You should review your Florida estate plan after any major life or financial change and, even absent one, at least once every three to five years. A review confirms that your will, trust, beneficiary designations, and property titles still reflect your wishes and still comply with Florida law, which differs sharply from New York on homestead, spousal rights, and probate. For dual-state residents and out-of-state owners, the review is not optional housekeeping; it is how you keep a New York document from quietly failing on Florida soil.
I have spent years untangling estates where a perfectly valid New York will met a Florida courthouse and lost. The documents were not defective. They were simply out of date, or written for the wrong state, or both. What follows is the practical map of when to review, what to look for, and why a snowbird’s estate plan deserves more attention than most.
Why a Florida Estate Plan Goes Stale Faster Than You Think
An estate plan is a snapshot. It captures your family, your assets, your residency, and the law as they stood the day you signed. Every one of those four things drifts. A child marries or divorces. A brokerage account moves. You spend more winters in Naples and fewer summers on Long Island. And the Florida Legislature amends Chapter 732 of the Florida Statutes without sending you a notice.
For people who split time between two states, the drift compounds. You are not maintaining one plan; you are maintaining a plan that has to survive whichever state’s courts end up administering it. Domicile, the place you treat as your true legal home, decides which probate code governs your estate. If you have moved your center of gravity toward Florida but your documents still read like a New York plan, the gap is where litigation lives.
The Life Events That Should Trigger an Immediate Review
Some changes can wait for a routine check-in. Others should send you back to the lawyer’s office within weeks. Treat the following as red flags that demand a fresh look at your Florida plan, not the next calendar cycle:
- Marriage or remarriage. Florida protects spouses aggressively. A new spouse acquires rights the moment you say “I do,” and an old plan that names someone else can be partially overridden by law.
- Divorce. Florida law revokes certain provisions in favor of a former spouse, but it does not clean up everything, and beneficiary forms on retirement accounts often survive the divorce decree.
- Birth or adoption of a child or grandchild. A minor child changes who can inherit your Florida homestead, full stop.
- Death of a spouse, beneficiary, executor, or trustee. A plan with no living fiduciary is a plan headed for a contested appointment.
- A move across state lines. Establishing or abandoning Florida domicile is the single biggest trigger for an out-of-state owner.
- Buying or selling real property. A new Florida condo, or the sale of the family home up north, reshapes how title and homestead interact.
- A large change in net worth. An inheritance, a business sale, or a market swing can push you into federal estate tax territory or out of it.
- Serious illness or incapacity. If your durable power of attorney or health care surrogate is stale, this is the moment it matters most.
How Florida Law Differs, and Why New York Documents Often Misfire
The reason a periodic review matters so much for dual-state owners is that Florida is genuinely different. Three areas catch people repeatedly.
Florida Homestead Is Not the New York House
Under Article X, Section 4 of the Florida Constitution, your Florida homestead cannot be freely devised if you are survived by a spouse or a minor child. The constitution restricts who can receive it. The only narrow exception is that you may leave the homestead to your spouse outright if you have no minor child. Many New York wills confidently “give my Florida residence to my children” in a way that is simply void in Florida when a surviving spouse exists. The property then passes under the constitutional default, often as a life estate to the spouse with a remainder to the descendants, an arrangement almost no one actually intended.
This is precisely the kind of mismatch a review catches. If your goal is to keep a primary residence in the family while protecting a spouse, the planning has to be built around Florida’s rules, not retrofitted from a New York template. For New York property specifically, structures like a retained life estate need separate, state-specific attention; see this overview of home transfers and retained life estates in New York State to understand how differently the two jurisdictions treat the same instinct.
The Spousal Elective Share
Florida does not let you disinherit a spouse. Under Florida Statutes § 732.2065, a surviving spouse may claim an elective share equal to 30 percent of the elective estate, an “augmented” estate that reaches far beyond the probate assets to include many trust, joint, and beneficiary-designated holdings. A surviving spouse generally must make the election by the earlier of six months after service of the notice of administration or two years after the date of death.
Out-of-state owners are frequently surprised by how broad the elective estate is. You cannot simply route assets through a revocable trust or a payable-on-death account and assume the spouse is cut out. A review is where we test whether your current structure would actually achieve your intent or invite an elective-share claim that unwinds it.
Probate, Ancillary Probate, and the Cost of Doing Nothing
If you keep a New York domicile but own Florida real estate in your individual name, your estate may face ancillary probate in Florida on top of primary probate in New York. Two courts, two sets of fees, two timelines. The fix is usually proactive titling or a properly funded trust, but only a review will tell you whether the assets you bought last year ever got titled the way the plan assumed.
