Online will kits promise a finished estate plan in twenty minutes. The problem is that Florida has some of the most particular rules in the country, and a generic template does not know any of them. Most do-it-yourself plans we see are not wrong on the surface—they fail in the specific places Florida law is unforgiving. Here are the mistakes that turn a DIY plan into a probate headache.
Mistake 1: Botching the will-signing formalities
Under Florida Statutes §732.502, a will must be signed by the testator at the end and witnessed by two people who sign in the presence of the testator and each other. DIY users routinely sign at the kitchen table with one witness, or have a beneficiary witness the document. A will that misses these formalities can be challenged or refused for probate entirely. A self-proving affidavit—which spares your witnesses from being tracked down later—requires a notary and the right statutory language that templates often omit.
Mistake 2: Ignoring Florida homestead
Florida’s constitutional homestead protection (Art. X, §4) is where DIY plans quietly self-destruct. If you have a spouse or minor child, you cannot freely devise your homestead by will. Try to leave the house to a friend or an adult child while a minor child survives, and the devise is invalid—the property passes by a constitutional formula instead. No online form flags this, because no online form knows you live in Florida with a minor at home.
Mistake 3: Assuming a will avoids probate
A common DIY belief is that having a will keeps you out of court. It does not. A will is a set of instructions for probate, not an exit from it. Florida offers summary administration for smaller or older estates and formal administration for everything else (Chs. 733–735), but both are court proceedings. If avoiding probate is the goal, the tool is usually a properly funded revocable trust under Chapter 736, or a Lady Bird (enhanced life estate) deed for the home—strategies a template will never suggest.
Mistake 4: The unfunded trust
Some ambitious DIYers do create a revocable trust online, then never retitle their accounts and deed into it. An empty trust controls nothing. The assets still go through probate, and now the family pays for two systems that do not talk to each other. Funding—changing titles and beneficiary designations—is the step that makes a trust work, and it is the step DIY plans almost always skip.
Mistake 5: Overlooking the spouse’s elective share
Florida protects a surviving spouse with an elective share of 30% of the elective estate (§732.2065 and following). DIY plans that try to disinherit or minimally provide for a spouse often collide with this rule, producing litigation the testator never anticipated. An attorney structures around it deliberately, with a prenuptial waiver or planned distribution—not by accident.
Where DIY can be reasonable—and where it isn’t
If you are single, have a modest estate, and want a basic will, a careful DIY effort with proper Florida witnessing may be a starting point. But the moment homestead, a blended family, minor children, business interests, or probate avoidance enter the picture, the cost of an attorney is far smaller than the cost of a plan that fails when it is finally read. Note too that Florida imposes no state estate or inheritance tax—so the value an attorney adds here is in execution and structure, not tax dodging.
A note on getting it right: Florida’s homestead, witnessing, and elective-share rules reward precision and punish shortcuts. Before you rely on a template, talk with a licensed Florida estate planning attorney who can confirm your plan will actually do what you intend when it matters most.
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