When and Why to Review Your Florida Estate Plan: A Palm Beach Attorney’s Guide

You should review your Florida estate plan every three to five years, and immediately after any major life event such as a marriage, divorce, death in the family, a significant change in assets, or a move to Florida. A review means re-reading your will, trust, durable power of attorney, and health care documents with a Florida attorney to confirm they still reflect your wishes and comply with current Florida law. For retirees and seasonal residents in Palm Beach, the most common reason a plan fails is not that it was drafted badly, but that it was never updated after the facts of life changed around it.

I have sat across the table from too many surviving spouses and adult children holding a folder of documents that no longer matched reality. The will named an executor who had passed away. The trust was funded with a brokerage account that had been closed and replaced years ago. The power of attorney was signed in New Jersey in 2009 and the bank in Boca Raton would not honor it. None of these problems were complicated to prevent. They were simply never caught, because nobody scheduled the review.

What Does It Mean to “Review” an Estate Plan?

Reviewing an estate plan is not the same as redrafting it. Often a review confirms that everything is still in order and you walk away with nothing more than peace of mind. The point is to deliberately check, on a schedule and after key events, whether each document still does what you intended.

A thorough Florida estate plan review looks at several documents together:

• Your last will and testament — Are the named beneficiaries, personal representative (Florida’s term for executor), and guardians still the right people, and are they still living and willing to serve?
• Your revocable living trust — Has it actually been funded? An unfunded trust is one of the most common and expensive mistakes I see, because assets left outside the trust still land in probate.
• Your durable power of attorney — Does it comply with Florida’s Power of Attorney Act, and does it grant the specific authority your agent will need?
• Your health care documents — Designation of health care surrogate, living will, and HIPAA authorization under Florida’s advance directive statutes.
• Your beneficiary designations — Life insurance, IRAs, 401(k)s, and “payable on death” accounts pass outside your will entirely, and they routinely contradict it.

That last point surprises people. You can spend thousands of dollars on a beautifully drafted trust, but if your old IRA still names an ex-spouse as beneficiary, the IRA goes to the ex-spouse. The beneficiary form wins. A review catches that mismatch before it becomes a courtroom problem.

The Life Events That Should Trigger a Review

Some triggers are obvious; others are easy to overlook until it is too late. As a rule, any time the people, the property, or the law underneath your plan changes, the plan deserves a fresh look.

Changes in your family

• Marriage or remarriage. This is enormous in Florida. A new spouse acquires statutory rights the moment you say “I do,” including the elective share and homestead protections discussed below.
• Divorce. Florida law automatically voids gifts to a former spouse under a will (see section 732.507, Florida Statutes) and revokes certain beneficiary designations, but the rules are not airtight across every type of asset. Do not rely on the statute to clean up after you.
• Birth of children or grandchildren. A child born after your will is signed may be treated as a “pretermitted” heir with rights you never intended to create.
• Death or incapacity of a named personal representative, trustee, agent, or beneficiary.
• A beneficiary with new circumstances — a child going through a divorce, a grandchild with special needs, or an heir with creditor trouble. Each may call for a trust structure rather than an outright gift.

Changes in your assets and finances

If your net worth has moved meaningfully in either direction, revisit the plan. Selling a business, buying a second home, inheriting money, or simply watching a portfolio grow can all shift the strategy. A plan built for a $1.5 million estate is not always the right plan for a $6 million estate, and not because of Florida tax — Florida has no state estate tax and no state income tax — but because of how assets are titled, protected, and passed.

Moving to Florida (or splitting time here)

This is the trigger seasonal residents most often miss. If you executed your documents in New York, Ohio, or Connecticut and then retired to Palm Beach, your old plan should be reviewed and, in most cases, replaced with Florida documents. Different states have different rules for witnessing wills, recognizing powers of attorney, and protecting the homestead. A New York health care proxy may confuse a Florida hospital. A Florida bank may balk at an out-of-state power of attorney. Establishing Florida domicile properly also matters for asset protection and for keeping your former state’s tax authority from claiming you never left.

Florida-Specific Rules That Make Local Review Essential

Generic, do-it-yourself documents rarely account for the features that make Florida estate planning distinctive. A few deserve special attention.

Homestead protection and devise restrictions

Florida’s constitutional homestead protection (Article X, Section 4 of the Florida Constitution) shields your primary residence from most creditors. But the same provision restricts how you can leave that home. If you are married or have a minor child, you generally cannot simply devise the homestead to whomever you please. An improper devise can be void, and the property may pass under default rules that surprise everyone. Snowbirds who keep a homesteaded condo here and a house up north need this analyzed carefully.

The spousal elective share

Under Chapter 732 of the Florida Statutes, a surviving spouse is entitled to an elective share of roughly 30% of the elective estate, regardless of what the will says. Blended families and second marriages must plan around this, often with a properly drafted trust or a marital agreement, or the surviving spouse can upend the entire plan.

