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Estate Planning · Wills
Florida Wills Attorney
A will is where most Florida estate plans begin, but rarely where they end.
A Florida will directs how property in your probate estate passes, names the personal representative who will settle it, can nominate guardians for minor children, and can create trusts that take effect after death. It is a foundational document for most families.
What a will cannot do is control everything you own. Retirement accounts, life insurance, jointly titled property, and assets held in a trust pass outside the will, under their own rules. A will that ignores those assets can leave a plan that reads well on paper and works poorly in practice.
Rise Up Legal helps Florida families decide what a will should do in their plan and how it should work alongside trusts, beneficiary designations, and incapacity documents, so that every piece points in the same direction.
On this page
The Foundation
What Does a Will Do in Florida?
A Florida will directs how assets in your probate estate are distributed after your death, names a personal representative to administer your estate, and allows you to nominate guardians for minor children. A will can also create trusts for beneficiaries and coordinate with the rest of your estate plan. A will does not avoid probate.
Directs Distribution of Probate Assets
Your will controls property titled in your name alone with no beneficiary designation — the "probate estate." It says who receives what, and on what terms.
Names a Personal Representative
The personal representative (Florida's term for executor) gathers assets, pays valid debts and expenses, files what the court requires, and distributes what remains. Choosing the right person matters as much as the instructions.
Nominates Guardians for Minor Children
Parents can name who would raise their children and who would manage any property the children inherit. Without a nomination, a judge decides with no guidance from you.
Creates Trusts After Death
A testamentary trust written into the will can hold an inheritance for a young beneficiary, a loved one with special needs, or a spouse in a second marriage, rather than paying everything outright.
Coordinates With the Rest of Your Plan
In a trust-based plan, a "pour-over" will catches anything left outside the trust and directs it there. The will becomes a safety net for the broader estate plan, not the plan itself.
Practical, Not Generic
Who Should Have a Will?
Almost every adult benefits from a will, but the reasons are specific to the family. A will does its most important work for people who have:
- Minor children — to nominate guardians and control how and when an inheritance is managed.
- A spouse or partner — especially an unmarried partner, who generally does not inherit through Florida's intestacy laws simply by virtue of the relationship.
- Real estate — including a Florida homestead, which carries its own descent rules that a will must respect.
- Business interests — where an operating agreement, buy-sell agreement, and will need to agree on what happens to your ownership.
- Blended-family considerations — children from a prior marriage, a current spouse, and the elective-share rules that apply to both.
- Specific beneficiaries or charitable wishes — a godchild, a longtime employee, a church, or a foundation that intestacy would never reach.
- Concerns about how or when beneficiaries inherit — a beneficiary who is young, in a difficult marriage, carrying debt, or receiving public benefits.
If you have a revocable trust, you still need a will. Trust-based plans at Rise Up Legal include a pour-over will for two reasons: it moves any asset that was never retitled into the trust, and it is the only document that can nominate guardians for minor children. A trust cannot do that job.
The Default Plan
What Happens If You Die Without a Will in Florida?
Dying without a valid will is called dying "intestate." Florida's intestate succession statutes then decide who inherits your probate estate, in a fixed order that does not consider your relationships, your intentions, or your family's circumstances.
In broad strokes, a surviving spouse may inherit the entire intestate estate when there are no descendants, or when all of the decedent's descendants are also descendants of the surviving spouse and the surviving spouse has no other descendants. In other family structures, including certain blended-family situations, the surviving spouse may receive one-half of the intestate estate and the decedent's descendants receive the other half. If there is no surviving spouse, Florida law looks next to descendants, then parents, siblings, and other relatives.
The court also chooses the personal representative, and a judge chooses the guardian of any minor children. Every one of those decisions can be made ahead of time, by you, in a will.
Florida's intestacy statutes set the inheritance order when there is no will. They are the state's plan for your family — not yours.
The Question Every Family Asks
Will vs. Trust: Which Does Your Family Need?
