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

If your life has changed through divorce, marriage, or a move to Florida, your estate plan needs to change with it. A divorce can quietly void parts of an old will while leaving dangerous gaps; a new marriage creates spousal rights the law will enforce whether your documents mention them or not; and relocating to Florida puts you under a different set of probate, homestead, and elective-share rules than the state you left. Updating your plan after any of these events is not optional housekeeping. It is the difference between your wishes being honored and a judge deciding for you.

I have sat across the table from too many Miami business owners who assumed the documents in their drawer still meant what they meant a decade ago. They rarely do. Below is a practical walk-through of what actually shifts when your marital status or your home state changes, with particular attention to the people who have the most to lose: those with a company, partners, or a succession plan riding on getting this right.

Why life events break an estate plan that “still looks fine”

Estate planning documents are snapshots. They capture your intentions, your relationships, and your assets at one moment. Marriage, divorce, and relocation each move the ground underneath all three at once. The paperwork can read perfectly and still produce an outcome you would never have chosen.

Three things change after a major life event:

• Who has legal rights. A spouse acquires statutory claims that override silence in your documents. An ex-spouse loses some claims automatically and keeps others by accident.
• Which state’s law governs. Your domicile decides how your will is probated, what your spouse can demand, and how your home is protected. Florida is not New York, and the gap is wide.
• What you own and how it is titled. New accounts, a refinanced home, a reorganized LLC, or a beneficiary designation you set up before the wedding can quietly contradict your will.

For business owners the stakes compound. Your operating agreement, your buy-sell provisions, and your personal estate plan have to tell the same story. When they conflict, the conflict surfaces at the worst possible time, usually while the business is mid-transition and your family is grieving.

Updating your estate plan after divorce in Florida

Divorce is the event clients most often think handles itself. It does not.

What Florida law revokes automatically, and what it does not

Florida has a statutory safety net. Under Fla. Stat. § 732.507(2), a dissolution of marriage automatically voids any provision in your will that favors your former spouse, treating them as though they predeceased you. A parallel rule, Fla. Stat. § 732.703, applies the same logic to many non-probate transfers, such as certain beneficiary designations on life insurance and retirement-style assets governed by Florida law.

That sounds reassuring until you see the holes. The automatic revocation does not reach everything. Designations controlled by federal law (notably ERISA-governed retirement plans) often follow the plan documents and the named beneficiary, not the Florida statute. Assets titled in another state may follow that state’s rules. And a revocation that removes your ex does not name a replacement, which can send an asset into intestacy or to a contingent beneficiary you never thought through.

Equally important: the statute revokes gifts to the former spouse, but it does not rewrite the rest of your plan. If you named your then-spouse as personal representative, trustee, agent under a power of attorney, or health care surrogate, those roles need fresh appointments. Nobody wants an ex-spouse holding their power of attorney during a hospitalization.

The business owner’s divorce checklist

1. Revisit every fiduciary role. Personal representative, successor trustee, attorney-in-fact, and health care surrogate. Replace your former spouse explicitly.
2. Re-examine beneficiary designations directly with each custodian. Do not rely on the statute. Update life insurance, IRAs, 401(k)s, annuities, and transfer-on-death accounts in writing.
3. Reconcile your buy-sell and operating agreement. If a former spouse received an interest in the marital settlement, your succession plan has to account for it or buy it out.
4. Update your power of attorney and advance directives. These are not covered by the will revocation in any meaningful way for your day-to-day protection.
5. Review any trust funded during the marriage. Revocable trusts can be amended; the dissolution statute’s reach into trusts is narrower than people assume.

Updating your estate plan after marriage or remarriage

Marriage creates rights that exist whether or not you ever sign a new document. In Florida, those rights are forceful.

The elective share and the pretermitted spouse

Florida’s elective share entitles a surviving spouse to 30% of the “elective estate,” a broad category defined under Fla. Stat. §§ 732.201 through 732.2155 that reaches well beyond the probate estate to include many trusts, jointly held property, and certain transfers. You cannot disinherit a spouse in Florida simply by leaving them out of your will. If you marry after signing a will that does not provide for your new spouse, the pretermitted spouse rule in Fla. Stat. § 732.301 may give that spouse an intestate share unless the will contemplated the marriage or a valid marital agreement controls.

For a business owner, the elective share is a quiet threat to continuity. If a meaningful slice of your estate must be paid to a surviving spouse, and the bulk of your wealth is illiquid equity in a company, your successors may be forced to sell, borrow, or fracture ownership to satisfy that claim. Planning ahead, often with a prenuptial or postnuptial agreement and properly structured life insurance, keeps the business intact.

Homestead and the surviving spouse

Florida’s homestead protections, rooted in Article X, Section 4 of the Florida Constitution and elaborated in Fla. Stat. § 732.401, restrict how you can leave your primary residence when you have a surviving spouse or minor child. You may believe you can will the house to your children; the constitution may say otherwise. Remarriage with children from a prior relationship is the classic flashpoint, and it deserves deliberate planning rather than a generic devise.

Blended families need precision, not goodwill

Second marriages with children from earlier relationships are where DIY plans fail most often. Leaving everything to your new spouse and trusting them to “take care of the kids” is a wish, not a plan. A properly drafted trust, sometimes a QTIP or a credit-shelter structure, can provide for a spouse during their lifetime while preserving a defined remainder for your children and your business successors. If you also hold property in another state, coordinate the plans. Our colleagues in New York frequently use tools like to balance lifetime use against an eventual transfer, and the same balancing act, executed under Florida law, often solves the blended-family puzzle here.

