Tom and Sarah moved from Minnesota two years ago. They'd done everything right—or so they thought. They had a comprehensive estate plan created by an excellent attorney back home. They'd updated their driver's licenses, registered to vote in Florida, and changed their address with Social Security.
Then Tom had a health scare that landed him in the hospital. When Sarah tried to access their accounts using Tom's power of attorney, the bank hesitated. "This document references Minnesota law," the manager said. "We need our legal department to review it."
That delay was frustrating. But it was nothing compared to what I discovered when I reviewed their complete estate plan.
Their Minnesota-drafted will was about to cost their family an extra $15,000 to $30,000 in probate fees. Their homestead exemption was at risk. And their plan would not protect their home and life savings.
Tom and Sarah aren't unusual. In my nearly thirty years practicing estate and elder law, I've seen this scenario play out dozens of times. Successful, intelligent people relocate to the Sunshine State and assume their estate plan moves with them seamlessly.
It doesn't.
Let me show you why—and more importantly, what you need to do about it.
The Probate Trap: When Your Will Becomes a Financial Nightmare
Here's something most snowbirds and people moving to Florida don't realize: Florida has an expensive probate process.
If you moved from a state with a relatively streamlined, inexpensive probate process - such as Pennsylvania - you're in for a shock.
Florida's Statutory Probate Fees
Florida Statutes Section 733.617 establishes fees for attorneys and personal representatives handling probate. They're calculated as a percentage of your estate value:
Personal Representative Compensation:
- 3% of the first $1 million
- 2.5% for all above $1 million and not exceeding $5 million
- 2% for all above $5 million and not exceeding $10 million
- 1.5% for all above $10 million
Attorney Compensation: The attorney representing the estate receives the same compensation structure under Florida Statutes Section 733.6171.
Here's the critical part: these fees apply to BOTH the attorney AND the personal representative. So you're looking at double these amounts coming out of your estate.
Let's do the math. If your Florida estate is worth $800,000:
- Personal representative fee: $24,000 (3% of $800,000)
- Attorney fee: $24,000 (3% of $800,000)
- Total probate fees: $48,000
That's $48,000 coming directly out of what you planned to leave your children—money that could have been completely avoided with proper trust planning.
For a $2 million estate:
- Personal representative fee: $55,000 (3% of first $1M = $30,000, plus 2.5% of next $1M = $25,000)
- Attorney fee: $55,000
- Total probate fees: $110,000
But it gets worse.
The Two-State Probate Disaster
Remember that lake cabin in Minnesota? Your home back in Pennsylvania where you spend summers? Your place in upstate New York? If those properties are still in your name when you pass away, your family will face probate in BOTH states.
Your executor will need to:
- Hire attorneys in both states
- Navigate two different probate court systems
- Pay probate fees in both jurisdictions
- Wait months (or years) for both processes to complete
I recently worked with a family whose father had passed away owning a home in Florida and a small cabin in Minnesota. The Minnesota cabin was only worth $150,000, but dealing with probate in two states added an extra year to the process and cost the family an additional $18,000 in legal fees and court costs.
The solution? A properly structured revocable living trust avoids probate entirely—in all states where you own property.
If you moved from a state with simple probate to Florida, switching from a will-based plan to a trust-based plan isn't optional. It's essential financial planning.
The Florida Homestead Puzzle: Powerful Protections You're Probably Missing
Florida's homestead laws are among the most generous in the nation—offering benefits that go far beyond simple tax savings. But only if you know how to use them correctly.
The Homestead Tax Exemption: Up to $50,000 Off Your Property Taxes
Florida offers homestead exemptions that can reduce your property's taxable value by up to $50,000. For most homeowners, this translates to savings of $1,000 to $1,500 annually—every single year.
But here's where people trip up: you can only have ONE homestead.
If you're still claiming homestead exemption on your property up north while also claiming it in Florida, you're committing homestead fraud.
It’s also likely that your former state will be able to claim you as a resident for income and other taxes since you are claiming homestead there.
The 3% Assessment Cap: Hidden Savings That Compound Over Time
Here's a benefit many people don't fully appreciate: once you establish Florida homestead, your property's assessed value for tax purposes cannot increase by more than 3% per year—no matter how much the actual market value increases.
Think about that. If you bought your Florida home for $400,000 and the market value jumps to $600,000 over the next five years, you're still only paying property taxes based on a maximum 3% annual increase in assessed value.
