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 most people who own real estate or want to skip probate—a revocable living trust. Together these documents decide who manages your money if you become incapacitated, who makes your medical decisions, and who inherits your property when you die. Without them, Florida law and a probate judge make those choices for you.
I’ve sat across the table from too many Palm Beach families who learned this the hard way: a successful physician hospitalized after a stroke with no power of attorney, an adult child unable to pay a parent’s mortgage because no one had signing authority, a surviving spouse forced into a months-long probate over assets that a simple trust would have transferred in an afternoon. The documents below are not exotic. They are the basic legal infrastructure of a responsible adult life in Florida.
Why estate planning documents matter under Florida law
Florida is not like other states. We have constitutional homestead protections that override your will in surprising ways, a robust elective-share statute that protects surviving spouses, and a probate process governed by Chapter 733 of the Florida Statutes that can be slow and public. A plan that worked in New York or New Jersey may not survive contact with Florida law once you move here—and a lot of my clients are transplants.
If you die without a will, you die “intestate,” and Florida Statutes Chapter 732 dictates who gets what. The statute doesn’t know that you wanted your daughter to have the lake house or that you’d been estranged from a sibling for twenty years. It applies a fixed formula. For professionals and physicians with meaningful assets—and the malpractice and creditor exposure that comes with those careers—leaving distribution to a default statute is a gamble with real stakes.
1. Last will and testament
Your will is the foundational document. It names a personal representative (Florida’s term for an executor), directs how your probate assets are distributed, and—critically for parents—nominates a guardian for minor children. Under Florida Statute 732.502, a valid will must be in writing, signed by you at the end, and witnessed by two people who sign in your presence and in the presence of each other. Florida does not recognize handwritten (holographic) wills unless they meet these same formal witnessing requirements, so the note you scrawl on a legal pad will not hold up.
A common misconception: a will does not avoid probate. It is your instruction manual for probate. Property that passes only through your will must still go through the court process before it reaches your heirs. That’s why a will alone is rarely a complete plan for someone with real estate or substantial accounts.
What a will can and can’t control
- Controls: assets titled in your sole name with no beneficiary designation.
- Does not control: jointly titled property, life insurance, retirement accounts, and payable-on-death accounts—these pass by beneficiary designation regardless of what your will says.
- Limited by Florida homestead: if you’re married or have minor children, your ability to leave your homestead to others is sharply restricted by the Florida Constitution.
2. Revocable living trust
For most Palm Beach professionals, the revocable living trust is the workhorse of the plan. You create the trust, transfer your assets into it, and serve as your own trustee during your lifetime—so nothing about your day-to-day control changes. When you become incapacitated, your named successor trustee steps in without a court guardianship proceeding. When you die, the successor trustee distributes assets according to your instructions, privately, without probate.
That probate-avoidance feature is the headline benefit, but the incapacity planning is just as valuable. A funded trust means your family can manage your affairs the moment you can’t—pay your bills, manage your practice’s wind-down, keep the household running—with no petition to a judge. Florida’s trust rules live in Chapter 736, the Florida Trust Code.
The catch most people miss is funding. A trust controls only the assets actually retitled into it. I’ve reviewed beautiful trust documents that were completely empty because no one ever moved the house, the brokerage account, or the rental property into the trust’s name. An unfunded trust does nothing. If you’re weighing how a trust fits into a larger asset-protection strategy, it’s worth reviewing how attorneys structure before deciding which fits your situation.
3. Durable power of attorney
If you remember only one document from this article, make it this one. A durable power of attorney lets a trusted person—your “agent”—handle your financial and legal affairs if you can’t. “Durable” means it survives your incapacity, which is precisely when you need it.
Florida overhauled its power-of-attorney law in 2011, and the current rules in Florida Statutes Chapter 709 are strict. Florida no longer recognizes “springing” powers that activate only upon incapacity for instruments created after that reform; a modern Florida durable power of attorney is effective when signed. Certain powers—making gifts, changing beneficiary designations, creating or amending a trust—must be specifically initialed by the principal, or the agent simply cannot do them. A form pulled off the internet usually fails these requirements.
For physicians and business owners, the financial power of attorney is often the single most important document, because the assets and obligations that can grind to a halt during a sudden illness are exactly the ones an agent needs authority over: practice accounts, payroll, tax filings, real estate. This overlaps heavily with broader incapacity and long-term care planning, an area where experienced guidance pays for itself.
4. Designation of health care surrogate
This document, authorized by Florida Statute 765.202, names the person who makes medical decisions for you when you can’t communicate them yourself. Without it, your family may have to petition a court to appoint a health care proxy or guardian—at the worst possible moment, when you’re already in a hospital bed.
