Every Florida adult needs five core estate planning documents: a last will and testament, a durable power of attorney, a designation of health care surrogate, a living will, and—for many people—a revocable living trust. These documents work together to control who inherits your property, who manages your finances if you become incapacitated, and who makes your medical decisions when you cannot speak for yourself. Without them, Florida law decides these questions for you, and the answers are rarely the ones a family would have chosen.
I’ve sat across the conference table from too many Palm Beach families who learned this the hard way. A snowbird from Connecticut has a stroke in March, the spouse can’t access the brokerage account, and suddenly we’re filing a guardianship petition in the Fifteenth Judicial Circuit instead of simply handing the bank a power of attorney. The documents below are not glamorous. They are, however, the difference between an afternoon at the lawyer’s office now and months in probate or guardianship court later.
Why Florida Residency Changes the Estate Planning Conversation
If you’ve recently established Florida as your primary residence—or you split the year between here and a northern home—your old documents may not do what you think they do. A health care proxy drafted in New York or New Jersey may be honored in Florida, but it won’t track Florida’s specific statutory language, and hospitals here are far more comfortable with a Florida-form designation of health care surrogate. A power of attorney signed up north may also fail Florida’s strict execution requirements.
Florida also offers something most northern states do not: a generous homestead protection and no state estate or inheritance tax. Those advantages only fully attach when Florida is genuinely your domicile. Updating your estate plan after the move is one of the cleanest ways to document that intent—and to stop your old state’s taxing authority from arguing you never really left.
The Five Documents Every Florida Adult Should Have
Think of these as the foundation. Most plans need all five; some people add specialized trusts on top. Here’s what each one does and why it matters in Florida.
1. Last Will and Testament
Your will names who inherits your probate assets, names a personal representative (Florida’s term for executor), and—critically for younger parents—names a guardian for minor children. Florida has specific rules here. Under Florida Statutes § 733.302 and § 733.304, a personal representative who lives outside Florida must be a close relative (spouse, child, parent, sibling, or certain others) or be related by lineal kinship or marriage. So if you named your trusted college roommate in Ohio as executor, Florida law may disqualify that person.
Execution matters too. Florida requires a will to be signed by the testator and witnessed by two people who sign in the testator’s presence and in each other’s presence (§ 732.502). Add a self-proving affidavit and you spare your family the headache of tracking down witnesses years later to prove the will in court.
One caution: a will does not avoid probate. It is your instruction manual for probate. If avoiding the probate process is a goal—and for snowbirds with property in two states it usually is—you’ll want a trust as well. You can read more on our Florida probate overview.
2. Durable Power of Attorney
This is the single most underrated document I draft. A durable power of attorney lets someone you trust manage your finances—pay bills, sell property, deal with the IRS, manage investments—if you become unable to do so yourself. “Durable” means it survives your incapacity, which is precisely the moment you need it.
Florida’s Power of Attorney Act (Chapter 709, Florida Statutes) is unusually demanding. Two features trip people up:
- Florida does not recognize “springing” powers of attorney. Since 2011, a Florida POA is effective the moment it’s signed—you cannot make it “spring” into effect only upon a doctor’s declaration of incapacity. If you used a springing form from another state, it may not function here as intended.
- Certain powers must be specifically enumerated and separately initialed under § 709.2202—things like making gifts, creating or amending trusts, or changing beneficiary designations. A generic, all-purpose form often omits exactly the authority a family later needs.
Without a valid POA, the alternative is guardianship: a court proceeding, a court-appointed attorney, annual accountings, and ongoing judicial supervision. It is expensive, slow, and public. A well-drafted POA avoids all of it.
3. Designation of Health Care Surrogate
This document, governed by Chapter 765, names the person who makes medical decisions for you if you can’t communicate. Florida updated the law in 2015 so that you can authorize your surrogate to access your medical information and even act while you still have capacity—useful if you simply want a spouse or adult child handling the logistics during a hospital stay.
Pair the surrogate designation with a HIPAA release so your chosen agent can actually get your records. I’ve watched families stand in hospital hallways, denied information about their own parent, because no one signed a HIPAA authorization. Five minutes of paperwork prevents that.
4. Living Will (Declaration)
A living will states your wishes about life-prolonging procedures if you have a terminal condition, an end-stage condition, or are in a persistent vegetative state. Where the health care surrogate names who decides, the living will tells them—and your physicians—what you want. It is a gift to the people who love you: it takes the weight of an impossible decision off their shoulders and puts it where it belongs, on your own stated wishes.