From a distance, the difference is simple. A will takes effect at death and works through the probate court. A revocable living trust takes effect the day you sign it, holds assets you transfer into it during life, and lets a successor trustee manage or distribute those assets without court involvement — during incapacity as well as after death.
A will-based plan is often the right fit for a simpler estate, a younger family, or someone whose major assets already pass by beneficiary designation. A trust-based plan tends to earn its cost when there is real estate (particularly in more than one state), privacy concerns, a beneficiary who should not inherit outright, a blended family, or a desire to minimize or avoid probate.
The right answer depends on your assets, your family, and what you want the plan to do for them. We walk through that decision in detail here:
A Common Misunderstanding
Does Having a Will Avoid Probate in Florida?
Generally, no. A will does not avoid probate. It provides the instructions the probate court follows to administer your estate. Assets pass outside probate only through other tools — a funded trust, beneficiary designations, joint ownership, or a Lady Bird deed.
This surprises many families. The will is the document most people associate with estate planning, so it is natural to assume that having one keeps the family out of court. In fact, a will is what the court reads once probate has been opened. For a fuller explanation, see Does a Will Avoid Probate in Florida? and our overview of Florida probate and estate settlement.
Getting It Right
Florida Will Requirements and Common Planning Mistakes
What Florida requires
Florida is specific about how a will must be signed. The testator must sign at the end of the document, in the presence of two witnesses, who then sign in the presence of the testator and of each other. A notarized self-proving affidavit is not required for validity, but without one the witnesses may have to be located and testify before the will is admitted to probate.
Florida does not recognize holographic wills that do not comply with Florida's execution requirements, and oral wills are not valid Florida wills. A will from another state is generally recognized here if it was validly executed there, but out-of-state documents often need updating for Florida's homestead and personal-representative rules.
Where plans go wrong
- Using a DIY or online form drafted for another state, or signed without meeting Florida's witness requirements.
- Naming an out-of-state friend as personal representative, who may not be eligible to serve in Florida unless related to you.
- Leaving the homestead to someone the Florida Constitution does not permit when a spouse or minor child survives.
- Failing to coordinate beneficiary designations, so a retirement account or life insurance policy overrides what the will says.
- Not updating the will after a divorce, remarriage, birth, or move to Florida.
- Assuming the will controls assets that actually pass outside probate.
None of these are exotic problems. They are the ordinary consequences of drafting a will in isolation, and they are why a will is best built as part of a coordinated plan rather than as a stand-alone document.
Keeping It Current
When Should You Update Your Will?
A will reflects your life on the day you signed it. Review it whenever that life changes in a meaningful way, and at least every three to five years even if nothing obvious has:
- Marriage, divorce, or remarriage (Florida law treats a former spouse as having predeceased you, but the rest of the will still needs attention)
- The birth or adoption of a child or grandchild
- The death or incapacity of a beneficiary, personal representative, guardian, or trustee
- A significant change in your assets — a sale, an inheritance, a new home
- Moving to Florida from another state
- Starting, selling, or restructuring a business
- A changed relationship with someone named in the plan
Most families do not want to track this on their own. That is why we built the Legacy Vault Client Care Program — scheduled reviews, updates as life changes, and a plan that stays aligned with the family it was written for. For a fuller list of life events that call for a review, see Life Changes in Florida: When to Review and Update Your Estate Plan.
Our Approach
A Will Should Work With Your Entire Estate Plan
We do not draft wills in isolation, because a will does not operate in isolation. Every will we prepare is designed to coordinate with the other pieces of the plan:
That means checking how each account is titled, reading the beneficiary forms rather than assuming what they say, confirming that a business agreement and the will agree, and making sure the incapacity documents cover the years before death as carefully as the will covers the moment after it.
The result is a plan where the will has a clear, defined job, and nothing depends on a document doing work it was never designed to do. See how the pieces fit together on our Florida estate planning overview.
