Updating Your Estate Plan After Divorce, Marriage, or a Move to Florida

Updating your estate plan after a divorce, marriage, or move to Florida means reviewing and re-executing your will, trusts, powers of attorney, health care directives, and beneficiary designations so they reflect your new family structure and comply with Florida law. Each of these life events can silently invalidate, rewrite, or distort the documents you already signed. For a business owner, an out-of-date plan does not just affect your household; it can throw your company’s ownership and succession into probate court.

I have spent years watching well-intentioned, intelligent people assume their old paperwork “still works” after a major life change. Usually it does not work the way they think. Florida has its own rules, its own statutes, and its own quirks, and those rules are not shy about overriding the language you drafted in another state or before your marriage ended. Below is a practical, plain-English walk through what actually needs attention.

Why these three events trigger an estate plan review

Divorce, marriage, and relocation each change one of the three pillars every estate plan rests on: who inherits, who acts for you, and which law governs the documents. Change any of those pillars and the structure shifts whether you intended it or not.

A divorce removes a person you once trusted with your life and your money. A marriage adds one. A move to Florida swaps out the entire body of law that interprets your documents. None of these is a minor administrative footnote. They are the kind of changes that send families to litigation when the paperwork is not refreshed.

Updating your estate plan after a divorce

Florida law tries to protect you from the obvious mistake of leaving everything to a former spouse, but it does not finish the job, and it does not protect you everywhere your assets live.

What Florida law does automatically

Under Florida Statutes section 732.507(2), when a marriage is dissolved or annulled after a will is executed, any provision of that will affecting the former spouse is read as though the former spouse died at the time of the divorce. A parallel rule in section 732.703 revokes the ex-spouse’s interest in many “governing instruments” such as certain beneficiary designations, life insurance, and payable-on-death accounts upon divorce.

That sounds like a clean safety net. It is not. Here is where people get burned:

• The carve-outs are real. Section 732.703 contains exceptions, including some governed by federal law. A 401(k) or other ERISA-governed plan can follow federal preemption, which means your divorce decree may not strip your ex from that beneficiary line automatically.
• Out-of-state and contractual assets vary. Assets governed by another jurisdiction or by a contract that says otherwise may not be touched by the Florida statute at all.
• It cuts only the ex-spouse, not the ex’s family. If your will named your former mother-in-law as a successor trustee or left a gift to your ex’s children from a prior relationship, those provisions often survive the divorce.
• Revocation by operation of law is a blunt instrument. Treating the ex as predeceased can trigger results you never wanted, such as an asset passing to a contingent beneficiary you would no longer choose.

What you should actively redo

Do not rely on the statute to clean up after you. After a divorce, re-execute the documents rather than letting default rules guess at your intent:

1. Will and revocable trust. Draft fresh documents naming your real, current choices for beneficiaries, personal representative, and trustee.
2. Durable power of attorney. An ex-spouse named as your agent is a serious exposure. Revoke the old one in writing and sign a new durable power of attorney under Chapter 709, Florida Statutes.
3. Health care surrogate and living will. Replace any designation that lets a former spouse make medical decisions, governed by Chapter 765.
4. Every beneficiary designation. Pull up life insurance, IRAs, 401(k)s, annuities, and POD/TOD accounts and confirm each one in writing with the institution.
5. Guardian nominations for minor children. Custody realities change after divorce; your nominations should reflect that.

Updating your estate plan after a marriage

Marriage is the event people most often underestimate. You may feel finished once the wedding is over, but Florida law gives a surviving spouse powerful rights that can override your existing documents.

The pretermitted spouse rule

If you executed your will before the marriage and never updated it, your new spouse may qualify as a pretermitted spouse under Florida Statutes section 732.301. That statute generally entitles the omitted spouse to a share equal to what they would receive if you had died without a will, unless a prenuptial agreement, a provision for the spouse, or contrary intent in the will controls. In other words, your old will does not simply ignore the new marriage; the law writes the spouse back in.

The elective share

Florida’s elective share (sections 732.201 through 732.2155) entitles a surviving spouse to 30 percent of the elective estate, a figure calculated from a broad base that reaches well beyond the probate estate to include many trusts, jointly held property, and certain transfers. You cannot disinherit a Florida spouse with clever drafting alone. If you want a different arrangement, the reliable tool is a valid prenuptial or postnuptial agreement with proper financial disclosure.

Homestead and the new spouse

Florida’s homestead protections, rooted in Article X, Section 4 of the Florida Constitution, restrict how you can devise your residence when you are survived by a spouse or minor child. You generally cannot simply leave the homestead to whomever you please. A surviving spouse is entitled to a life estate with a remainder to descendants, or may elect a one-half tenancy in common interest under section 732.401. This catches second-marriage blended families constantly.

For business owners, the marriage conversation should expand beyond the house and the will. New spousal rights can reach the value of your company and the proceeds of a buy-sell agreement. Coordinating your marital estate plan with your operating agreement is essential, and it pairs naturally with a forward-looking conversation about succession planning before a triggering event ever occurs.

Updating your estate plan after a move to Florida

This is the change clients most often dismiss, and it is frequently the most consequential. When you establish Florida residency, Florida law governs the administration of your estate and the interpretation of many of your documents. The plan you built in New York, New Jersey, or Illinois was drafted against a different rulebook.

