When and Why to Review Your Florida Estate Plan

You should review your Florida estate plan every three to five years, and immediately after any major life event—a marriage, divorce, birth, death, large change in net worth, or a move into or out of Florida. A review is not a rewrite; it is a check to confirm that your will, trust, powers of attorney, and beneficiary designations still name the right people, still say what you mean, and still comply with current Florida law. Plans drift out of date quietly, and the cost of that drift is paid by the people you leave behind.

I have spent years watching well-meaning estate plans fail—not because they were drafted poorly, but because they were never looked at again. A surgeon signs a trust in 2014, names her then-spouse as successor trustee, divorces in 2019, and never updates the document. A business owner funds a revocable trust, then buys a new condo in Brickell and forgets to retitle it. These are not exotic problems. They are the ordinary consequence of treating an estate plan as a one-time event instead of a living set of instructions.

Why a Florida estate plan needs periodic review

An estate plan is a snapshot of three moving things: your assets, your family, and the law. All three change. When the snapshot no longer matches reality, the plan stops doing what you intended.

For Florida professionals and physicians, the stakes are higher than average. You likely carry malpractice exposure, own an interest in a practice or partnership, hold retirement accounts and brokerage assets, and may own real estate in more than one state. Each of those creates a coordination problem that a stale plan handles badly. A document that worked when you were a resident in training does not fit the person who now has a homestead, a 401(k), and a professional entity.

There is also a Florida-specific wrinkle most people overlook: homestead. Article X, Section 4 of the Florida Constitution restricts how you can devise homestead property when you are survived by a spouse or minor child. You cannot simply leave the house to whomever you like. A plan drafted in another state, or before you had a spouse or child, can run head-on into these restrictions and produce a result you never wanted.

Life events that should trigger an immediate review

Calendar-based reviews catch slow drift. But certain events should send you back to your attorney right away, not at the next scheduled check-in.

• Marriage or remarriage. Florida gives a surviving spouse rights you cannot ignore—including the elective share under Florida Statutes Chapter 732, generally 30% of the elective estate, and homestead protections. A plan that predates your marriage may unintentionally disinherit or over-provide for a spouse.
• Divorce. Florida Statute 732.507(2) voids provisions in a will favoring a former spouse upon dissolution, and Section 732.703 addresses certain beneficiary designations. But these statutes do not catch everything—particularly out-of-state accounts and trust provisions—so do not rely on the law to clean up after you.
• Birth or adoption of a child or grandchild. New beneficiaries need to be added, and guardianship nominations for minors revisited.
• Death of a spouse, beneficiary, trustee, or named agent. If the person you named to act is gone, the plan may have no working successor.
• A significant change in net worth. A liquidity event, an inheritance, the sale of a practice, or a large investment can push you past planning thresholds that change the right structure.
• Moving to or from Florida. Estate plans are state-specific. Wills, trusts, and especially powers of attorney and health care documents should be reviewed against Florida law when you relocate.
• A serious diagnosis or decline in health. This is when your incapacity documents—durable power of attorney, health care surrogate, living will—matter most, and the worst time to discover they are out of date.

Law changes that can quietly break an older plan

Even if your life is stable, the legal ground shifts. Florida has modernized several of the statutes that govern estate planning, and a document drafted under the old rules may not take advantage of—or may conflict with—the new ones.

The Florida durable power of attorney

Florida overhauled its power of attorney law in 2011 (Chapter 709). Under the current rules, a durable power of attorney must grant authority expressly; the agent cannot do something just because it seems reasonable. Critically, certain “superpowers”—such as making gifts or amending a trust—must be separately initialed by the principal under Section 709.2202. A power of attorney signed before 2011 may still be valid, but it often fails in practice when a bank or brokerage refuses to honor it. If yours predates the overhaul, treat that as a reason to review now.

Health care surrogate and end-of-life documents

Florida amended Chapter 765 to allow a designation of health care surrogate to take effect immediately, not only upon incapacity, and to give surrogates access to medical records. Older documents frequently lack the language to use these provisions.