In This Section
Wills: guides and answers
Deeper reading on the questions this page introduces. New guides are added as they are published.
Does a Will Avoid Probate in Florida?
Why a will is the court's instruction manual, not a way around the court.
Read more
Do I Need a Will or a Trust?
The full comparison: cost, privacy, incapacity, real estate, and blended families.
Read more
Life Changes in Florida: When to Review Your Plan
The events that should send you back to your will, and what to check.
Read more
What Happens If You Die Without a Will in Florida?
Florida's intestacy order explained, with who is left out.
Florida Will Requirements: Witnesses, Notary and Self-Proving Affidavits
The execution rules, and what makes an out-of-state will hold up here.
Are Online Wills Valid in Florida?
What DIY documents get right, and the Florida-specific rules they miss.
Naming a Guardian for Minor Children in Florida
How the nomination works, and the preneed guardian declaration.
Estate Planning for Blended Families
Elective share, homestead descent, and keeping the peace between a spouse and children from a prior marriage.
Get Started
Work With a Florida Estate Planning Attorney
Planning starts with your family, not with a form.
An estate planning consultation at Rise Up Legal is a conversation about the people in your life, what you own, what you are worried about, and what you want to happen. From there we can tell you whether a will-based plan or a trust-based plan fits, what each would cost, and what the will's role would be in either one.
We serve families throughout Jacksonville Beach, Ponte Vedra Beach, Jacksonville, and Northeast Florida, and we prepare Florida wills for clients across the state.
Common Questions
What families ask us about Florida wills
Do I need a will in Florida?
Nearly every Florida adult benefits from a will. Without one, state intestacy law decides who inherits your probate estate, the court chooses your personal representative, and a judge selects a guardian for minor children with no input from you. A will replaces the state's default plan with your own.
What happens if I die without a will in Florida?
Your probate estate passes under Florida's intestate succession statutes, generally to a surviving spouse and descendants in fixed shares, then to parents, siblings, and more distant relatives. Unmarried partners, stepchildren, friends, and charities receive nothing, and the court appoints the personal representative.
Does a will avoid probate in Florida?
A will does not avoid probate. It gives the probate court instructions for administering your estate. Assets avoid probate only through other tools — a funded revocable trust, beneficiary designations, joint ownership with right of survivorship, or a Lady Bird deed. Read more in Does a Will Avoid Probate in Florida?
What is the difference between a will and a trust?
A will takes effect at death and operates through probate. A revocable living trust takes effect when signed, holds assets transferred into it during life, and lets a successor trustee act during incapacity and after death without court involvement. Many plans use both, with a pour-over will backing up the trust. Our living trust overview covers when a trust earns its place.
Can I write my own will in Florida?
Florida permits a self-written will if it is signed at the end before two witnesses who also sign in each other's presence. The risk is not the signing but the content — homestead rules, personal representative eligibility, and beneficiary coordination are where do-it-yourself wills most often fail, and the problems surface only after death, when they cannot be fixed.
When should I update my will?
Review your will after any marriage, divorce, birth, adoption, death of someone named in it, significant change in assets, move to Florida, or business change — and at least every three to five years regardless. Clients in our Legacy Vault program have those reviews scheduled for them.
Do I still need a will if I have a trust?
A trust-based plan still includes a pour-over will. It transfers any asset that was never retitled into the trust, and it is the only document that can nominate a guardian for minor children. Without it, an overlooked account could pass by intestacy even though the rest of the plan avoided probate.
Explore Further
Incapacity Planning
Powers of attorney and health care directives — the documents that work while you are alive.
Learn more
Revocable Living Trusts
When a trust-based plan earns its cost, and how a will fits beside it.
Learn more
Florida Probate
What the process involves, how long it takes, and what a personal representative does.
Learn more
This page provides general information about Florida law and is not legal advice for any specific situation. Rise Up Legal · 1400 Marsh Landing Pkwy, Suite 108, Jacksonville Beach, FL 32250 · (904) 877-1010