Updating Your Estate Plan After Divorce, Marriage, or a Move to Florida

Updating your estate plan after divorce, marriage, or a move to Florida means revisiting your will, trusts, powers of attorney, health care documents, and beneficiary designations so they reflect your current family, your current wishes, and the law of your new state. A divorce in Florida automatically voids gifts and fiduciary appointments to a former spouse under , but it does not fix everything; marriage creates new spousal rights you may not intend; and an out-of-state plan, while usually still valid, often fails to take advantage of Florida’s homestead and tax protections. After any of these three events, a review is not optional housekeeping. It is the difference between a plan that works and one that quietly fails when your family needs it most.

I have spent years probating estates in Palm Beach County, and a striking number of the disputes I see trace back to the same root cause: someone had a major life change and assumed their old documents would simply “carry over.” Sometimes they do. More often, the gap between what a person intended and what their paperwork actually says becomes painfully obvious only after they are gone, when nobody can ask them what they meant.

Why Three Life Events Demand an Estate Plan Review

Divorce, marriage, and relocation each change the legal landscape underneath your plan in a different way. Treating them as interchangeable is a mistake. A divorce severs ties the law presumes you no longer want. A marriage creates obligations the law will enforce whether you wrote them down or not. A move changes which state’s rules govern your documents, your property, and ultimately your probate.

For the retirees and seasonal residents who make up so much of Palm Beach County, all three can land within a few short years. You sell the house up north, remarry later in life, and establish Florida residency for the tax advantages, all in the same season. Each of those steps deserves its own look.

Updating Your Estate Plan After Divorce in Florida

Florida law gives divorcing spouses a measure of automatic protection, and it is worth understanding exactly how far it reaches, because it stops well short of a full clean-up.

Under Florida Statutes section 732.507(2), any provision of your will that affects your spouse becomes void the moment the marriage is judicially dissolved, and the will is read as if your former spouse had predeceased you. A parallel rule in section 732.703 revokes a former spouse’s designation as beneficiary on assets like life insurance, annuities, and payable-on-death accounts that pass under Florida law. Revocable trusts get similar treatment under section 736.1105.

That sounds comprehensive. Here is where it leaves dangerous gaps:

• Federally governed accounts. Employer retirement plans covered by ERISA, including most 401(k)s and pensions, follow federal law, not Florida’s revocation statute. If your ex-spouse is still the named beneficiary on a 401(k), they may well inherit it regardless of your divorce decree. The U.S. Supreme Court confirmed this principle in Kennedy v. Plan Administrator for DuPont Savings. You must change these beneficiaries by hand.
• Powers of attorney and health care surrogates. If your former spouse holds your durable power of attorney or is named as your health care surrogate, do not assume the divorce undoes it cleanly in every situation. Revoke these in writing and execute fresh documents naming someone you trust today.
• Jointly titled property. Assets you own as joint tenants or that you placed in a former spouse’s trust are governed by title and trust terms, not the revocation statutes. Retitling is its own task.
• Children’s contingencies. If you named your ex as guardian or trustee for minor children, you need to rethink who fills that role and whether a trust should hold their inheritance until they are mature enough to manage it.

There is also a subtler problem. When the law strikes your former spouse from your will and treats them as predeceased, it does not necessarily put the right person in their place. The contingent beneficiaries you named years ago may no longer be appropriate. Rather than rely on default rules to patch holes, the cleaner path after divorce is a new will and trust drafted from a blank page. For a plain-English overview of how Florida wills work, see our guide to Florida wills.

Updating Your Estate Plan After Marriage or Remarriage

Marriage works in the opposite direction. Where divorce removes rights, marriage grants them, and Florida grants them generously to surviving spouses whether or not your documents say a word about it.

If you sign a will and then marry, your new spouse may be entitled to an intestate share as a “pretermitted spouse” under Florida Statutes section 732.301, unless the will was made in contemplation of the marriage or a valid marital agreement controls. Separately, Florida’s elective share rules in sections 732.201 through 732.2155 give a surviving spouse the right to claim 30% of the deceased spouse’s “elective estate,” a broad pool that reaches well beyond the probate estate to include certain trusts, jointly held property, and pay-on-death accounts. You cannot quietly disinherit a Florida spouse by routing assets around your will. The elective share is designed to catch exactly that.

For couples entering a later-in-life marriage, often each with children from a prior relationship, this creates real tension. You may love your new spouse and still want the bulk of your wealth to reach your own children. Thoughtful drafting reconciles those goals. Common tools include:

1. A prenuptial or postnuptial agreement in which both spouses knowingly waive or modify elective-share and homestead rights, executed with full financial disclosure so it holds up later.
2. A QTIP or marital trust that provides income and security for the surviving spouse during their lifetime while preserving the remainder for your children.
3. Coordinated beneficiary designations so that life insurance and retirement accounts deliberately balance provision for a new spouse against legacies for children.

Florida’s homestead rules add another wrinkle that surprises newcomers constantly. Under Article X, Section 4 of the Florida Constitution, if you are married and your homestead is your primary residence, you generally cannot leave that home outright to anyone but your spouse. Try to devise it to your children instead, and the law overrides you: your spouse takes a life estate (or, by election, a one-half tenancy in common) and the remainder passes to your descendants. Couples who want a different result need to address it deliberately, often through a spousal waiver. Planning your home around these constraints, including strategies like a , requires care and an understanding of how each state treats the family residence.

