You should review your Florida estate plan every three to five years, and immediately after any major life event such as a move to Florida, a marriage or divorce, a death in the family, or a significant change in your assets. Reviewing means re-reading your will, trust, powers of attorney, and beneficiary designations to confirm they still match your wishes, your family, and current Florida law. For retirees and seasonal residents, an out-of-date plan is one of the most common and most expensive problems we see in probate.
I’ve sat across the table from too many families in Miami who assumed a will signed in New Jersey or Ohio twenty years ago would simply work down here. Sometimes it does. Often it doesn’t. The document is rarely the problem on its own; the problem is that life moved on and the paperwork didn’t.
Why reviewing your Florida estate plan matters
An estate plan is a snapshot of your intentions at one moment in time. The moment passes. Children grow up, spouses pass away, accounts get rolled over, and the law itself shifts underneath you. A plan that was airtight in 2010 can quietly develop gaps that nobody notices until the person who made it is gone and can’t fix it.
For snowbirds and recent transplants, the stakes are higher than average. You may own property in two states. You may have established Florida residency for tax purposes but never updated the documents that prove your intentions about that property. When you split your year between Miami and somewhere up north, a stale plan doesn’t just risk confusion; it can drag your family into probate in two jurisdictions at once.
When to review your estate plan: the trigger events
There are two kinds of reviews. One is the routine calendar check. The other is the event-driven review, prompted by something that actually changed. Both matter, but the event-driven ones are where real damage gets prevented.
1. You moved to Florida or established residency here
This is the big one for our clients. A will validly executed in another state is generally recognized in Florida under Florida law on out-of-state wills, but recognition isn’t the same as suitability. Florida has its own rules, and some of them surprise people.
For example, Florida does not permit a holographic (handwritten, unwitnessed) will, even if it was valid where you signed it. Florida also has strict witness requirements under Florida Statutes Chapter 732. And if you named an out-of-state relative as personal representative, Florida Statutes section 733.304 restricts who can serve: a non-resident can only be your personal representative if they are a close relative by blood, marriage, or adoption. Your trusted neighbor in Connecticut likely cannot serve at all.
2. Your homestead situation changed
Florida’s homestead protections are among the strongest in the country, and they are unusual. The Florida Constitution restricts how you can leave your homestead if you’re survived by a spouse or minor child. You can’t simply will the house to whomever you please if those protections apply. People who bought a Florida home, remarried, or had the property change character often have wills that conflict with the homestead rules without realizing it.
3. Marriage, divorce, or the death of a spouse
Marriage and divorce reshape an estate plan more than almost anything else. Under Florida Statutes section 732.507, a divorce automatically voids provisions in your will that favor your former spouse, but it does not fix everything, and it does nothing for assets that pass outside the will. Remarriage triggers Florida’s elective share statute (Florida Statutes section 732.201 and following), which entitles a surviving spouse to 30% of the elective estate regardless of what your will says. Blended families especially need a review here.
4. A beneficiary or fiduciary died, moved, or fell out of favor
If the person you named as executor, trustee, health care surrogate, or agent under your power of attorney has died, become incapacitated, or simply drifted out of your life, the plan needs attention. The same goes for beneficiaries. A named beneficiary who predeceases you can send an asset to an unintended place, or into probate, depending on how the document is drafted.
5. Your assets changed meaningfully
- You sold a business or a property, or bought a new one.
- You opened new retirement, brokerage, or bank accounts with their own beneficiary designations.
- You created or funded a trust but never retitled the assets into it (an extremely common oversight).
- Your net worth crossed a threshold where federal estate tax planning becomes worth discussing.
- A family member developed a disability and now needs special-needs planning to preserve benefits.
6. The law changed
Tax law and probate law both move. The federal estate tax exemption, in particular, is scheduled to change, and what’s optimal under one exemption level can be wrong under another. Florida updated its trust and probate code in recent years too. You don’t need to track every amendment, but a periodic review with an attorney catches the changes that actually affect you.
What a thorough estate plan review covers
When we sit down to review a plan, we’re not just re-reading the will. A modern Florida estate plan is a set of coordinated documents, and they have to agree with each other.
