Linda, a 67-year-old in Naples, owns a home, a brokerage account, and a small rental condo near the beach. Her goal is simple: when she dies, she wants her two children to receive everything quickly, privately, and without a courtroom. Her attorney suggests a revocable living trust. Here is how that tool works under Florida law, and why it fits Linda’s situation.
What a Revocable Living Trust Is
A revocable trust, governed by Florida’s trust code in Chapter 736, is a legal arrangement you create during your lifetime. You wear three hats at once: you are the grantor (you create it), the trustee (you manage it), and the beneficiary (you benefit from it while alive). “Revocable” means you can change or cancel it any time you are competent. You keep full control, you can buy, sell, refinance, and spend exactly as before.
The Funding Step Everyone Underestimates
A trust only controls what you put into it. Linda must fund the trust by retitling assets into its name: deeding the condo to the trust, renaming the brokerage account, and so on. An unfunded trust is an empty box, when people complain that “the trust didn’t work,” the usual culprit is assets that were never transferred in. In Florida this funding step deserves careful attention, especially for real estate, where the deed must be properly drafted and recorded.
The Main Payoff: Avoiding Probate
When Linda dies, assets held in her funded trust pass to her successor trustee, the child she named, without going through Florida probate at all. That means no formal administration under Chapter 733, no public court file listing her assets, and typically a faster handoff to her children. Privacy is a real benefit: a Florida will becomes a public record once filed, while a properly administered trust generally stays private.
Florida Homestead and Your Trust
Linda’s primary residence raises a special question. Florida homestead (Article X, §4) carries valuable creditor and tax protections, and putting a homestead into a revocable trust must be done carefully so those protections, including the homestead property tax exemption and Save Our Homes assessment cap, are not jeopardized. Florida law has evolved to accommodate homestead-in-trust, but the drafting matters, this is not a place for guesswork.
What a Revocable Trust Does Not Do
Two honest limits. First, because Linda keeps control, the assets are still hers for creditor and tax purposes, a revocable trust is not an asset-protection shield and does not reduce taxes. (Florida helps here independently: there is no state estate or inheritance tax.) Second, a revocable trust does not manage your money if you become incapacitated unless paired with the right provisions and a durable power of attorney under Chapter 709. Most Florida plans use both, plus a short “pour-over” will to catch anything left outside the trust.
Is It Right for You?
Revocable trusts shine for Floridians who own real estate, value privacy, have out-of-state property, or want a smooth transition without probate. They are not mandatory, plenty of simpler estates do fine with a will, but for someone like Linda, the trade of a bit more upfront work for a private, probate-free transfer is often worth it.
Talk to a Florida Attorney
Trusts only work when drafted and funded correctly under Florida’s trust code. Before creating or funding one, especially with homestead involved, consult a licensed Florida estate planning attorney to make sure it fits your assets and goals.
For more on our Florida practice, see our overview of estate planning in Boca Raton. Morgan Legal Group's affiliated New York office also handles Article 81 guardianship in New York.