Moving to Florida: What Happens to Your Estate Plan When You Change States

Your out-of-state will does not become invalid when you become a Florida resident — but “valid” and “works properly here” are different questions. Florida honors a will that was validly executed under the law of the state where it was signed, as long as it isn’t a holographic (handwritten, unwitnessed) or nuncupative (oral) will (§732.502(2), Fla. Stat.). What trips up new residents is everything around the will: homestead, spousal rights, who can serve, and documents banks won’t recognize.

The Homestead Rules You Didn’t Have Up North

Florida’s constitutional homestead regime has no equivalent in most states, and it rewrites plans that worked fine elsewhere:

Devise restrictions. If you’re survived by a spouse or minor child, Florida restricts how your primary residence can be devised — a will or trust that leaves the house the “wrong” way is simply ineffective as to the house, and the statute dictates who takes it instead. The plan you brought from New York or Ohio was not drafted with this in mind.
Creditor protection. Your Florida homestead is generally protected from your general creditors during life and at death, a genuine benefit with technical rules about how it passes.
Property tax. The homestead exemption and Save Our Homes assessment cap require establishing the home as your permanent residence and filing for the exemption.

The full apparatus, including the surviving spouse’s election, is at Florida homestead in probate.

Your Personal Representative May No Longer Qualify

Florida restricts who may serve as personal representative (executor). A nonresident can serve only if related to you in specified close ways: spouse, child, parent, sibling, and certain other relatives (§733.304, Fla. Stat.). The trusted friend, unrelated business partner, or out-of-state bank named in your old will may be disqualified in Florida. Plenty of imported wills name a nominee a Florida court cannot appoint.

Powers of Attorney and Health Care Documents

Florida gives effect to out-of-state powers of attorney that were valid where executed, but the practical problem is acceptance: Florida banks and title companies see Florida-form documents all day and hesitate at anything else, and delays defeat the document’s purpose. A Florida durable power of attorney, signed with two witnesses and a notary (§709.2105, Fla. Stat.), is the clean fix, and Florida law puts real teeth behind acceptance of a properly executed Florida power. Details at Florida durable power of attorney.

Health care documents deserve the same refresh: a Florida designation of health care surrogate and living will use the forms and terminology Florida hospitals recognize on sight.

Revocable Trusts Travel Better — But Check the Funding

A revocable trust from another state generally remains valid, and trusts move across state lines more gracefully than wills. What still needs review:

The homestead. How your new Florida home is titled (individually, jointly, or in the trust) interacts with the homestead rules above and needs a deliberate decision.
Governing law and trustee provisions. Old trusts sometimes name corporate trustees who won’t act in Florida, or lean on the prior state’s law in ways worth updating.
Funding. The move itself creates unfunded assets: the new Florida house, new bank accounts, rolled-over brokerage accounts. An unfunded trust leaves a probate behind. See when a trust still needs probate.

Establishing Florida Residency While You’re At It

If part of the move’s point is Florida’s lack of a state income tax and estate tax, make the residency unambiguous: file a declaration of domicile, claim the homestead exemption, get the Florida license and registration, register to vote, and update the estate plan to recite Florida residency. Your former state’s tax authority is the audience; halfway moves invite a residency audit from a state that would love to keep taxing you.

Common Questions

Do I have to redo my will when I move to Florida? Have it reviewed; usually parts get redone. Validity is rarely the issue — homestead treatment, the personal representative’s eligibility, and spousal rights are.

We signed our documents in another state 15 years ago. Same answer? More so. A 15-year-old plan has aged out of more than geography: tax law, family changes, and the documents’ own terms. See why old trusts are probably wrong now.

My spouse and I have a joint revocable trust from a community property state. Get specific advice before retitling anything. Community property brings tax attributes worth preserving deliberately rather than destroying by accident.

Reviewed by David A. Shulman, Florida Bar Board Certified in Wills, Trusts & Estates. Last updated July 2026.