Update Your Estate Plan After Divorce in Florida

What Florida Law Changes Automatically (and What It Doesn't)

Florida has several statutes that revoke an ex-spouse's role in your estate plan when your divorce is finalized. The problem is that these automatic revocations are partial — they cover some documents and miss others, creating gaps that can leave your ex with authority you never intended to keep.

Understanding which documents are handled by statute and which require manual action is the difference between a clean break and an ex-spouse making medical decisions for you if you're incapacitated.

Your Will: § 732.507 Handles This

Florida Statutes § 732.507(2) automatically treats your former spouse as having predeceased you for purposes of any will executed before the divorce. Bequests to your ex are voided, and any appointment of your ex as personal representative is revoked.

This kicks in the moment the divorce is final — you do not need to file anything. But "treats as predeceased" only redirects your ex's share to whoever the will names as an alternate beneficiary. If your will leaves everything to your spouse with no alternate, the voided share passes through Florida's intestacy rules instead of going where you intend.

The practical move: draft a new will that reflects your post-divorce wishes. Don't rely on the statutory override as a permanent estate plan. It is a safety net, not a replacement for an updated will.

Your Revocable Trust: Manual Update Required

Florida Statutes § 732.507 applies to wills, while § 736.1105 addresses revocable trusts. The trust statute voids provisions affecting an ex-spouse upon divorce, but do not rely on the default rule; update the trust manually.

Amend the trust to remove your ex-spouse from all roles. If the trust is the centerpiece of your estate plan (many Florida estate plans are trust-based to avoid probate), this is your highest priority. A trust amendment is a straightforward document — a few pages — but it must be executed with the same formalities as the original trust.

Power of Attorney: Automatic, But Verify

Florida Statutes § 709.2109(2)(b) automatically terminates your ex-spouse's authority under a durable power of attorney when a dissolution action is filed, unless the power of attorney provides otherwise. Not finalized — filed. This is the most protective of the automatic revocations, cutting off access early in the process.

The catch: financial institutions are legally protected from liability until they receive written notice of the revocation. If your ex shows up at your bank with a copy of the old POA and the bank has not received notice that the divorce was filed, the bank can honor the POA and is not liable for the resulting transactions.

Execute a new power of attorney naming a trusted person. Record the revocation in the public records of your county. Send a copy via certified mail to every bank, brokerage, and lender where your ex could attempt to transact.

Healthcare Surrogate: The Dangerous Gap

Your designation of your ex-spouse as healthcare surrogate is only revoked upon the finalization of the divorce, not upon filing. Under Florida Statutes § 765.104(2), if you become incapacitated while the divorce is pending, your soon-to-be ex-spouse retains full authority to make medical decisions and access your medical records.

Even after the divorce is final, do not assume hospitals and medical providers know about it. Execute a new Healthcare Surrogate Designation under Chapter 765, explicitly revoking all prior designations. Provide a physical copy to your primary care physician, any specialists you see regularly, and the local hospital system.

Living Will

A living will (advance directive) is a separate document from your healthcare surrogate designation. If your living will names your ex-spouse in any capacity — as the person to receive copies, as an alternate decision-maker — update it. Florida does not have an automatic revocation for living wills tied to divorce.

The Sequence That Makes Sense

Draft the new will first — it is the document with the most complex distribution decisions. Amend the trust second. Execute the new power of attorney and healthcare surrogate designations third, because those are the documents that protect you in an emergency. File the POA revocation with the county recorder and notify financial institutions last.

The Florida After-Divorce Checklist includes a beneficiary audit worksheet that maps out every estate planning document, flags which ones are covered by statutory revocation and which need manual updates, and tracks your completion status as you work through each one.

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