Estate Planning Guide

Updating Your Florida Estate Plan After a Major Life Event

An estate plan isn't something you sign once and forget. Certain life events change what your will, trust, and beneficiary designations actually do — sometimes automatically under Florida law, and not always in the way you'd expect.

Marriage

Getting married after you've already signed a will doesn't automatically add your new spouse to it, but Florida law gives them a backstop. Under the pretermitted spouse statute, Fla. Stat. § 732.301, a spouse you married after executing your will is entitled to receive the same share they'd get if you had died without a will at all, unless your will already provides for them or they've waived that right in a prenuptial or postnuptial agreement. That statutory share often doesn't match what you'd actually want, and it does nothing for your powers of attorney, healthcare surrogate designation, or beneficiary designations, all of which should be reviewed and typically updated to name your new spouse.

Divorce

Divorce is where Florida law does the most automatically, and where it's also easiest to be misled into a false sense of security. Under Fla. Stat. § 732.507(2), any part of your will that leaves property to a former spouse, names them personal representative, or gives them a power of appointment becomes void once the divorce is final, and the will is read as though your ex-spouse died before you. A parallel statute, Fla. Stat. § 732.703, voids an ex-spouse's beneficiary designation on many non-probate assets, including life insurance policies, annuities, and payable-on-death accounts.

The gap in this automatic protection is retirement accounts governed by federal ERISA law, most private-employer 401(k) and pension plans. Federal law preempts Florida's revocation statute for these accounts, so an ex-spouse named as beneficiary before the divorce can still receive the funds unless you affirmatively file a new beneficiary designation with the plan administrator. Divorce is also the point to name a new agent under your power of attorney and healthcare surrogate designation, since a document naming your ex-spouse to make financial or medical decisions for you rarely reflects what you want going forward.

Birth or Adoption of a Child

A child born or adopted after your will was signed isn't automatically written out of it, either. Florida's pretermitted child statute, Fla. Stat. § 732.302, gives that child a share equal to an intestate share unless your will shows the omission was intentional, or you left substantially everything to that child's other parent and that parent survives you. Relying on the statute is rarely the right plan: a new child is the moment to name (or update) a guardian for minor children, decide whether an inheritance should pass through a trust rather than outright, and confirm your successor fiduciaries are still the right people.

Death of a Beneficiary or Named Fiduciary

When a beneficiary, personal representative, trustee, or agent named in your documents dies before you, your plan needs a new name in that slot, not just a gap. Wills and trusts commonly name successors, but only a set number of them, and a plan that has already burned through its named alternates should be updated rather than left to default provisions or, worse, to Florida's intestacy rules if a residuary beneficiary is gone with no substitute named.

Moving To or From Florida

Florida generally recognizes a will that was validly executed under the law of the state where it was signed, and the same is usually true for powers of attorney and healthcare directives. That doesn't mean an out-of-state plan translates cleanly. Florida has its own homestead protections, its own elective share rules for a surviving spouse, and no state estate or inheritance tax, all of which can interact with a plan built around a different state's law in ways the original document never anticipated. Banks, hospitals, and title companies in Florida are also often more comfortable acting on documents that were drafted to match Florida's statutes, which matters in practice even when the out-of-state version is technically valid.

A Significant Change in Assets

Buying or selling real estate, starting or selling a business, receiving an inheritance, or a major shift in retirement or investment accounts are all reasons to revisit your plan, not just because the numbers changed, but because the mechanics might need to change too. A trust that isn't funded with your new property doesn't avoid probate for it. A federal estate tax exemption of $15 million per person as of 2026 means most Florida families won't owe federal estate tax, but that threshold matters directly for higher-net-worth estates and can change again by statute. And as of July 1, 2026, Florida's summary administration threshold under Fla. Stat. § 735.201 doubled to $150,000, which changes the probate math for many smaller and mid-sized estates and is worth factoring into whether a trust is still the right tool for your family.

Beneficiary Designations Deserve Their Own Check

Life insurance, retirement accounts, and payable-on-death or transfer-on-death accounts pass directly to whoever is named on the beneficiary form, regardless of what your will says. A will that leaves everything to your children doesn't override a decades-old life insurance form that still names an ex-spouse or a beneficiary who predeceased you. Every one of the life events above is also a reason to independently confirm every beneficiary designation on file, not just assume your will handles it.

Reviewing Even When Nothing Has Changed

Beyond specific triggers, a periodic checkup, roughly every three to five years, catches the slower kinds of drift: a named fiduciary who's no longer the right fit, a change in the law since your documents were drafted, or simply a plan that no longer reflects your current wishes. Treat a life event as a reason to act immediately, and a calendar reminder as the backstop for everything else.

Common Questions

Frequently Asked Questions

Does getting divorced automatically remove my ex-spouse from my will?

For most provisions, yes. Under Fla. Stat. 732.507(2), any part of your will that leaves property to your former spouse, names them as personal representative, or gives them a power of appointment becomes void when the divorce is final, and the will is read as if your ex-spouse died first. A similar rule under Fla. Stat. 732.703 voids an ex-spouse's beneficiary designation on many non-probate assets like life insurance and payable-on-death accounts. The major exception is retirement plans governed by federal ERISA law, such as most 401(k) plans, where federal law overrides the Florida statute and the old beneficiary designation can still control unless you update it yourself.

If I have a baby after signing my will, is my child automatically included?

Usually, but it isn't automatic in the way most people assume. Florida's pretermitted child statute, Fla. Stat. 732.302, gives a child born or adopted after your will was signed a share equal to what they'd receive if you had no will at all, unless your will shows the omission was intentional or you left substantially everything to that child's other parent. It's still far better to name the child directly and update any trust and guardian provisions rather than rely on this statute to sort things out.

Do I need to update my estate plan if I move to Florida from another state?

You should have it reviewed. Florida generally honors a will that was validly executed in another state, but Florida has its own rules on homestead property, spousal rights, and community property that can interact with an out-of-state plan in unexpected ways. Powers of attorney and healthcare directives from other states are often technically valid here too, but Florida banks, hospitals, and title companies are frequently more comfortable with a document drafted to match Florida's statutes.

What happens if I forget to update a beneficiary designation after a divorce or remarriage?

The beneficiary designation on file with the account, not your will, controls who receives that asset. Life insurance, retirement accounts, and payable-on-death accounts pass directly to the named beneficiary regardless of what your will says, so a stale designation naming an ex-spouse or an outdated beneficiary is one of the most common and expensive estate planning mistakes.

How often should I review my estate plan even without a major life event?

A general checkup every three to five years is a reasonable default, in addition to reviewing your plan any time one of the major triggers, marriage, divorce, a new child, a death in the family, a move, or a significant change in assets, actually occurs.

Had a Major Life Event Recently?

Attorney Graziano can review your existing will, trust, powers of attorney, and beneficiary designations and tell you plainly what needs to change and what doesn't. Schedule a consultation, in person or by video.

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