Updating Your Estate Plan After Divorce, Marriage, or a Move to Florida

Updating your estate plan after divorce, marriage, or a move to Florida means reviewing and re-executing your will, trust, powers of attorney, and beneficiary designations so they reflect your new family situation and comply with Florida law. A life event does not automatically rewrite these documents, and in some cases Florida statutes change their effect in ways you never intended. For business owners in particular, an out-of-date plan can quietly undo a carefully built succession arrangement.

I have spent years walking Palm Beach families and closely held business owners through exactly this exercise. The pattern is almost always the same: a major life change happens, everyone assumes “the lawyer will sort it out eventually,” and the documents sit untouched for five or ten years. Then probate arrives and the gaps become expensive. This article explains what actually changes after each of these three events, what Florida law does on its own, and where the real risk hides for people who own a business.

Why a Life Event Forces an Estate Plan Review

An estate plan is a snapshot of your intentions at one moment in time. Divorce, marriage, and relocation each scramble three things at once: who you want to inherit, who you trust to act for you, and which state’s law governs the result. When all three shift and the paperwork does not follow, you end up with a plan that says one thing and a reality that says another.

Florida is not a community property state, and its rules on spousal rights, homestead, and document execution differ meaningfully from New York, New Jersey, Illinois, and most of the places our Palm Beach clients move from. A will that was perfectly valid up north is not automatically void here, but it may no longer do what you think it does once Florida’s elective share and homestead rules apply to it.

Updating Your Estate Plan After Divorce

Divorce is the event people most often assume “takes care of itself.” It does, partially, and the partial part is the trap.

What Florida law changes automatically

Under Florida Statutes section 732.507(2), a final judgment of dissolution of marriage voids any provision of your will that benefits your former spouse. The will is read as though the ex-spouse predeceased you. Florida Statutes section 732.703 applies a similar rule to many beneficiary designations on assets such as life insurance, annuities, and certain retirement accounts that pass at death, treating the former spouse as having died first. Powers of attorney granted to a spouse are likewise terminated as to that spouse upon the filing of a dissolution or annulment action under section 709.2109.

That sounds protective, and it often is. But it creates two problems.

• The gift may pass to the wrong contingent taker. If your will leaves everything to your ex-spouse and names no alternate, voiding that gift can throw assets into intestacy or to an unintended backup beneficiary.
• Federal law can override the state rule. Beneficiary designations on ERISA-governed plans, such as a 401(k), are controlled by federal law, and the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Egelhoff v. Egelhoff confirmed that the named beneficiary on the plan document generally controls regardless of a state revocation statute. If your ex is still named on your 401(k), your ex may still collect.

What you have to fix yourself

Florida law revokes gifts to a former spouse, but it does nothing to install your new intentions. After a divorce becomes final, you should:

1. Execute a new will or amend your revocable trust to name your intended beneficiaries and contingent beneficiaries.
2. Sign new durable power of attorney and health care surrogate documents, because the old ones naming your ex are no longer reliable.
3. Re-do beneficiary designations on every account, especially employer retirement plans where federal law may keep your ex in place.
4. Review any buy-sell agreement, operating agreement, or shareholder agreement if your former spouse was a member, manager, or contingent owner of your business.

That last point is the one business owners overlook. If your operating agreement gave a spouse a right of first refusal or a management seat, dissolution does not necessarily rewrite the company’s governing documents. Coordinating the divorce decree, the equitable distribution of the business interest, and the company paperwork is its own project.

Updating Your Estate Plan After Marriage

Marriage is the happier event with the quieter risk. Florida gives a new spouse significant rights whether or not your documents mention them.

The pretermitted spouse and the elective share

If you made your will before the marriage and never updated it, Florida’s pretermitted spouse statute, section 732.301, generally entitles your surviving spouse to a share equal to what they would receive in intestacy, unless the will provided for the spouse, the omission was intentional and shown on the face of the will, or a valid marital agreement waives the right. On top of that, Florida’s elective share statute, section 732.201 and following, gives a surviving spouse the right to claim 30% of the “elective estate,” a deliberately broad pool that reaches well beyond the probate estate to include things like revocable trust assets and certain transfers made during life.

For a business owner, the elective estate is the headline. A 30% spousal claim that pulls in your company interest can force a liquidity crisis or hand a control stake to someone the rest of the ownership group never intended. This is precisely why marital agreements and properly structured trusts matter, and why they have to be drafted by counsel familiar with Florida’s specific definition of the elective estate rather than copied from another state.

Homestead and the new spouse

Florida’s constitutional homestead protection, in Article X, section 4 of the Florida Constitution, both shields the home from most creditors and restricts how you can leave it. If you are married and have a minor child, you generally cannot devise the homestead away from your spouse and child at all. Even without a minor child, a surviving spouse who is left a life estate may instead elect a one-half tenancy in common under section 732.401. A pre-marriage will that leaves “my house to my children” can collide head-on with these rules.

Blended families feel this most acutely. The classic Palm Beach scenario is a second marriage where each spouse has adult children from a prior relationship and a home that one spouse owned before the wedding. Getting that right usually requires a coordinated set of documents, often including a revocable trust and a marital agreement. A simple will alone rarely solves it.

