An estate plan is a snapshot of your life at the moment you signed it. When your life changes and the documents do not, Florida law fills the gaps — and it rarely fills them the way you would have chosen. Here are the post-life-change mistakes Floridians make most often.
Mistake 1: Thinking Marriage Updates Itself
Getting married does not rewrite your will. If you signed a will before the marriage and never updated it, Florida’s pretermitted spouse rule may give your new spouse a statutory share regardless of what the old document says — possibly upending the plan you made for children from a prior relationship. Florida also gives a surviving spouse the elective share: a right to roughly 30% of the elective estate (§732.2065 and following), which cannot be cut off by simply leaving the spouse out. Marriage demands a deliberate update, not silence.
Mistake 2: Assuming Divorce Erases Your Ex Completely
Florida law does void most provisions in favor of a former spouse upon divorce — your ex-spouse is generally treated as having predeceased you for purposes of your will and revocable trust. But that protection has real limits. It does not automatically fix beneficiary designations on life insurance, retirement accounts, or annuities governed by contract or federal law. Floridians who divorce and never call their plan administrator routinely leave an ex as the named beneficiary on a 401(k) for years.
Mistake 3: Leaving an Ex as Power of Attorney or Health Care Surrogate
Divorce can suspend a former spouse’s authority as agent, but you do not want your medical and financial decisions hinging on a ‘generally’ or a courtroom argument. After a divorce, execute fresh Florida durable power of attorney (Ch. 709) and health care surrogate documents naming someone you actually trust today.
Mistake 4: Welcoming a New Child Without Naming a Guardian
The single most important update after a birth or adoption is not about money — it is naming a guardian for your minor child. Without that designation in your Florida documents, a court decides who raises your child, choosing among relatives who may disagree. Florida also has an afterborn child rule: a child born after your will may be entitled to a share, which can scramble your intended distribution if the will is silent.
Mistake 5: Pouring an Inheritance Directly Into a Minor’s Hands
Naming a minor child outright as a beneficiary forces a court-supervised guardianship of the property, and the child receives everything at 18 — an age few parents would choose. A revocable trust (Ch. 736) lets you hold assets for a child and release them at ages you select, name a trustee, and skip guardianship of the estate entirely.
Mistake 6: Forgetting Homestead and Minor Children
If you have a minor child, Florida’s homestead rules (Art. X, §4) restrict how you can devise your primary residence — you cannot simply leave it to a new spouse or a trust without consequences. A new child or a remarriage is exactly when these constraints bite, so the deed and the plan must be reviewed together.
A Simple Rule
Treat marriage, divorce, birth, and adoption as automatic triggers to review every document: will, trust, durable POA, health care surrogate, and every beneficiary designation. The update takes far less time and money than the litigation a stale plan invites.
Spousal rights, homestead devise rules, and beneficiary designations interact in ways that are easy to get wrong. After any major life change, consult a licensed Florida estate planning attorney to align your documents with your wishes and with Florida law.
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