Estate Planning in Miami for Business Owners and High-Net-Worth Individuals

Building real wealth in Miami takes decades of disciplined work. Protecting it for the next generation takes a deliberate plan built around Florida law, your operating companies, and your real estate holdings. Our practice focuses on estate planning for business owners and high-net-worth individuals across Miami-Dade and South Florida, where the stakes, the asset structures, and the family dynamics tend to be more complex than a standard form will can address.

Why High-Net-Worth Planning Is Different

When your balance sheet includes a closely held company, commercial property, brokerage accounts, and perhaps assets in more than one state or country, the question is no longer simply “who inherits what.” It becomes how to transfer control without triggering disputes, how to keep an operating business running through an unexpected death, and how to keep your private affairs out of the public probate record. Florida is an attractive state for this work: there is no Florida state estate tax and no Florida inheritance tax, which lets planning concentrate on control, continuity, and creditor protection rather than state-level death taxes.

Core Tools We Use

Most sophisticated Miami plans combine several instruments. A revocable living trust under Florida’s Trust Code (Chapter 736) holds and coordinates assets while avoiding probate. A pour-over will under the Florida Probate Code (Chapters 731–735) captures anything left outside the trust. Durable powers of attorney under Chapter 709 keep your business and finances functioning if you become incapacitated. Advance directives put medical decisions in trusted hands. For real estate, a Lady Bird (enhanced life estate) deed can pass Florida property to heirs outside probate while preserving your control during life.

Protecting the Business and the Homestead

For owners of LLCs, S corporations, and partnerships, a will alone rarely accomplishes a clean transition. We coordinate your estate documents with buy-sell agreements, operating agreements, and key-person planning so that ownership and management pass to the right people on the terms you set. Florida’s homestead protection under Article X, Section 4 of the state Constitution shields your primary residence from most creditors and carries unique inheritance rules that high-value households need to understand before signing any deed or trust.

Avoiding Probate and Preserving Privacy

Florida probate can be slow and is a matter of public record. Formal administration is generally required for estates over $75,000 or where death occurred within the prior two years, while smaller or older estates may qualify for summary administration. For families with significant assets, a properly funded revocable trust, beneficiary designations, and titling strategies can keep most of the estate out of court entirely and away from public view.

A Note on Legal Advice

This page is general information about Florida estate planning and is not legal advice for your situation. Estate, tax, and business succession planning depend on facts unique to you, and federal estate tax thresholds and Florida statutes change over time. Before acting, consult a licensed Florida estate planning attorney who can review your assets and goals and build a plan tailored to your family and your enterprises.