When and Why to Review Your Florida Estate Plan: A Business Owner’s Guide

You should review your Florida estate plan after any major life or financial change, and otherwise every three to five years to confirm it still reflects your wishes and current Florida law. A “review” means re-reading your will, trust, powers of attorney, and beneficiary designations with an attorney to catch outdated names, broken funding, and provisions that no longer match your family or business. For Florida business owners, the stakes are higher: an unreviewed plan can strand a company in probate, trigger a forced sale, or hand control to the wrong person at the worst possible moment.

I have sat across the table from too many Miami families who thought a signed estate plan was a finished project. It is not. It is a living set of instructions that drifts out of alignment with your life the moment you sign it. Below is how I counsel clients to think about timing, and the specific triggers that should send you back to your attorney’s office.

Why a Florida Estate Plan Goes Stale

An estate plan is a snapshot. It captures your assets, your relationships, your business interests, and the law as they all existed on the day you signed. Every one of those four things changes over time, and they rarely change in sync.

The most common failure I see is not a bad document. It is a good document that no longer describes reality. You sold the rental property the trust was supposed to hold. The guardian you named for your children moved to another country. Your business doubled in value and the buy-sell agreement still references a number from a decade ago. The will is technically valid; it is just describing a life you no longer live.

Florida law itself also moves. The Legislature amends the Florida Probate Code (Chapters 731 through 735, Florida Statutes) and the Florida Trust Code (Chapter 736) regularly. Florida adopted the Uniform Directed Trust Act and the Community Property Trust Act in recent years, and the homestead and elective-share rules under the Florida Constitution and Chapter 732 continue to shape what you can and cannot do with your property. A plan drafted before a relevant change may not take advantage of tools that did not exist when you signed.

How Often Should You Review Your Estate Plan in Florida?

There is no statute that commands a review on a fixed schedule. As a practical matter, I give clients two rules that work together:

• Calendar rule: Sit down with the plan every three to five years even if nothing dramatic has happened. Small drifts accumulate, and a short review is far cheaper than litigation.
• Event rule: Review immediately whenever a triggering life, family, financial, or legal event occurs, regardless of how recently you last looked.

The event rule almost always matters more than the calendar. Most people who get burned were not waiting too long on the calendar; they had a major event and never connected it to their documents.

Life Events That Should Trigger an Immediate Review

Some changes are obvious. Others quietly invalidate or distort your plan without anyone noticing until it is too late.

Marriage, Divorce, and Remarriage

Marriage creates spousal rights in Florida that your old documents may ignore. A spouse has a constitutional homestead interest and a statutory elective share of roughly 30 percent of the elective estate under Florida Statutes section 732.2065. Divorce cuts the other way: under section 732.507, a dissolution of marriage generally voids gifts to a former spouse in your will, and section 732.703 addresses former spouses named on certain assets. But these statutory fixes are blunt instruments. They do not clean up a revocable trust, a deed, or a privately held company’s ownership records. After a divorce, assume nothing is automatic and review everything.

Births, Deaths, and Changes in Your Beneficiaries

A new child or grandchild, the death of a named beneficiary, or a beneficiary who develops a disability or a creditor problem all warrant a fresh look. If a beneficiary now receives needs-based government benefits, an outright inheritance can disqualify them; a properly drafted supplemental or special needs trust preserves both the inheritance and the benefits. This is the same family of planning tools we use in elder law, including instruments like a that protect eligibility while still putting assets to work for a loved one.

A Significant Change in Wealth or the Nature of Your Assets

A liquidity event, an inheritance you received, a large new investment, or simply years of appreciation can push you past planning thresholds you never thought applied to you. The federal estate and gift tax exemption is historically high but scheduled to drop, and that sunset alone is reason to revisit gifting and trust strategies. Florida has no state estate tax, which is one of the reasons high-net-worth families relocate here, but that does not exempt Florida residents from the federal estate tax on assets above the exemption.

Moving To or From Florida

If you executed your documents in another state and then established Florida residency, have them reviewed. Florida’s homestead protections are unusually powerful, its formalities for wills and powers of attorney are specific, and its rules on who may serve as a personal representative under section 733.304 restrict out-of-state individuals to close relatives. A will that was flawless in New York may need adjustment to work smoothly in a Miami-Dade probate. If you have ties to both states, coordinated counsel matters; sophisticated cross-border families often pair Florida planning with New York tools such as a to shield assets while preserving eligibility for long-term care benefits.

Why Business Owners Need to Review More Aggressively

If you own a closely held company, an LLC, a professional practice, or an interest in a partnership, your estate plan and your business succession plan are the same conversation. They cannot be allowed to diverge.

Here is the trap. Many owners sign a comprehensive estate plan, then go years making business decisions that quietly contradict it. The operating agreement says one thing about what happens at death; the will says another. The buy-sell agreement names a successor who has since left the company. The life insurance funding the buy-sell lapsed. Each document was reasonable in isolation, but together they guarantee a dispute.

