Estate Planning for Dual-Citizen and Expatriate Families in Palm Beach, Florida

Palm Beach has long drawn families from around the world, and many of them live with one foot in two countries. A spouse may hold a green card while their partner is a U.S. citizen. Children may be dual nationals. Parents may still own property in Europe, Latin America, or the Caribbean. For these families, an estate plan built for a typical American household can fail in expensive and surprising ways. When immigration status enters the picture, estate planning and immigration law overlap, and the two have to be coordinated rather than handled in isolation.

Our firm focuses on Florida estate planning. We do not practice immigration law, so throughout this article we point out where you should bring in a Florida immigration attorney to handle the immigration side. The goal here is to explain where these two areas intersect so that newcomers and long-settled expatriates alike understand why they often need both.

The Non-Citizen Spouse and the Marital Deduction Trap

One of the most important rules in estate planning is the unlimited marital deduction, which lets a person leave any amount to a surviving spouse free of federal estate tax. There is a major exception: this deduction is generally not available when the surviving spouse is not a U.S. citizen. Congress was concerned that a non-citizen spouse might inherit assets and then leave the country before any estate tax could be collected.

The standard solution is a Qualified Domestic Trust, or QDOT. Assets passing to a non-citizen spouse can be directed into a QDOT, which preserves the deferral of estate tax while keeping the assets within reach of the U.S. tax system. A QDOT has strict requirements, including a U.S. trustee, and it must be drafted carefully. For Palm Beach couples where one spouse is a lawful permanent resident or holds a non-immigrant visa, a QDOT is frequently the centerpiece of the plan. Notably, if the surviving spouse later naturalizes as a U.S. citizen before the estate tax return is due, the need for a QDOT may disappear entirely, which is one reason estate and immigration timing should be discussed together.

Estate Tax Exposure for Non-Resident Aliens

Immigration status also affects how much of your estate is exposed to federal estate tax in the first place. U.S. citizens and domiciliaries are taxed on worldwide assets but receive the full federal exemption. A non-resident, non-domiciled individual is taxed only on U.S.-situated assets, such as Florida real estate or shares of U.S. companies, but with a far smaller exemption. A Palm Beach condo owned by a foreign national can therefore carry meaningful estate tax exposure that a comparable property owned by a citizen would not. Determining domicile is a fact-intensive question, and it interacts directly with visa category and time spent in the United States.

Wills, Trusts, and Florida Homestead

Whatever your citizenship, a valid Florida estate plan must follow Florida law. A will must be executed under Florida Statutes §732.502, signed at the end and witnessed by two people. Trusts are governed by the Florida Trust Code in Chapter 736. Florida’s constitutional homestead protection applies to your primary residence regardless of immigration status, but it also restricts how you can devise that home if you have a spouse or minor children. Expatriate families who assume foreign wills or informal arrangements will control Florida property are often mistaken, which is why a Florida-specific plan matters.

Guardianship, Powers of Attorney, and Travel

For immigrant parents, naming a guardian for minor children is critical, especially when extended family lives abroad. A clear guardianship designation prevents a situation where a child’s care is contested across borders. Equally important are durable powers of attorney and health care directives. Clients frequently travel overseas for consular interviews, visa stamping, or to care for relatives, and a well-drafted power of attorney lets trusted agents manage finances and decisions in Florida while you are out of the country.

Coordinating With a Pending Immigration Case

If you have a pending green-card or naturalization application, your estate plan should be built around it. Beneficiary designations, the QDOT question, and even how you title assets can all shift depending on whether and when status changes. Investors who entered through E-2 and EB-5 investor visas face additional layers, because business interests and source-of-funds documentation interact with both their immigration record and their estate. These are immigration questions we refer out, and we coordinate our drafting around that counsel’s guidance.

Why Newcomers to Florida Need Both

An estate plan and an immigration strategy answer different questions, but for dual-citizen and expatriate families in Palm Beach they cannot be designed in separate rooms. We handle the Florida estate planning. We will tell you plainly when to engage immigration counsel, and we will build a plan that works alongside it.