Florida does not recognize common-law marriage entered in-state, and it grants unmarried partners no automatic inheritance, no health care decision authority, and no homestead protection by virtue of the relationship. If you and your partner live together in Miami but are not married, the law treats you as legal strangers unless you document otherwise. This checklist closes those gaps.
1. Recognize the default: you get nothing
Under Florida’s intestacy statute in Chapter 732, an unmarried partner is not an heir. If one of you dies without a will, everything subject to probate goes to blood relatives, and your partner could be left out of the home you shared. Every protection below exists because the default fails unmarried couples completely.
2. Write wills naming each other
A Florida will meeting the section 732.502 formalities, signed and witnessed by two people, lets you leave assets to your partner. Be specific. Because you are not married, your families have no built-in reason to honor informal wishes, so put intentions in writing with a self-proving affidavit to streamline probate.
3. Give each other medical authority
Sign Florida health care surrogate designations naming each other. Without it, a Miami hospital follows a statutory proxy list that starts with spouse, then adult relatives, and never reaches an unmarried partner. A living will should accompany it so your partner is not forced to guess your wishes about life support.
4. Sign durable powers of attorney
A durable POA under Chapter 709 lets your partner manage finances if you are incapacitated, paying the shared mortgage in Coral Gables or accessing accounts. Without it, your partner has no standing, and a relative could seek guardianship and shut your partner out of decisions entirely.
5. Title your home with care
How you hold your Miami home matters enormously. Joint tenancy with right of survivorship lets the home pass directly to the surviving partner outside probate. Tenancy in common does not. Note that the Florida homestead exemption for survivors does not automatically extend to a partner who is not a spouse, so titling and a trust or Lady Bird deed become the tools that get the home to your partner.
6. Use beneficiary designations generously
Life insurance, retirement accounts, and payable-on-death accounts let you name your partner directly, bypassing probate and family disputes. This is often the cleanest way to provide for an unmarried partner. Keep these forms current, since an outdated beneficiary overrides anything your will says.
7. Consider a revocable trust
A revocable trust under Chapter 736 can hold your home and accounts, naming your partner as beneficiary and successor trustee. It avoids probate, keeps your arrangement private, and is harder for disappointed relatives to challenge than an informal understanding. Florida imposes no state estate or inheritance tax, so the planning focus is access and certainty for your partner.
Talk to a Florida attorney
Unmarried couples have to build by contract and titling what marriage would grant automatically. A licensed Florida estate planning attorney can coordinate your wills, surrogates, POAs, and property titles so you and your partner are genuinely protected.
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For more on our Florida practice, see our overview of Florida estate planning. Morgan Legal Group's affiliated New York office also handles .
