When and Why to Review Your Florida Estate Plan: A Palm Beach Attorney’s Guide for Business Owners

Reviewing your Florida estate plan means re-examining your will, trusts, powers of attorney, and beneficiary designations to confirm they still match your assets, your family, and current Florida law. You should review your plan at least every three to five years, and immediately after any major life or financial change. For Palm Beach business owners, that review is not optional housekeeping — it is the difference between an orderly succession and a courtroom fight over who controls the company.

I have sat across the table from too many surviving spouses and adult children holding a binder of documents that were signed a decade ago and never touched again. The signatures are valid. The intentions were good. But the named trustee has died, the LLC the will references was dissolved years ago, and the “current spouse” provision still points to a former one. An estate plan is not a monument you build once. It is a living set of instructions that has to keep up with a life that keeps moving.

Why a Florida estate plan goes stale

Estate planning documents are static. Your life, your balance sheet, and the law are not. Three forces pull a plan out of alignment over time, and they rarely announce themselves.

First, your family changes. Marriages, divorces, births, deaths, estrangements, and remarriages all reshape who should inherit and who should be in charge. Florida law adds its own wrinkles here. Under Florida Statutes § 732.507, a divorce automatically voids the provisions of your will that benefit a former spouse — but it does not automatically clean up your revocable trust, your life insurance beneficiary form, or your retirement account designation in the same tidy way. A plan that has not been reviewed after a divorce is a plan with landmines in it.

Second, your assets change. You sell a property, open a brokerage account, buy a vacation home in another state, take on a partner, or grow a side business into a real company. Every new asset is a question: is this titled correctly, and does it flow where the plan intends? A trust only controls the assets actually funded into it. I have reviewed dozens of beautifully drafted revocable trusts that were never funded — empty vessels that did nothing because the homestead and the bank accounts were still titled in the individual’s name.

Third, the law changes. Florida overhauled its statutory durable power of attorney rules years ago, and powers of attorney signed under older standards can be questioned or rejected by banks and title companies. Federal estate tax exemptions move with each tax cycle. Medicaid rules tighten. A document drafted to be airtight under the law of 2015 may have quiet gaps under the law of today.

When to review your Florida estate plan: the trigger events

Forget the calendar for a moment. Certain events should send you straight to your attorney’s office, regardless of when you last reviewed anything. If any of the following has happened since your documents were signed, schedule a review now.

• Marriage, divorce, or remarriage. Florida’s spousal rights are robust — a surviving spouse has an elective share and homestead protections that can override your will. New marriages and blended families demand fresh planning.
• A birth, adoption, or a death in the family. New heirs need to be added; deceased beneficiaries, trustees, and personal representatives need to be replaced.
• You started, bought, sold, or grew a business. This is the big one for Palm Beach entrepreneurs, and I’ll return to it below.
• You moved to Florida from another state. Out-of-state documents are usually valid here, but Florida’s homestead, witnessing, and self-proving affidavit rules differ enough that a Florida-specific refresh is wise.
• A significant change in net worth. A liquidity event, an inheritance, or a real estate boom can push you into estate-tax planning territory you weren’t in before.
• A named fiduciary can no longer serve. Your chosen trustee, agent under power of attorney, or health care surrogate has died, moved away, fallen ill, or fallen out of favor.
• A beneficiary’s circumstances changed. A child develops a disability, struggles with creditors or addiction, or marries someone you’d rather not see inherit. Special needs and asset-protection trusts exist for exactly these moments.
• A change in the tax or Medicaid law that affects you. When the rules move, planning strategies that once made sense can become liabilities — or new opportunities open up.

How often to review when nothing dramatic has happened

Even in a calm year, a plan deserves a periodic look. My standard guidance for Palm Beach clients is a tiered schedule:

1. Every year: a quick self-audit. Pull your beneficiary designations on every retirement account, life insurance policy, and annuity. These pass outside your will entirely, and they are the single most common point of failure. Five minutes here saves a probate fight later.
2. Every three years: a focused review of your core documents with your attorney — will, revocable trust, durable power of attorney, health care surrogate designation, and living will.
3. Every five years at the outside: a full overhaul, because even if your life hasn’t changed, the law almost certainly has.

Business owners should compress that timeline. If you own an operating company, treat your estate plan and your business succession plan as one document set, and revisit them together at least every two years.

Estate plan review for Palm Beach business owners and succession

A business is not just another asset on the schedule. It has employees, contracts, lenders, partners, and momentum that all stop the moment the owner becomes incapacitated or dies without a clear handoff. This is where review failures become catastrophic.

Does your plan actually control the business?

Ownership of an LLC or corporation passes according to title and your operating or shareholder agreement — not automatically according to your will. A review should confirm three things line up: the company’s operating agreement, your buy-sell agreement, and your estate plan. When these three documents contradict each other, the contracts usually win, and your family loses the certainty you thought you had purchased.

Is there a real succession instruction?