Updating Your Estate Plan After a Move to Florida

Relocating to Palm Beach is the event with the most moving parts, because you are not just changing your beneficiaries, you are changing your governing law.

Will your existing documents still work?

Generally, a will validly executed under the law of the state where it was signed will be honored in Florida, with one important exception: Florida does not recognize handwritten (holographic) wills or oral (nuncupative) wills, even if they were valid where written, under section 732.502. More commonly, the problem is not validity but suitability. A few specifics catch newcomers off guard:

• Self-proving affidavits differ. Florida has its own statutory self-proof language. Re-executing the will in Florida avoids your witnesses being tracked down years later.
• Out-of-state personal representatives are restricted. Under section 733.304, a non-resident generally cannot serve as your personal representative unless they are a close relative or the spouse of one. The trusted friend you named back home may be legally disqualified here.
• Powers of attorney are read against Florida’s Power of Attorney Act. Chapter 709 requires specific formalities and signed acknowledgment of certain “superpowers.” Banks here often resist out-of-state forms, so a fresh Florida durable power of attorney is worth the modest cost.
• Health care documents should be re-signed on Florida’s designation of health care surrogate and living will forms so local hospitals honor them without argument.

Establishing Florida domicile

If you are escaping a high-tax state, sloppy paperwork can let your former state argue you never truly left. Filing a Declaration of Domicile under section 222.17, registering to vote, retitling vehicles, and updating your driver’s license all build the record. The same move that lowers your tax exposure is also the moment to claim Florida’s homestead protections, which requires the home to be your permanent residence.

Business owners relocating a company or its management to Florida have an extra layer: where the entity is organized, where it is taxed, and how the move interacts with any succession plan already in place. New York owners who keep property or an entity up north often need parallel planning, and our firm’s New York team handles those questions while we manage the Florida side. If a New York will is still part of the picture, the rules for a valid differ from Florida’s, which is exactly why a clean re-execution matters when you change states.

The Business Owner’s Checklist

For closely held business owners, the estate plan and the company’s governing documents have to tell the same story. After any of these three life events, review the following together:

• Buy-sell agreement: Does the triggering language still match your marital and ownership situation? Is it funded?
• Operating or shareholder agreement: Are transfer restrictions, voting rights, and successor managers still correct after a divorce or remarriage?
• Beneficiary designations on entity-owned policies: Especially after divorce, where federal law may keep an ex in place.
• Trust ownership of the business interest: A revocable trust can keep the company out of probate and out of the homestead and elective-share crossfire, but only if the interest is actually retitled into it.
• Successor signing authority: Your durable power of attorney should expressly authorize business decisions if you become incapacitated.

You can review the broader scope of services on our page, and if probate has already started for a family member, see our overview of Florida probate.

How Soon Should You Update?

The honest answer is sooner than feels urgent. Florida’s revocation-on-divorce statutes protect you only against the most obvious mistakes; they do not build your new plan. Marriage and relocation give your new spouse and your new state rights that override stale documents. The window between a life event and the next emergency is unpredictable, and the cost of acting early is a fraction of the cost of probate litigation.

If you have gone through any of these three changes in the last few years and have not had your documents reviewed by Florida counsel, that review is the single highest-value hour you can spend. Contact our Palm Beach office to start it.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does divorce automatically remove my ex-spouse from my will in Florida?

Largely, yes. Florida Statutes section 732.507(2) voids will provisions favoring a former spouse upon a final judgment of dissolution, reading the will as if the ex-spouse predeceased you, and section 732.703 applies a similar rule to many beneficiary designations. However, ERISA-governed accounts like a 401(k) follow federal law, so a named ex-spouse may still collect, and the statute does not install your new intended beneficiaries. You must execute new documents.

If I move to Palm Beach, is my out-of-state will still valid?

Usually. Florida generally honors a will validly executed in another state, except handwritten (holographic) and oral wills, which Florida does not recognize under section 732.502. The bigger issue is suitability: out-of-state personal representatives may be disqualified under section 733.304, and powers of attorney and health care documents are best re-signed on Florida forms so local banks and hospitals honor them.

What rights does a new spouse get if I marry but never update my will?

Florida’s pretermitted spouse statute (section 732.301) can entitle an unmentioned spouse to an intestate share, and the elective share statute (section 732.201 et seq.) gives a surviving spouse up to 30% of a broadly defined elective estate that can reach trust and lifetime-transfer assets. Homestead rules in Article X, section 4 of the Florida Constitution also restrict how you can leave your home.

How does a Florida move or divorce affect my business succession plan?

It can quietly undo it. Divorce does not automatically rewrite an operating, shareholder, or buy-sell agreement, a new spouse’s elective-share claim can pull your company interest into a 30% pool, and a relocation changes which state’s law governs. After any of these events, review the entity’s governing documents, funding of any buy-sell, beneficiary designations, and whether the interest is properly held in a trust.

How quickly should I update my estate plan after a life event?

As soon as practical. Florida’s revocation statutes only protect against obvious errors; they do not build your new plan, and marriage or relocation grants rights that override outdated documents. A prompt review by Florida counsel costs far less than the probate litigation that stale documents can trigger.