Florida law lets you grant your surrogate authority that takes effect immediately, so the surrogate can speak with your physicians and review records before a crisis hits. You can also name an alternate in case your first choice is unavailable. Choose someone calm, available, and willing to honor your wishes even when other relatives disagree.
5. Living will (advance directive)
A living will is where you put your end-of-life wishes in writing—whether you want life-prolonging procedures if you have a terminal condition, an end-stage condition, or a persistent vegetative state. Florida’s framework appears in Chapter 765 of the Florida Statutes. It relieves your loved ones of an impossible burden: nobody should have to guess whether you’d want to be kept on a ventilator.
The health care surrogate and the living will work as a pair. The living will states what you want; the surrogate is the person empowered to make it happen and to handle the countless decisions your written wishes can’t anticipate.
Documents worth adding for professionals and physicians
The five documents above are the core. Higher-net-worth professionals and medical practitioners in Palm Beach often need a few more pieces because of their creditor exposure and the complexity of their estates:
- HIPAA authorization — a standalone release so your agents can legally access your medical information, separate from decision-making authority.
- Irrevocable trusts — for asset protection and estate-tax planning at higher wealth levels, layered on top of the revocable trust.
- Practice succession or buy-sell provisions — for physicians and partners, so a disability or death doesn’t leave a professional practice in limbo.
- Beneficiary designation review — coordinating retirement accounts and life insurance with the rest of the plan, since these often dwarf the probate estate.
Florida’s lack of a state income tax and its strong homestead and tenancy-by-the-entireties protections make it a genuinely favorable place to plan—but only if the plan is built to take advantage of them. A New York will signed before a move south rarely does. If your practice or family ties span both states, our Florida team handles the local rules through our , and you can read more about the mechanics of Florida wills and what to expect from the Florida probate process on our practice pages.
How the documents work together
People tend to obsess over the will and ignore the rest, but the documents form a system. The durable power of attorney and health care surrogate protect you while you’re alive but incapacitated. The living will speaks for you at the end. The trust governs your assets both during incapacity and after death, quietly and outside of court. The will is the safety net that catches anything the trust didn’t.
Get one piece wrong—an unfunded trust, an outdated power of attorney that predates the 2011 reforms, a beneficiary designation pointing at an ex-spouse—and the whole structure can fail at the moment it’s tested. That’s the real argument for working with an attorney rather than a form website: not the drafting, but the coordination.
When to review your Florida estate plan
Documents are not “set and forget.” Review yours after any major life change: marriage, divorce, the birth of a child, a significant change in net worth, the death of a named agent or beneficiary, or a move to or from Florida. As a rule of thumb, even a stable plan deserves a checkup every three to five years, because the law changes too. If it’s been longer than that, treat it as out of date until an attorney confirms otherwise. When you’re ready to start or refresh your plan, reach out to our Palm Beach office to talk through what your situation actually requires.
Frequently Asked Questions
What happens if I die without a will in Florida?
You die intestate, and Florida Statutes Chapter 732 controls who inherits your assets through a fixed legal formula. The court appoints a personal representative, and your property is distributed to your closest relatives in a set order regardless of your actual wishes. If you have no surviving relatives, your estate can ultimately pass to the State of Florida.
Do I need a trust if I already have a will?
Often yes. A will does not avoid probate; it simply directs how your probate assets are distributed through the court process. A funded revocable living trust avoids probate, keeps your affairs private, and lets a successor trustee manage your assets immediately if you become incapacitated. Most Palm Beach professionals who own real estate benefit from having both.
Is a power of attorney from another state valid in Florida?
It may be, but Florida’s power-of-attorney rules under Chapter 709 are strict, and many out-of-state forms fail to meet them. Florida no longer recognizes springing powers created after the 2011 reforms, and certain powers must be specifically initialed by the principal. To avoid your agent being turned away by a bank, have a Florida attorney prepare or review the document.
What is the difference between a living will and a health care surrogate?
A living will states your wishes about life-prolonging treatment if you have a terminal or end-stage condition. A designation of health care surrogate names the person empowered to make medical decisions for you when you can’t speak for yourself. The living will says what you want; the surrogate is the person who makes it happen and handles decisions your written wishes don’t cover.
How often should I update my estate planning documents?
Review your plan every three to five years and after any major life event, such as marriage, divorce, the birth of a child, a large change in net worth, the death of a named agent or beneficiary, or a move to or from Florida. Laws change too, so an older plan should be treated as potentially outdated until an attorney confirms it still works.
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