiary designation, including life insurance, annuities, IRAs, 401(k)s, and pay-on-death bank and brokerage accounts, and update them directly with each institution.
- Re-execute your durable power of attorney and your designation of health care surrogate.
- Confirm your personal representative and trustee still qualify and are willing to serve.
- Check how your homestead and other real estate are titled against your goals and Florida’s devise rules.
- If you have remarried, decide consciously how to handle the elective share before it decides for you.
- For minor children or a beneficiary with disabilities, direct assets into a trust. A properly drafted special needs trust can preserve eligibility for public benefits while still providing support.
None of these steps is exotic, but they only protect you when they are done together and done correctly. The foundation is usually a properly executed will. Whether you are establishing one for the first time or refreshing an old one, the mechanics of a valid last will and testament are the same skeleton every plan is built around, and getting the execution formalities right is what keeps the whole structure standing.
When to bring in an attorney
You can change a beneficiary form yourself. You should not draft around the Florida elective share, the pretermitted spouse rule, or the homestead devise restrictions on your own. These provisions interact, and a fix in one place can create exposure in another. A blended family, a recent remarriage, a business interest, or a child who receives government benefits are all signals to get professional help rather than a fill-in-the-blank form. If you are ready to update your plan, our Florida attorneys can review your existing documents and tell you precisely what a divorce, marriage, or move has changed. You can reach us through our contact page to start that conversation.
Frequently asked questions
Does divorce automatically remove my ex-spouse from my will in Florida?
Largely yes for wills. Florida Statutes section 732.507(2) treats provisions favoring a former spouse as if that spouse died at the time of the divorce, and section 732.703 voids many beneficiary designations. But ERISA-governed retirement accounts, some trust provisions, and your powers of attorney are not reliably cleaned up by statute, so you still need to revise them yourself.
How much can a surviving spouse claim in Florida if I leave them out?
A dissatisfied surviving spouse can elect to take 30 percent of the elective estate under Florida Statutes sections 732.201 through 732.2155. The elective estate is broad and includes much more than probate assets, so you generally cannot defeat it by titling property in a revocable trust without deliberate planning or a valid waiver.
Is my out-of-state will valid after I move to Florida?
A will validly executed in another state is usually still valid in Florida, with the notable exception of a handwritten holographic will, which Florida does not recognize for its residents. Even a valid will should be reviewed, because your out-of-state personal representative may be disqualified under section 733.304 and your old plan may ignore Florida homestead protections.
I just got remarried but never changed my will. What happens?
Under Florida Statutes section 732.301, a spouse you marry after signing your will, who is neither provided for nor intentionally omitted, can take an intestate share as a pretermitted spouse. An old will combined with a new marriage can unintentionally redirect a large part of your estate, so updating promptly after remarriage is essential.
How often should I review my Florida estate plan?
Review it after any major life event, including divorce, marriage, a move, a birth, a death, or a significant change in assets, and otherwise about every three to five years. Laws and family circumstances both drift over time, and a periodic review keeps your documents aligned with your wishes and current Florida law.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does divorce automatically remove my ex-spouse from my will in Florida?
Largely yes for wills. Florida Statutes section 732.507(2) treats provisions favoring a former spouse as if that spouse died at the time of the divorce, and section 732.703 voids many beneficiary designations. But ERISA-governed retirement accounts, some trust provisions, and your powers of attorney are not reliably cleaned up by statute, so you still need to revise them yourself.
How much can a surviving spouse claim in Florida if I leave them out?
A dissatisfied surviving spouse can elect to take 30 percent of the elective estate under Florida Statutes sections 732.201 through 732.2155. The elective estate is broad and includes much more than probate assets, so you generally cannot defeat it by titling property in a revocable trust without deliberate planning or a valid waiver.
Is my out-of-state will valid after I move to Florida?
A will validly executed in another state is usually still valid in Florida, with the notable exception of a handwritten holographic will, which Florida does not recognize for its residents. Even a valid will should be reviewed, because your out-of-state personal representative may be disqualified under section 733.304 and your old plan may ignore Florida homestead protections.
I just got remarried but never changed my will. What happens?
Under Florida Statutes section 732.301, a spouse you marry after signing your will, who is neither provided for nor intentionally omitted, can take an intestate share as a pretermitted spouse. An old will combined with a new marriage can unintentionally redirect a large part of your estate, so updating promptly after remarriage is essential.
How often should I review my Florida estate plan?
Review it after any major life event, including divorce, marriage, a move, a birth, a death, or a significant change in assets, and otherwise about every three to five years. Laws and family circumstances both drift over time, and a periodic review keeps your documents aligned with your wishes and current Florida law.
For more on our Florida practice, see our overview of powers of attorney in Florida. Morgan Legal Group's affiliated New York office also handles Article 81 guardianship in New York.