Good succession planning answers concrete questions. Who runs the company the day after you’re gone? Who has signing authority at the bank during a period of incapacity? Is there a buy-sell agreement funded with life insurance so a departing owner’s family gets paid without draining the business? A durable power of attorney drafted with specific business-management authority can keep a company breathing during a crisis — a generic form often cannot.

Have you planned for the tax and liquidity hit?

For higher-net-worth owners, the value locked inside a closely held business can create an estate-tax and liquidity problem at exactly the worst time. Strategies that shift future appreciation out of your taxable estate are time-sensitive and law-sensitive, which is precisely why they need periodic review. Sophisticated planning tools — the kinds of irrevocable and specialized trusts that protect assets and preserve eligibility for benefits — only work if they’re maintained. Firms that handle this work, such as Morgan Legal Group, build and revisit instruments like a and, for clients balancing income needs against benefit eligibility, a . The structures differ from state to state, but the principle is universal: an unmaintained trust is a missed opportunity, and sometimes a liability.

What a thorough Florida estate plan review actually covers

When clients come in for a review, here is the checklist I work through with them. It’s worth knowing what a complete review looks like so you can judge whether yours was thorough.

• Last will and testament — Are the personal representative and beneficiaries still correct? Does it meet Florida’s execution requirements, including a self-proving affidavit under Florida Statutes § 732.503 to simplify probate?
• Revocable living trust — Is it actually funded? Are the trustee and successor trustees still appropriate and willing?
• Durable power of attorney — Does it comply with Florida’s current power-of-attorney act, and does it grant the specific authority your agent will need, including over any business?
• Health care surrogate and living will — Are your medical decision-makers still the right people, and do your wishes still reflect your values?
• Beneficiary designations — Retirement accounts, life insurance, annuities, and payable-on-death accounts checked against the plan as a whole.
• Homestead and real property titling — Florida’s constitutional homestead protections are powerful but unforgiving of sloppy titling.
• Business documents — Operating agreements, buy-sell agreements, and succession instructions reconciled with the estate plan.

If your last “review” was someone glancing at your will and saying it looked fine, you didn’t get a review. You got a reassurance.

The cost of skipping the review

Probate in Florida is a public, court-supervised process, and a plan that has drifted out of alignment tends to land there. An outdated beneficiary form sends money to an ex-spouse. An unfunded trust forces assets through probate the trust was designed to avoid. A dead trustee with no named successor freezes a trust until a judge appoints someone. None of these are exotic. All of them are preventable with a periodic review.

For business owners the stakes are higher still. I’ve watched a profitable company lose its key client because no one had signing authority during the owner’s three-week hospitalization. That wasn’t a drafting failure. It was a review failure — the power of attorney existed, but it predated the business and never granted the authority the moment demanded.

Working with a Palm Beach estate planning attorney

You don’t need to overhaul everything every year. You need a relationship with an attorney who knows your situation, flags when the law has shifted under you, and updates the documents that need updating. Our firm handles estate planning for individuals and business owners across Palm Beach County; you can read more about our approach to , or explore the basics on our wills and Florida probate pages. When you’re ready for a focused review, reach out to schedule a consultation — bring your current documents, and we’ll tell you honestly what still works and what needs attention.

The best time to review your estate plan was when your last big life change happened. The second-best time is now.

Frequently Asked Questions

How often should I review my Florida estate plan?

Review your core documents with an attorney every three years, do a full overhaul at least every five years, and check your beneficiary designations annually. Review immediately after any major life or financial change. Business owners who own an operating company should compress that to a review every two years, since the business and estate plan need to stay reconciled.

What life events should trigger an immediate estate plan review in Florida?

Marriage, divorce, or remarriage; a birth, adoption, or death in the family; starting, buying, selling, or growing a business; moving to Florida from another state; a significant change in net worth; the death or incapacity of a named trustee or agent; or a change in a beneficiary’s circumstances such as a disability or creditor problem. Any of these can leave your existing documents out of alignment.

Does a divorce automatically update my Florida will?

Partially. Under Florida Statutes section 732.507, a divorce voids the provisions of your will that benefit your former spouse. But it does not automatically update your revocable trust, life insurance beneficiary form, or retirement account designations, which can still pay out to an ex-spouse. After a divorce you should review and update every document and beneficiary form, not just your will.

Why is estate plan review especially important for business owners?

A business has employees, lenders, partners, and contracts that all depend on a clear handoff. Ownership passes by title and your operating or buy-sell agreement, not automatically by your will, so those documents and your estate plan must agree. A review confirms there is real succession authority, a funded buy-sell agreement, and a durable power of attorney with specific business-management powers to keep the company running during incapacity.

What does a complete Florida estate plan review include?

A thorough review covers your will, revocable trust (including whether it is actually funded), durable power of attorney, health care surrogate and living will, all beneficiary designations, homestead and real property titling, and any business documents such as operating and buy-sell agreements. The goal is to confirm everything still matches your assets, your family, and current Florida law.