A disciplined business owner reviews the full picture whenever any of the following change:

1. Ownership or partners. New investors, a departing co-owner, or a shift in your percentage interest can break a buy-sell or trigger transfer restrictions.
2. Entity structure. Converting from a sole proprietorship to an LLC or S-corp, or forming a holding company, changes how the interest passes and how it is taxed.
3. Valuation. Growth that outpaces the figure in your agreements, or a formula clause that no longer reflects market reality.
4. Key-person and funding arrangements. Lapsed or underfunded insurance meant to buy out your estate’s share.
5. Your chosen successor. The person you intended to run or buy the company is no longer the right choice, willing, or available.

The mechanics matter as much as the intent. A revocable living trust that is never funded with your membership interest does nothing; the interest still falls into probate, where a Miami-Dade judge and the public docket get involved in your company’s future. Funding, retitling, and coordinating the operating agreement with your trust is the work that actually keeps a business out of court. For a deeper look at how we structure these arrangements for owners, see our overview of , and review your own will and trust documents against your current cap table.

The Documents That Quietly Override Your Will

Clients are often surprised to learn that the documents most likely to be wrong are not the will or the trust. They are the smaller, faster-moving instruments that pass property by operation of law and supersede your will entirely:

• Beneficiary designations on retirement accounts, IRAs, life insurance, and annuities. These pass outside the will. An ex-spouse left on a 401(k) usually still inherits it.
• Payable-on-death and transfer-on-death accounts and securities.
• Titling and deeds, including joint tenancy and Florida’s lady bird (enhanced life estate) deeds that move homestead outside probate.
• Durable power of attorney, governed by Chapter 709, Florida Statutes. Florida tightened its rules in 2011; many older “springing” powers no longer function as drafted, and banks routinely reject stale ones.
• Health care surrogate designations and living wills under Chapter 765, which name who speaks for you if you cannot.

A real review reconciles every one of these against your will and trust. Coordination, not the number of documents, is what protects a family.

What a Thorough Review Actually Looks Like

When a client comes in for a review, we do not just re-read the will. We confirm the fiduciaries you named are still alive, capable, and willing. We verify the trust is funded. We check beneficiary designations against the plan. We confirm the powers of attorney comply with current Chapter 709 requirements. For owners, we line up the operating agreement, buy-sell, and insurance with the estate documents. And we measure the whole structure against current federal tax thresholds and any relevant changes to the Florida Trust Code or Probate Code.

Sometimes the result is a clean bill of health and a note to look again in three years. Often it is a short amendment or a beneficiary form. Occasionally it is a more substantial restructuring. In every case, it is far less expensive than the alternative, which is a contested probate or a frozen business while your family fights over what you meant. If it has been more than a few years, or any event on these lists applies to you, that is your signal to schedule a review. For families navigating the court system after a death, our guidance on Florida probate explains what is at stake when planning falls out of date.

The Bottom Line

An estate plan is not a document you finish. It is a relationship you maintain. Review it on a three-to-five-year cadence, review it the instant your life or business changes, and treat the review as seriously as you treated the original signing. For Miami business owners especially, the difference between a current plan and a stale one is often the difference between a smooth succession and a company that ends up in probate.

Frequently Asked Questions

How often should I review my estate plan in Florida?

There is no statutory schedule, but a practical rule is to review every three to five years and immediately after any major life, family, financial, or legal change. Events almost always matter more than the calendar, so do not wait for a scheduled review if something significant has happened.

Does getting divorced automatically remove my ex-spouse from my Florida estate plan?

Partly. Florida Statutes section 732.507 generally voids gifts to a former spouse in your will after dissolution, and related statutes address certain assets. But these fixes do not clean up revocable trusts, deeds, or beneficiary designations on retirement accounts and life insurance, which pass outside the will. After a divorce you should review and update everything.

Why do business owners need to review their estate plans more often?

Because the estate plan and the business succession plan must stay aligned. Changes in ownership, entity structure, company valuation, buy-sell funding, or your chosen successor can quietly contradict your will or trust. An unfunded trust also leaves a business interest in probate, where a court and public docket get involved in the company’s future.

What documents most often override my will in Florida?

Beneficiary designations on retirement accounts and life insurance, payable-on-death and transfer-on-death accounts, and titling such as joint tenancy or lady bird deeds all pass outside the will and can override it. Durable powers of attorney and health care surrogate designations also need regular review to stay valid under Florida law.

Does Florida have a state estate tax I need to plan around?

Florida has no state estate tax, which is one reason high-net-worth families relocate here. However, Florida residents are still subject to the federal estate tax on assets above the federal exemption, which is scheduled to drop, so high-value estates and business owners should review gifting and trust strategies accordingly.