Update Beneficiaries After Divorce in Florida

The Split Between State Law and Federal Law

Florida Statutes § 732.703 automatically revokes your ex-spouse as a beneficiary on certain accounts the moment your divorce is finalized. But this statute only reaches accounts governed by state law. Accounts governed by ERISA or other federal law are untouched by Florida's revocation, and your ex-spouse stays as beneficiary until you file a new designation form.

This split creates a trap that catches people who assume the divorce handled everything. It did not.

What § 732.703 Covers (Automatically Revoked)

Florida's automatic revocation applies to beneficiary designations on:

• Individual life insurance policies issued by Florida-regulated insurers
• Annuity contracts governed by Florida law
• Individual bank accounts with payable-on-death (POD) designations
• Individual brokerage accounts with transfer-on-death (TOD) designations

For these accounts, the divorce itself revokes the ex-spouse designation. The account treats your ex-spouse as having predeceased you, so the benefit passes to your contingent beneficiary — or, if none is named, to your estate.

Even though the revocation is automatic, file updated beneficiary forms anyway. The automatic revocation is a backstop. Relying on it means your account records still show your ex-spouse's name, which can cause delays in processing a claim and disputes among heirs.

What ERISA and Federal Law Cover (Not Automatically Revoked)

This is the critical gap. ERISA preempts state law, and federal law can control federal employee plans; Florida's § 732.703 cannot override either. These accounts require you to file a new beneficiary designation form with the plan administrator:

• Employer-sponsored 401(k) and 403(b) plans
• Employer-sponsored group life insurance
• Employer-sponsored group disability insurance
• Private defined-benefit pension plans
• Federal employee plans (FERS, TSP)

The U.S. Supreme Court confirmed this in Egelhoff v. Egelhoff (2001): if an ERISA plan's records show your ex-spouse as beneficiary, the plan pays your ex-spouse — regardless of what your will says, regardless of state divorce revocation statutes, regardless of your clear intent to change it.

Contact your employer's HR department and request a new beneficiary designation form for every employer-sponsored plan you participate in. Fill it out, name your new beneficiary, and get written confirmation that the new designation is on file.

Florida Retirement System (FRS) Plans

FRS plans fall outside both ERISA and the standard state-law revocation. For the FRS Pension Plan, active or inactive members can use FRS Online, while retired members and DROP participants use Form FST-12. For the FRS Investment Plan, use Form IPBEN-1 or the plan's online beneficiary process.

Do not assume your divorce decree divided your FRS benefits and therefore the beneficiary is handled. The division of benefits (via a Domestic Relations Order) and the beneficiary designation are two separate things. Your DRO determines how benefits are split during your lifetime. The beneficiary designation determines who receives the death benefit if you die.

The Audit Checklist

Work through every account you own and categorize it:

State-governed (automatically revoked, but update anyway):

• Personal life insurance policies
• Individual bank POD designations
• Individual brokerage TOD designations
• Annuity contracts

ERISA-governed (must manually update):

• 401(k) / 403(b)
• ERISA-governed group life insurance through employer
• Private pension plans

Federally governed (must manually update):

• Federal retirement plans

Other (check the plan documents):

• Military Survivor Benefit Plan (SBP)
• Veterans' benefits
• FRS Pension/Investment Plan

For each account, log the current beneficiary on file, file the new designation, and record the date and confirmation number. This is a one-time task, but skipping even one account can undo years of estate planning.

The Florida After-Divorce Checklist includes a beneficiary audit worksheet that walks through each account type, the applicable law (state vs. federal), and the specific forms needed to update each designation.

See more Florida guides →