Documents are generally valid, but execution and roles matter

Florida usually honors a will that was validly executed under the law of the state where it was signed. But validity is not the whole story:

• Out-of-state personal representatives face restrictions. Under section 733.304, a nonresident generally cannot serve as your Florida personal representative unless they are closely related to you by blood, marriage, or adoption. Your handpicked executor from up north may be legally disqualified here.
• Self-proving affidavits differ. A will that is not self-proved under Florida’s formalities can require extra steps to admit to probate. Re-executing in Florida with the correct attestation avoids that friction.
• Powers of attorney face heightened scrutiny. Florida banks and title companies are notoriously cautious about out-of-state powers of attorney. Florida’s POA statute (Chapter 709) has specific requirements, and a document that worked fine elsewhere may be rejected at the worst possible moment.
• Health care directives should be re-papered. Florida hospitals want Florida-form designations of health care surrogate and living wills.

The homestead and tax dimension

Moving to Florida unlocks genuine advantages worth claiming correctly. Florida has no state estate tax and no state income tax, and the homestead exemption offers both creditor protection and property tax savings. But these benefits require that your residency, your titling, and your documents all line up. A trust funded under another state’s law may need to be reviewed so it works cleanly with Florida homestead rules, which do not always cooperate with revocable trust ownership of the residence.

If you still hold real property in the state you left, your plan now spans two jurisdictions. New York real estate, for example, may still demand New York-specific tools to avoid ancillary probate. Strategies such as can keep that out-of-state property from forcing your family back into a second probate proceeding up north. Coordinating a properly drafted with your Florida documents is the kind of detail that separates a plan that works from one that merely looks finished. Our Florida team handles the local side through its , and you can review the basics of how Florida probate works before you decide how much you want to keep out of the court system entirely.

Special considerations for business owners and succession planning

Every event above lands harder when you own a company. A personal estate plan that ignores the business, or a business plan that ignores the personal estate, leaves a gap that surfaces at the worst time.

• Buy-sell agreements after divorce. If your operating agreement or buy-sell named your former spouse, or if your ex acquired an interest in the marital settlement, the company’s ownership chart may no longer match your intentions.
• Spousal rights reaching business value. A new marriage can give a surviving spouse a claim against the value of your interest through the elective share. Without coordination, your partners could find themselves negotiating with an heir they never expected.
• Continuity of management. Naming a successor trustee or manager who understands the business, and who is legally permitted to serve in Florida, keeps operations running while the estate settles.
• Funding the transfer. Life insurance, properly owned and beneficiary-coordinated, is often what makes a succession plan affordable. Divorce and remarriage are exactly when those beneficiary lines go stale.

A clean will or revocable trust integrated with your company documents is what keeps a private business out of public probate. For closely held Palm Beach companies, that integration is the entire point of planning ahead.

A practical timeline: when to act

Do not wait for a calendar reminder. The right moment to revisit your plan is as soon as the life event is real:

1. Within 30 days of a divorce decree: revoke and replace powers of attorney, health care surrogate, and every beneficiary designation.
2. Before or immediately after a marriage: address the pretermitted spouse and elective share, ideally with a prenuptial or postnuptial agreement.
3. Within the first months of Florida residency: re-execute your will, trust, powers of attorney, and directives under Florida law, and confirm your personal representative is qualified to serve.

None of this is exotic. It is maintenance. But it is the maintenance that determines whether your family inherits your wishes or inherits a lawsuit.

The bottom line

Divorce, marriage, and a move to Florida each rewrite part of the legal foundation underneath your estate plan. Florida’s statutes will fill some gaps for you, but they fill them with defaults, not with your intentions, and they leave meaningful exposure around retirement accounts, out-of-state property, homestead, and business interests. The reliable fix is to sit down, review every document, and re-execute under Florida law. If you have done any of these three things recently, treat this as your reminder to put the appointment on the calendar.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does a Florida divorce automatically remove my ex-spouse from my will and beneficiary designations?

Partially. Florida Statutes sections 732.507 and 732.703 treat a former spouse as if they died at the time of divorce for most will provisions and many beneficiary designations. But there are exceptions, including federally governed retirement plans subject to ERISA preemption, certain out-of-state or contractual assets, and gifts to your ex’s relatives. You should still re-execute your documents and confirm every beneficiary line in writing rather than relying on the statute.

If I get married in Florida but never update my will, what happens to my new spouse?

Your new spouse may qualify as a pretermitted spouse under Florida Statutes section 732.301 and receive an intestate share, unless a prenuptial agreement or contrary will provision controls. Separately, a surviving spouse has an elective share of 30 percent of the elective estate and special homestead rights under the Florida Constitution. You generally cannot disinherit a Florida spouse without a valid prenuptial or postnuptial agreement.

Is my out-of-state will still valid after I move to Florida?

Florida generally honors a will validly executed under the law of the state where it was signed. However, an out-of-state personal representative may be disqualified under section 733.304 unless closely related to you, a will that is not self-proved can require extra probate steps, and out-of-state powers of attorney and health care directives are often rejected by Florida banks and hospitals. Re-executing under Florida law avoids these problems.

How does a move to Florida affect my homestead and taxes?

Florida has no state estate tax and no state income tax, and its homestead exemption provides creditor and property tax protection. But homestead devise restrictions under Article X, Section 4 of the Florida Constitution limit how you can leave your residence if you have a surviving spouse or minor child, and revocable trust ownership of the homestead must be structured carefully. Your residency, titling, and documents all need to align to capture these benefits.

Why do business owners need to update their estate plan after these life events?

Divorce, marriage, and relocation can each disrupt company ownership and succession. A former spouse may remain in a buy-sell agreement, a new spouse’s elective share can reach the value of your business interest, and an out-of-state successor manager may be disqualified from serving in Florida. Coordinating your will, trust, and beneficiary designations with your operating and buy-sell agreements keeps your business out of public probate and running smoothly.