The Federal Estate Tax Moving Target
The federal estate and gift tax exemption is unusually high right now, but it is not permanent, and the figure adjusts. Plans drafted to squeeze under a much lower exemption a decade ago may now contain credit-shelter or bypass trust mechanics that no longer help and can even hurt, for instance by trapping assets in a trust that loses a step-up in basis at the second death. Florida has no state estate tax and no state income tax, which is part of why people domicile here, but the federal layer still requires periodic recalibration. A review is when you decide whether yesterday’s tax structure still earns its keep.
Beneficiary Designations: The Plan That Overrides Your Will
Retirement accounts, life insurance, annuities, and transfer-on-death accounts pass by contract, not by will. They ignore your beautifully drafted estate plan entirely and go to whoever is named on the form. I have seen ex-spouses inherit IRAs, predeceased children’s shares lapse into chaos, and minor grandchildren become direct beneficiaries with no trust to receive the money. None of those documents were “wrong.” They were just never updated. Confirm every designation during each review, and coordinate them with the rest of the plan, particularly if you use a special-needs or pooled income trust in New York to preserve a loved one’s public benefits, where an uncoordinated beneficiary form can disqualify the very person you meant to protect.
How Often Should You Actually Review?
Here is the cadence I recommend for dual-state and out-of-state owners:
- Every three to five years as a baseline, even with no changes, because the law moves even when your life does not.
- Immediately after any red-flag life event from the list above.
- Whenever you cross a domicile line, meaning any year you meaningfully shift where you live, vote, register vehicles, or file taxes.
- After any significant change in Florida or federal law, which a good estate attorney monitors on your behalf.
A review is not the same as a rewrite. Often the conclusion is that your plan is sound and needs nothing more than a confirming note in the file. That peace of mind is itself worth the appointment. When changes are needed, catching them early, while you still have capacity and your family is still cooperative, is far cheaper than litigating them later.
What a Thorough Review Looks At
When I review a Florida plan for a client with northern roots, I am checking a specific set of pressure points: current domicile and its documentary footprint; how each parcel of real estate is titled in each state; whether the homestead devise complies with the constitution; whether the spouse’s elective-share rights are addressed or exposed; whether any trust is actually funded rather than just signed; whether powers of attorney and health care surrogate designations meet current Florida formalities; and whether every beneficiary designation aligns with the documents. Miss one, and the rest of the plan can be undone by the gap.
If your real estate and family ties straddle both states, you benefit from counsel who works on both ends. Our Florida team handles the Florida estate planning side, while the New York office addresses the assets and instruments that remain governed by New York law. Coordinated, your plan stops being two half-measures and becomes one coherent strategy. If it has been more than a few years, or if anything on the trigger list has happened, it is time. Start with a conversation through our contact page or revisit the fundamentals on our wills overview.
Frequently Asked Questions
How often should I review my Florida estate plan?
Review it at least once every three to five years even if nothing has changed, because Florida and federal law evolve on their own. Review it immediately after any major life event such as marriage, divorce, a death, a birth, buying or selling property, a large change in net worth, or a move that affects your domicile.
Will my New York will work for my Florida property?
Not always. Florida treats homestead, spousal elective share, and probate very differently from New York. A New York will that leaves a Florida residence to your children can be void if you are survived by a spouse, because Article X, Section 4 of the Florida Constitution restricts how homestead may be devised. Have a Florida attorney confirm your documents comply before relying on them.
Can I disinherit my spouse in Florida?
No. Under Florida Statutes § 732.2065, a surviving spouse can claim an elective share of 30 percent of the elective estate, which reaches beyond probate assets to include many trust, joint, and beneficiary-designated holdings. Trying to route assets around a spouse usually fails unless rights are properly waived.
What is ancillary probate and how do I avoid it?
If you are domiciled outside Florida but own Florida real estate in your own name, your estate may face a second, ancillary probate in Florida in addition to primary probate in your home state. Proper titling, a fully funded revocable trust, or other planning can often avoid it. A review checks whether recently acquired property was titled the way your plan assumes.
Do beneficiary designations override my Florida will?
Yes. Retirement accounts, life insurance, annuities, and transfer-on-death accounts pass by contract to whoever is named on the form, regardless of what your will says. Outdated designations are a leading cause of unintended inheritances, so confirm and coordinate every one of them at each review.
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