Durable powers of attorney

Florida overhauled its Power of Attorney Act (Chapter 709, Florida Statutes) in 2011. Among other things, the agent’s authority is “immediate” rather than “springing,” and certain powers — like making gifts or changing beneficiary designations — must be specifically initialed or enumerated. Powers of attorney signed before that change, or signed in another state, frequently do not meet these requirements, and a bank can lawfully refuse one that falls short. This is the single document I most often see fail at the worst possible moment.

Wills, witnesses, and electronic documents

A valid Florida will must be signed in the presence of two witnesses who also sign in the presence of the testator and each other (section 732.502, Florida Statutes). Florida also recognizes electronic and remotely witnessed wills under sections 732.521–732.525, but these have specific formalities. A document that was perfectly valid where you signed it may not satisfy Florida’s requirements, which is one more reason a cross-state move calls for a review.

How Often Should a Healthy Plan Be Reviewed?

Even when nothing dramatic has happened, calendar-based reviews catch quiet problems before they grow:

1. Every 3–5 years for a stable plan, simply to confirm fiduciaries are still appropriate and documents still comply with current law.
2. Annually for beneficiary designations on retirement accounts and life insurance — these change far more often than people realize.
3. Immediately after any of the life events listed above, without waiting for the next scheduled review.
4. Whenever the law changes in a way that touches your strategy, such as a shift in the federal estate tax exemption that affects larger estates.

For families with more complex needs — long-term care planning, protecting a home from nursing-home costs, or planning for a child who relies on public benefits — specialized trusts deserve their own periodic look. Tools such as a can shield a residence from the cost of care, but only if it is established well before care is needed and kept current as the rules evolve. Likewise, a can help certain individuals qualify for benefits while preserving income. The mechanics differ by state, which is exactly why your Florida documents should be reviewed alongside any planning tied to a former home state.

What Happens at a Florida Estate Plan Review

A practical review meeting is not a sales pitch. It is a methodical audit. Expect your attorney to:

• Confirm every named fiduciary is alive, competent, and still willing to serve, and that you have named successors.
• Verify that your revocable trust is actually funded and that asset titling matches the plan on paper.
• Reconcile beneficiary designations against your will and trust so nothing contradicts.
• Check that your homestead is properly addressed given your current marital and family situation.
• Confirm your power of attorney and health care documents satisfy current Florida law and will be accepted by Florida institutions.

If you are coordinating property or family in more than one state, working with a firm that handles estate planning across jurisdictions is a real advantage. Our colleagues handle and can align your Palm Beach documents with planning elsewhere so the pieces fit together rather than fight one another.

The Cost of Skipping the Review

When a plan goes stale, the bill comes due during probate — the one moment your family is least equipped to absorb it. Outdated documents lead to contested administrations, assets that pass to the wrong person, homestead litigation, and powers of attorney that a bank simply will not honor while a loved one sits incapacitated. Florida probate is more navigable than many states, but it is far smoother when the underlying documents are current and consistent. You can read more about how that process works on our Florida probate page, and about the building blocks of a plan on our wills and trusts page.

The fix is rarely dramatic. Most reviews end with a clean bill of health or a few targeted updates. The value is in knowing — rather than assuming — that the plan you paid for still protects the people you love.

If it has been more than a few years, or if any of the triggers above describe your life, schedule a review. You can reach our Palm Beach office to get started, and bring whatever documents you have, even the old out-of-state ones. They tell us where to look first.

Frequently Asked Questions

How often should I review my Florida estate plan?

Review a stable plan every three to five years, check beneficiary designations annually, and review immediately after any major life event such as marriage, divorce, a death, a significant change in assets, or a move to Florida. Also review whenever a law change affects your strategy.

I moved to Palm Beach from another state. Do I really need new documents?

In most cases, yes. States differ on witnessing wills, recognizing powers of attorney, and protecting the homestead. An out-of-state power of attorney or health care directive may be refused by a Florida bank or hospital, and establishing Florida domicile properly affects asset protection and taxes. A Florida attorney should review and usually replace your documents.

Does Florida have an estate tax I need to plan around?

No. Florida has no state estate tax and no state income tax. Larger estates may still face the federal estate tax, so planning focuses less on Florida tax and more on asset titling, homestead rules, the spousal elective share, and protecting assets from creditors and long-term care costs.

Why might my old power of attorney not work in Florida?

Florida’s 2011 Power of Attorney Act (Chapter 709, Florida Statutes) requires certain powers, such as making gifts or changing beneficiaries, to be specifically initialed, and it eliminated most springing powers. Documents signed before 2011 or in another state often fail these requirements, and a Florida institution can lawfully refuse them.

What does an estate plan review actually involve?

Your attorney confirms named fiduciaries are alive and willing to serve, verifies your revocable trust is funded and assets are titled correctly, reconciles beneficiary designations with your will and trust, checks that your homestead is properly addressed, and confirms your power of attorney and health care documents comply with current Florida law.