Updating Your Estate Plan After Moving to Florida

Here is the good news for snowbirds who have finally made the move permanent: a will or trust validly executed in New York, New Jersey, Ohio, or any other state is generally still valid in Florida. Florida Statutes section 732.502(2) recognizes out-of-state wills as long as they were executed in compliance with the law of the place where they were signed. You do not lose your plan the day your moving truck crosses the state line.

“Still valid” and “still ideal,” however, are very different standards. Several Florida-specific issues make a post-move review well worth the appointment.

Out-of-State Documents That Florida Treats Differently

Two documents deserve particular attention:

• Holographic and oral wills. Florida does not recognize handwritten wills that lack proper witnesses, nor nuncupative (oral) wills, even if they were perfectly valid where you used to live. If your prior document relied on a more permissive rule, it may fail here.
• Out-of-state personal representatives. Florida restricts who may serve as the personal representative (executor) of your estate. Under section 733.304, a non-resident generally cannot serve unless they are a close relative by blood, marriage, or adoption. The trusted friend or professional you named back home may be legally disqualified from administering your Florida estate.

Homestead, Taxes, and the Reasons People Move Here in the First Place

Many retirees move to Florida precisely for its financial climate, and your estate plan should be rebuilt to capture those advantages rather than ignore them.

• No state estate or inheritance tax. Florida imposes neither. If you relocated from a state with its own estate tax, your plan may contain credit-shelter and bypass-trust machinery designed to solve a problem you no longer have. Simplifying can reduce cost and administrative friction, though the federal estate tax still applies to larger estates.
• Homestead creditor protection. Florida’s homestead exemption shields your primary residence from most creditors without dollar limit. Confirming and documenting your homestead status is one of the most valuable things a new resident can do.
• Establishing genuine residency. File a declaration of domicile, register to vote, get a Florida driver’s license, and update your documents to recite Florida residency. These steps matter both for homestead and for fending off claims by your former state’s tax authorities, some of which fight hard to keep taxing departing residents.

For seniors concerned about long-term care costs, this is also the moment to think about asset-protection and Medicaid planning structures. Tools such as a can help certain individuals qualify for benefits while preserving income, and an experienced elder law attorney can tell you which Florida-equivalent strategies fit your situation. If your move came with the start of probate for a loved one, our overview of the Florida probate process walks through what to expect.

A Practical Checklist for Your Review

Whichever life event brought you here, work through the same core inventory with your attorney:

1. Last will and testament — does it name the right beneficiaries, the right personal representative, and a Florida-eligible one at that?
2. Revocable living trust — are the trustees and beneficiaries current, and is the trust actually funded?
3. Durable power of attorney — does the agent reflect your current relationships, and is it drafted to Florida standards?
4. Health care surrogate and living will — Florida has its own statutory forms; out-of-state advance directives may not function smoothly here.
5. Beneficiary designations — review every life insurance policy, IRA, 401(k), annuity, and POD/TOD account by hand. The statutes will not catch them all.
6. Property titling and homestead — confirm how your home and accounts are titled and whether homestead protection is in place.

None of this needs to be overwhelming, but it does need to be deliberate. Florida’s rules reward residents who plan with intention and quietly punish those who assume the old paperwork still does the job.

Talk to a Palm Beach Estate Planning Attorney

If you have divorced, married, or settled into Florida as your new home base, the safest move is a focused review with an attorney who handles these transitions every week. We help Palm Beach retirees and seasonal residents rebuild plans that are valid, tax-smart, and faithful to what you actually want. Contact our office to schedule a consultation, and bring whatever documents you already have, even the ones you suspect are out of date. Those are usually the most revealing.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does divorce automatically remove my ex-spouse from my will in Florida?

Largely, yes. Under Florida Statutes 732.507(2), a final dissolution of marriage voids the provisions of your will that benefit or appoint your former spouse, and the will is read as if they had died before you. But this does not cover ERISA-governed retirement accounts like 401(k)s, jointly titled property, or documents like powers of attorney, so you must update beneficiary designations and fiduciary appointments by hand.

Is my out-of-state will still valid after I move to Florida?

Generally yes. Florida Statutes 732.502(2) recognizes wills executed in compliance with the law of the state where they were signed. However, Florida does not honor handwritten or oral wills that lack proper witnesses, and it restricts non-resident personal representatives, so a review is strongly recommended after relocating.

Can I leave my Florida home to my children instead of my new spouse?

Not freely. Florida’s constitutional homestead protection prevents a married person from devising their primary residence to anyone but their spouse. If you try, the spouse receives a life estate (or a one-half interest by election) with the remainder to your descendants. Couples who want a different outcome typically use a spousal waiver or marital agreement.

How soon after a major life change should I update my estate plan?

As soon as practical, ideally within a few months. Divorce, marriage, and relocation each change your legal rights and obligations immediately, and the gap between an event and an updated plan is exactly when an outdated document can cause harm or trigger a dispute.

What is the Florida elective share and why does it matter after I remarry?

The elective share, set out in Florida Statutes 732.201 through 732.2155, entitles a surviving spouse to claim 30% of the deceased spouse’s elective estate, a broad pool that includes many non-probate assets. It means you cannot simply route assets around your will to disinherit a Florida spouse, which makes deliberate planning essential when you remarry, especially with children from a prior marriage.