Updating your estate plan after moving to Florida

New residents are often the most surprised. A will that was airtight in New York, New Jersey, or Illinois may function differently the moment you become a Florida domiciliary.

Your old will may be valid but ill-fitting

Florida generally recognizes a will that was validly executed under the law of the state where it was signed, with one notable exception: Florida does not honor holographic (handwritten, unwitnessed) wills or oral wills, even if your prior state did, per Fla. Stat. § 732.502. So a will can be “valid” and still create headaches.

The bigger issue is fit. Two features deserve immediate attention:

• Out-of-state personal representatives. Florida limits who can serve. Under Fla. Stat. § 733.304, a non-resident generally must be a close relative (or a relative’s spouse) to act as your personal representative. The trusted friend you named back home may be legally disqualified here.
• Self-proving formalities. Florida lets you make a will “self-proving” with a notarized affidavit under Fla. Stat. § 732.503, which streamlines probate. Many out-of-state wills lack the Florida-compliant version, slowing everything down.

Homestead and probate work differently here

Florida’s homestead exemption is among the most generous creditor protections in the country, but its devise restrictions are strict, as noted above. Florida probate also follows its own track: formal administration, summary administration for smaller or older estates, and ancillary administration for property a Florida resident owns elsewhere. If you understand how the process runs before you need it, you can structure ownership to avoid the slowest paths. You can read more on our overview of Florida probate.

Establishing domicile is itself a planning act

Moving to Florida is also a tax and asset-protection opportunity, and establishing clear domicile matters. File a Florida Declaration of Domicile, change your driver’s license and voter registration, retitle the homestead, and update your documents to recite Florida residency. Sloppy transitions invite your former state to claim you never truly left, which can drag your estate back into its income or estate tax net. For the foundational document itself, make sure your Florida will is re-executed to local standards rather than merely carried across the state line.

Coordinating succession when you own a business

Every life event above intersects with your company. A divorce can hand a former spouse an equity stake or a claim against distributions. A new marriage triggers elective-share exposure that your buy-sell agreement may not fund. A move to Florida changes which state’s law governs your personal estate even if the LLC is organized elsewhere.

The fix is alignment. Your operating agreement, buy-sell provisions, key-person insurance, and personal estate plan should be read together and revised together. When a partner dies or divorces, the documents should answer, without litigation, who can own the interest, at what price, and on what terms. For Florida-specific structuring of these issues, our firm’s works through ownership, valuation, and funding in one coordinated plan. And because owners frequently hold assets and family ties across state lines, it helps to keep the cross-border picture in view; the fundamentals behind a sound mirror the discipline a Florida will demands, even though the governing statutes differ.

A simple cadence: when to revisit your plan

You do not need to rewrite everything every year. You do need a trigger list. Revisit your plan whenever:

• You marry, divorce, or are widowed.
• You move to or from Florida, or buy property in another state.
• Your business changes hands, takes on a partner, or is reorganized.
• A beneficiary or fiduciary dies, moves, or becomes someone you no longer trust.
• Florida or federal law shifts in a way your attorney flags.

If any of those describe you in the past year, treat this as the prompt to schedule a review. The cost of an update is trivial next to the cost of probate litigation, a forced business sale, or a homestead your family cannot keep. When you are ready, reach out to our Miami estate planning team and bring whatever documents you signed in your old life. We will tell you, honestly, what still works and what no longer does.

Frequently Asked Questions

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

Largely yes. Under Fla. Stat. § 732.507(2), dissolution of marriage voids gifts to a former spouse in your will, treating them as if they died before you, and § 732.703 extends similar treatment to many beneficiary designations. But the statute does not reach ERISA-governed retirement plans, out-of-state assets, or fiduciary roles like personal representative and power of attorney. You still need to update those manually.

Can I disinherit my spouse in Florida?

Not by silence. Florida’s elective share (Fla. Stat. §§ 732.201–732.2155) gives a surviving spouse 30% of a broadly defined elective estate, and the pretermitted-spouse rule protects a spouse you married after signing your will. The reliable way to limit a spouse’s share is a valid prenuptial or postnuptial agreement, drafted to Florida standards.

Is my out-of-state will valid after I move to Florida?

Usually, if it was validly executed where you signed it, with the major exception that Florida does not recognize handwritten unwitnessed (holographic) or oral wills. Even a valid will may need updating: Florida restricts who can serve as a non-resident personal representative (Fla. Stat. § 733.304) and has its own self-proving affidavit (§ 732.503) that speeds probate.

How does a Florida move affect my homestead and my house?

Florida homestead is heavily protected from creditors, but Article X, Section 4 of the Florida Constitution and Fla. Stat. § 732.401 also restrict how you can leave your home when you have a surviving spouse or minor child. You may not be able to simply will the house to your children, so the residence should be addressed deliberately, especially in remarriages or blended families.

Why do business owners need to update their estate plan after these events?

Because your operating agreement, buy-sell provisions, insurance, and personal estate plan must agree. A divorce can give an ex an equity claim, a new marriage creates elective-share exposure that may force a sale of illiquid business interests, and a move changes which state’s law governs your estate. Coordinating these documents keeps ownership and succession intact instead of being decided in litigation.