Estate and gift tax exposure

Florida imposes no state estate tax and no state income tax, which is a meaningful planning advantage. But the federal estate and gift tax exemption is not permanent—it is scheduled to change, and Congress has adjusted it before. High-net-worth professionals and physicians should review their plans whenever the federal exemption moves, because a structure built around one exemption amount can become inefficient, or unnecessary, under another. I will not quote a current figure here precisely because it moves; the point is to confirm yours against the law in force when you read this.

The parts of the plan that go stale fastest

When I review a plan, three things fail more often than the will itself.

1. Beneficiary designations. Retirement accounts, life insurance, and annuities pass by designation, not by your will. These override your will entirely. An ex-spouse named on a 401(k) from 2010 will inherit it, full stop, regardless of what your trust says. Physicians with multiple employer plans across hospital systems are especially prone to mismatched designations.
2. Trust funding. A revocable living trust only controls assets that are actually titled in its name. An unfunded trust is an empty box—the assets still go through probate. After you buy property or open accounts, you have to retitle them. Coordinating real property with a trust is its own discipline; for an example of how lifetime transfers and retained interests interact with a residence, our colleagues discuss in detail.
3. Fiduciary appointments. The trustee, personal representative, agent, and health care surrogate you named may have died, moved, fallen out of your life, or simply aged out of being a good choice. Note too that Florida restricts who can serve as a personal representative under Section 733.304—a nonresident generally must be a close relative.

A practical review schedule for Florida professionals

You do not need to reopen your plan constantly. You need a rhythm.

• Annually: a quick self-check. Confirm your named agents are alive and willing, your beneficiary designations match your intent, and any new accounts or property have been titled correctly.
• Every 3–5 years: a full attorney review of the documents against current law and your current circumstances.
• Immediately: after any triggering life event listed above.

If you are not sure your foundational documents are even in place, start there. A clear, properly executed is the backbone of most plans, and Florida’s execution formalities under Section 732.502—two witnesses and proper signing—must be met or the will can fail entirely. Our Florida team handles these foundational documents through our , and you can review our local wills and trusts services as a starting point.

What a good review actually looks like

A real review is more than reading the will aloud. It asks: Does this plan still reflect who you trust and what you own? Does it still minimize probate, protect your homestead correctly, and account for incapacity—not just death? Have the people you named to act for you been told, and do they have access to the documents? For a physician or business owner, it also asks whether your practice interest, buy-sell agreements, and asset-protection posture are coordinated with the plan rather than working against it.

The plans that work are the ones that get looked at. If yours has been sitting in a drawer since before your last big life change, that is reason enough to schedule a review now—while it is still a simple update, and not a problem for someone else to untangle later.

Frequently Asked Questions

How often should I review my Florida estate plan?

As a general rule, review your plan with an attorney every three to five years, do a quick self-check annually, and review immediately after any major life event such as marriage, divorce, a birth, a death, a large change in net worth, or a move into or out of Florida.

Does a Florida divorce automatically remove my ex-spouse from my estate plan?

Partly. Florida Statute 732.507(2) voids provisions in a will favoring a former spouse upon dissolution of marriage, and Section 732.703 addresses certain beneficiary designations. But these statutes do not catch everything—especially out-of-state accounts and some trust provisions—so you should still review and update your documents after a divorce rather than rely on the law.

Why do beneficiary designations matter more than my will?

Assets like retirement accounts, life insurance, and annuities pass by beneficiary designation, which overrides your will entirely. If an outdated designation names an ex-spouse or a deceased person, that controls regardless of what your will or trust says. Reviewing these designations is one of the most important parts of any update.

I moved to Florida from another state—do I need a new estate plan?

You should have your documents reviewed against Florida law. Wills and trusts often remain valid, but powers of attorney, health care surrogate designations, and homestead provisions are highly state-specific, and Florida’s rules under Chapters 709 and 765 differ from many other states.

What Florida-specific issue do out-of-state plans most often get wrong?

Homestead. Article X, Section 4 of the Florida Constitution restricts how you can devise your homestead when you are survived by a spouse or minor child. Plans drafted elsewhere frequently violate these restrictions and produce an outcome the owner never intended.