- The will — Is it valid in Florida? Is the personal representative still eligible and willing? Do the dispositions still reflect your wishes?
- Revocable living trust — Is it actually funded? An unfunded trust is just paper. We confirm the deeds and account titles match.
- Durable power of attorney — Florida’s power of attorney statute (Chapter 709) requires specific formalities, and older POAs may not meet the current standard or may be rejected by banks.
- Health care surrogate and living will — Are your chosen agents still the right people, and are they reachable?
- Beneficiary designations — These override your will. We reconcile retirement accounts, life insurance, and pay-on-death accounts against the rest of the plan.
- Titling and homestead — How property is held (joint tenancy, tenancy by the entireties, in trust) drives where it goes.
Coordinating these is where the value lives. I’ve seen meticulously drafted trusts undone by a single beneficiary form on an IRA that nobody thought to update after a divorce.
Special considerations for retirees and seasonal residents
Snowbirds carry a unique set of risks. If you own real estate in two states and die owning it outright, your family may face ancillary probate in the second state on top of Florida administration. A properly funded revocable trust often avoids that. For clients with longevity or asset-protection concerns, more specialized vehicles come into play, and the right tool depends heavily on your home base and your goals.
Clients who split time between Florida and New York frequently ask about long-term care and Medicaid planning. Because the rules are state-specific, planning done correctly in one state can be useless or counterproductive in another. For New York-side planning, our colleagues at Morgan Legal explain how a can shelter assets from long-term care costs, and how a can preserve income for those already receiving care. The Florida analysis is different, which is exactly why dual-state residents need coordinated advice rather than two disconnected plans.
On the Florida side, a comprehensive review of your ensures your homestead, residency, and probate exposure are all handled under the right state’s rules.
How often should you review, even when nothing has changed?
Absent a triggering event, a review every three to five years is the sensible baseline. Younger, simpler estates can stretch toward five. Larger estates, blended families, business owners, and anyone with out-of-state ties should lean toward three. And if you genuinely cannot remember the last time you read your own documents, that is itself a sign it’s time.
The cost of a review is small. The cost of a stale plan, paid by your family in legal fees, delay, and conflict during Florida probate, is not. If you’ve recently moved to Miami, changed your family situation, or simply let a decade slip by, schedule a review. You can reach our office to get started.
Frequently Asked Questions
How often should I review my Florida estate plan?
Review it every three to five years as a baseline, and immediately after any major life event such as moving to Florida, marriage, divorce, the death of a spouse or beneficiary, a significant change in assets, or a relevant change in tax or probate law. Blended families, business owners, and dual-state residents should lean toward the three-year end of that range.
Is my out-of-state will valid in Florida?
Generally, a will validly executed in another state is recognized in Florida under Chapter 732, but with exceptions. Florida does not honor handwritten (holographic) wills that lack proper witnesses, and it restricts who can serve as your personal representative. Under Florida Statutes section 733.304, a non-resident can only serve if they are a close relative by blood, marriage, or adoption. A review confirms your old will actually works here.
What happens to my Florida home if my estate plan is out of date?
Florida’s constitutional homestead protections restrict how you can leave your home if you are survived by a spouse or minor child, regardless of what your will says. An outdated plan may conflict with these rules, creating disputes or unintended results. This is one of the most important items to confirm during a review, especially after a remarriage or property change.
Do I need to update my plan after a divorce in Florida?
Yes. Under Florida Statutes section 732.507, divorce automatically voids will provisions favoring your former spouse, but it does not address assets that pass by beneficiary designation, such as retirement accounts and life insurance. Those forms override your will and must be updated separately, so a divorce should always trigger a full review.
As a snowbird who owns property in two states, why does coordination matter?
If you own real estate outright in two states, your family may face probate in both, including ancillary probate outside Florida. Medicaid and long-term care rules are also state-specific, so planning done correctly in New York may not work in Florida and vice versa. A coordinated, dual-state review avoids duplicate proceedings and conflicting strategies.
Newcomers to Florida frequently need both long-term planning and immigration support; a Florida immigration lawyer can assist with the latter.
