Every winter, thousands of people arrive on the Treasure Coast with a plan to stay for good. They update their driver's license. They file for the homestead exemption. They register to vote in Martin County. Then the estate planning binder from their attorney up north goes on a shelf in the new house, and nobody looks at it again.
That binder is often the last thing standing between a smooth transition and an expensive mess. Here is what actually happens to your northern documents when you become a Floridian.
Your northern will is probably valid. That's not the whole story.
Florida honors a will that was properly executed under the laws of the state where it was signed. If your will was valid in Connecticut, it does not become invalid when you cross the state line.
There are two important exceptions. Florida does not recognize handwritten (holographic) wills or oral wills, even if your former state allowed them. If your plan relies on either, you effectively have no will in Florida.
But even a fully valid northern will can fail you in practice, for one big reason.
The personal representative problem
Florida law is unusually strict about who can serve as your personal representative, the person your will puts in charge of your estate. A nonresident can only serve if they are closely related to you: a spouse, child, parent, sibling, or certain other family members.
Northern wills frequently name a trusted friend, a business partner, an attorney, or a local bank as executor. In Florida, that friend from Cleveland and that bank in Boston are likely disqualified. Your family could end up in front of a probate judge arguing about who should take over, which is exactly the kind of conflict a good estate plan is supposed to prevent.
This single issue is why we recommend every new Florida resident have their will reviewed, even if nothing else about their life has changed. Our estate planning team sees this problem regularly, and it is a simple fix when caught early.
Powers of attorney: recognized on paper, rejected at the counter
Florida generally recognizes a durable power of attorney that was valid where it was signed. In the real world, that recognition often does not help you.
Florida's power of attorney statute changed significantly in 2011. It requires certain powers to be specifically listed and initialed, and it eliminated "springing" powers of attorney that only take effect after you become incapacitated. Florida banks, brokerages, and title companies know Florida forms. When your agent shows up with a ten-year-old document from Michigan, the institution's legal department gets involved, and weeks can go by while your bills sit unpaid.
If you are incapacitated when the document gets rejected, your family's fallback option may be a court-supervised guardianship proceeding. That is the outcome a power of attorney exists to avoid.
A fresh Florida power of attorney is inexpensive insurance. Get one.
Healthcare directives: the ER will not read fine print
The same pattern applies to your living will and healthcare surrogate designation. Florida recognizes out-of-state advance directives, but a hospital in Stuart at 2 a.m. wants documents its staff recognizes. Florida forms follow Florida statutes, use Florida terminology, and get honored without a phone call to the risk management office.
While you are updating these, confirm your named surrogate still makes sense. If your healthcare agent is a sibling who lives 1,200 miles away, consider whether someone closer should be added as an alternate.
The domicile question is a tax question
For many snowbirds, the biggest financial reason to formalize Florida residency is what happens at death. Florida has no state estate tax and no state inheritance tax. Several of the states our clients come from are a different story. New York, Massachusetts, and Connecticut impose estate taxes. Pennsylvania and New Jersey impose inheritance taxes on many beneficiaries.
Here is the catch: your former state does not give up its claim just because you spent the winter in Palm City. If your domicile is ambiguous, a state revenue department can pursue taxes after your death, and your family inherits the audit. Establishing domicile means changing your driver's license, voter registration, homestead exemption, declaration of domicile, and, critically, updating your estate plan to reflect Florida as your permanent home. An estate plan governed by New York law is evidence that you still consider yourself a New Yorker.
Our estate and gift tax planning work with new residents often starts with exactly this cleanup.
Property left behind up north
Moving to Florida does not always mean selling everything up north. Many of our clients keep a lake house, a family cabin, or rental property in their former state. Real estate is governed by the law of the state where it sits, which means your Florida estate could face a second probate proceeding up north, called ancillary probate, just for that one property.
The usual solution is a revocable living trust that holds both your Florida and out-of-state real estate. Done properly, your family administers one trust instead of opening probate cases in two states. You can learn more about how that works on our probate and trust administration page.
Homestead: Florida's blessing and booby trap
Florida's homestead protections are generous. Your primary residence is shielded from most creditors, and the Save Our Homes cap limits property tax increases. But homestead also comes with restrictions on how you can leave your home in your will, especially if you are married or have minor children. Plenty of northern wills leave the house in a way Florida law simply will not allow, and the property passes differently than the will says. Most people have no idea until it is too late to fix.
This is a Florida-specific rule with no equivalent in most northern states, and it is one more reason a document review is not optional after a move.
What a snowbird document review looks like
When a new Florida resident brings us their northern estate plan, we look at a consistent set of questions. Is the will valid here? Is the named personal representative qualified to serve? Do the power of attorney and healthcare documents meet Florida's requirements? Does the plan create homestead problems? Is there out-of-state property that needs trust planning? And does the overall plan support the domicile position that saves the family state death taxes?
Sometimes the answer is that only two documents need replacing. Sometimes the whole plan needs to be rebuilt under Florida law. Either way, finding out now costs a conversation. Finding out during probate costs your family real money.
If you have recently made Florida home, or you are planning to, schedule a complimentary discovery call and we will walk through your existing documents together. You can also browse answers to common questions on our FAQ page.