When and Why to Review Your Florida Estate Plan: A Surviving-Spouse Guide
When and why to review your Florida estate plan: life events, law changes, and elective-share traps every surviving spouse should watch for.
April 26, 2026
When and why to review your Florida estate plan: life events, law changes, and elective-share traps every surviving spouse should watch for.
A Florida-specific look at whether you need a will, using real scenarios on homestead, probate, and what the state decides if you skip it.
Why beneficiary designations override your Florida will, and how a forgotten form can derail your whole estate plan. A scenario-driven Florida guide.
Adding a child to your Florida deed or bank account feels simple, but joint ownership can backfire badly. A scenario-based look at the real risks.
A plain-English, Florida-focused guide to revocable living trusts, using a real scenario to show how they sidestep probate under Chapter 736.
How Florida’s Medicaid 5-year look-back works for nursing-home care, what triggers a penalty, and planning moves that actually help.
Blended families face unique estate risks in Florida, from the elective share to homestead. A scenario-driven guide to protecting both spouse and kids.
Annual exclusion gifts, 529 plans, and direct tuition payments help Florida families shrink a taxable estate. A scenario-driven guide.
When do irrevocable trusts make sense in Florida? A Florida estate attorney explains asset protection, Medicaid, taxes, and elective-share traps.
How a Florida special needs trust lets you provide for a disabled loved one without ending SSI or Medicaid eligibility. A scenario-based guide.
A Florida walk-through of health care surrogates, living wills, and advance directives under Chapter 765 when a medical crisis strikes.
From crypto to cloud photos, your Florida estate plan needs a digital strategy. Florida law gives your fiduciary the access, if you set it up right.
Florida has no state estate or inheritance tax. Here is how the federal estate tax actually affects Florida families, with a real-world example.
How Florida families use spendthrift trusts, staggered distributions, and trustee controls to protect an inheritance for young or financially fragile heirs.
When do irrevocable trusts make sense in Florida? Real scenarios on asset protection, Medicaid planning, and the control you trade away under Chapter 736.
Florida beneficiary designations on life insurance, IRAs, and POD accounts override your will. Learn how this affects spouses and elective share.
How Florida couples in second marriages coordinate prenuptial agreements, elective share, and homestead rules to protect both spouses and children.
How Florida business owners plan their estate and succession—buy-sell agreements, trusts, elective share, and protecting a surviving spouse’s interest.
How Florida health care surrogate designations and living wills work under Chapter 765, why spouses need both, and how to make them legally valid.
How Medicaid asset protection planning works in Florida: the 5-year look-back, exempt assets, spousal protections, and trusts that preserve a legacy.
A Florida estate attorney explains Lady Bird (enhanced life estate) deeds, how they avoid probate, and what surviving spouses should know about elective share.
How Florida’s 30% elective share protects a surviving spouse, what counts in the elective estate, and how couples plan around it. South Florida attorneys explain.
How to fund a revocable living trust correctly in Florida: retitling assets, homestead and spousal traps, and the elective-share concerns surviving spouses face.
How Florida joint ownership and survivorship can derail your estate plan, override your will, and shortchange a surviving spouse. A Florida attorney explains.
A Florida estate attorney explains the durable power of attorney under Chapter 709: how it works, agent duties, banking provisions, and spouse concerns.
How charitable giving and trusts work in a Florida estate plan, including CRTs, CLTs, and how gifts interact with a surviving spouse’s elective share.
Florida trust vs. will, compared through real scenarios on probate, homestead, privacy, and cost, so you can tell which one actually fits your life.
Florida incapacity planning explained: durable power of attorney, health care surrogate, living will, and preneed guardian. Protect yourself before a crisis.
South Florida is built by people who came from somewhere else. In our community, it is common for one spouse to be a U.S. citizen
How Florida pour-over wills work with a living trust, what they catch in probate, and what surviving spouses should know about the elective share.