5. Revocable Living Trust (For Most Florida Homeowners)
A revocable living trust is not strictly required, but for Palm Beach retirees and seasonal residents it’s often the centerpiece. Property titled in the name of your trust passes to your beneficiaries without probate. That matters enormously if you own real estate in more than one state—say a Palm Beach condo and a lake house up north—because owning property in two states otherwise means two separate probate proceedings (the second is called “ancillary probate”).
A trust also keeps your affairs private (probate is public record), provides for management of your assets if you become incapacitated, and lets you build in protections for beneficiaries who need them—a spendthrift child, a beneficiary going through a divorce, or a loved one with disabilities. For families with a special-needs beneficiary, a dedicated can preserve eligibility for Medicaid and SSI while still improving that person’s quality of life. To understand how the broader category works, see this overview of .
One Florida-specific wrinkle: be careful titling your homestead in a trust. Homestead enjoys constitutional creditor protection and property-tax benefits, and improper trust drafting can jeopardize them. This is a place to use a Florida attorney rather than an online template.
Documents People Forget—And Often Need
The core five cover most situations, but a complete plan frequently includes a few more pieces:
- Beneficiary designations. Your 401(k), IRA, annuities, and life insurance pass by beneficiary form, not by your will. Review them after every major life event. An ex-spouse left on a beneficiary form is one of the most common—and most painful—estate planning failures I see.
- Pre-need guardian designation. Under § 744.3046, you can name in advance who should serve as your guardian if one ever becomes necessary, giving the court your preference.
- Enhanced life estate (“Lady Bird”) deed. A Florida-recognized deed that passes real estate at death without probate while keeping full control during life.
- Letter of intent and asset inventory. Not legally binding, but a clear list of accounts, passwords, advisors, and final wishes saves your family weeks of detective work.
What Happens If You Have None of This in Florida
If you die without a will, Florida’s intestacy statute (Chapter 732) distributes your property by a fixed formula. It may not match your wishes—blended families, in particular, are often surprised by who inherits and who doesn’t. And if you become incapacitated without a power of attorney and health care surrogate, the only path is a court-supervised guardianship.
The recurring theme: in the absence of your documents, the State of Florida supplies default rules and a judge supplies the decisions. Estate planning is simply the act of writing your own rules first.
How Often Should You Update Your Plan?
Documents aren’t a “sign once and file forever” project. Revisit them after a move to Florida, a marriage or divorce, a birth or death in the family, a significant change in assets, or roughly every three to five years. Tax laws change, family circumstances change, and the friend you named as personal representative ten years ago may no longer be the right choice.
Getting It Done in Palm Beach
You don’t need a complicated life to need these documents—you need a life. A few hours of planning now spares your family months of court and uncertainty later. Our team helps Palm Beach retirees and seasonal residents build plans that fit Florida law and protect what they’ve worked a lifetime to build. Learn more about our Florida estate planning services, review the basics of Florida wills, or contact our office to schedule a consultation.
Frequently Asked Questions
What estate planning documents does every Florida adult need?
At minimum, every Florida adult should have five documents: a last will and testament, a durable power of attorney, a designation of health care surrogate, a living will, and—for most homeowners, especially those with property in more than one state—a revocable living trust. Together they control inheritance, financial management during incapacity, and medical decision-making.
Do I need a new estate plan after moving to Florida?
Usually yes. Florida has strict execution requirements and does not recognize springing powers of attorney, so out-of-state documents may not function as intended. Updating your plan in Florida also helps document your domicile, which protects Florida’s no-estate-tax and homestead advantages and discourages your former state from claiming you as a resident.
Does a will avoid probate in Florida?
No. A will is your instruction manual for probate, not a way around it. Assets titled in your name alone still pass through Florida probate court. To avoid probate—particularly the ancillary probate that arises when you own property in two states—you generally need a revocable living trust or other non-probate transfer tools.
What happens if I become incapacitated without a power of attorney in Florida?
Without a valid durable power of attorney and health care surrogate, your family must petition the court for a guardianship. That means a court proceeding, a court-appointed attorney, ongoing judicial supervision, and annual accountings—expensive, slow, and public. A properly drafted power of attorney avoids the entire process.
Can someone who lives outside Florida serve as my personal representative?
Only in limited cases. Under Florida Statutes § 733.304, a nonresident personal representative must be a close relative—such as a spouse, child, parent, sibling, or someone related by lineal kinship or marriage. A non-relative who lives outside Florida is generally disqualified, so choose your personal representative with this rule in mind.
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For more on our Florida practice, see our overview of estate planning in Boca Raton. Morgan Legal Group's affiliated New York office also handles .