Without homestead protection, your property taxes would skyrocket along with the market value. With homestead, they increase gradually and predictably.
Over a 10 or 20-year period, this cap saves homeowners tens of thousands of dollars in property taxes—money that stays in your pocket instead of going to the county.
Creditor Protection: The Asset Protection Benefit Nobody Talks About
Here's one of Florida homestead's most powerful features that most people don't know about: significant creditor protection.
Under Florida law, your homestead has significant preotection from creditors—regardless of value. Whether your home is worth $300,000 or $3 million, creditors cannot force the sale of your homestead to satisfy judgments against you.
This is enormous. In most states, your home has limited or no protection from creditors. In Florida, it's a fortress.
I've worked with business owners, physicians, and other professionals who've faced lawsuits. Their Florida homestead remained completely protected even when they had significant judgments against them. The creditors could pursue other assets, but the home was untouchable.
There are a few exceptions—IRS tax liens, mortgages you've agreed to, and some other specific debts—but for general creditor protection, Florida homestead is unmatched.
This protection only applies to your Florida homestead, though. If you still own property in other states, those properties have no such protection.
The Trust Problem That Costs You All These Benefits
Even if you do everything else right, there's a hidden trap with trusts and homestead.
When you transfer your Florida home into a trust, Florida law requires specific language to maintain your homestead benefits—not just the tax exemption, but also the assessment cap and creditor protection.
If your trust was created in Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Virginia, New York, or anywhere else, it almost certainly doesn't include this required Florida-specific language.
Without it, you may lose:
- Your homestead tax exemption ($1,000-$1,500 annually)
- Your 3% assessment cap (potentially thousands more annually as property values rise)
- Your creditor protection (exposing your home to potential judgments)
I've reviewed dozens of out-of-state trusts, and I can count on one hand how many included the proper Florida homestead language. The attorneys who drafted them did excellent work—for their state. But Florida is different.
The fix is straightforward: amend your trust to include Florida's required provisions. It's a simple update that preserves all of these valuable protections and can save you thousands of dollars annually.
But you have to know to do it—and most people don't until it's too late.
The Residency Audit Risk You Need to Know About
Here's an issue that keeps snowbirds and those who have moved to Florida awake at night: residency audits.
If you moved from a high-tax state like New York, Minnesota, Illinois, or California, your former state has a financial incentive to claim you're still a resident—and tax you accordingly.
States like New York and Minnesota are notorious for auditing people who claim to have moved to Florida. They'll examine everything: where you spend your time, where your doctors are located, where you vote, where your valuable personal property is kept.
And here's what many people don't realize: having an estate plan that still references your old state's law is evidence you haven't truly established Florida residency.
When I teach continuing education to CPAs and financial advisors across the country, I always emphasize this point: updating your estate plan to Florida law isn't just about making sure it works properly. It's also about building a paper trail that demonstrates you've genuinely relocated.
If Minnesota's Department of Revenue audits you and sees that your trust, power of attorney, and health care directive all still reference Minnesota law three years after you claimed to move to Florida, that's a red flag. It suggests you haven't fully committed to Florida residency.
Updating your estate plan to Florida law is one more piece of evidence that you're serious about being a Florida resident—evidence that could save you tens of thousands in state income taxes if you're ever audited.
The Estate Tax Trap: How Your Old State Can Still Tax You After Death
Most people know that Florida has no state estate tax. It's one of the reasons you moved here.
But here's what many snowbirds don't understand: if you still own property in a state with its own estate tax, that state can tax your estate even after you die as a Florida resident.
The $800,000 Tax Bill They Didn't See Coming
Just last year, a couple came to my office after establishing Florida residency. They'd done everything right—changed their driver's licenses, registered to vote here, filed their homestead exemption. They'd even worked with a Florida attorney to update their estate plan after moving here.
They felt confident everything was in order.
But when I reviewed their complete financial picture, I discovered a ticking time bomb: they still owned property and other assets in Minnesota worth approximately $5 million.
Here's what neither they nor their previous Florida attorney realized: Minnesota has a state estate tax with an exemption of only $3 million. Even though they were now Florida residents, and even though they'd updated their estate plan to Florida law, Minnesota would still impose estate tax on those $5 million in Minnesota-situs assets when they died.
At Minnesota's estate tax rates and how they calculate non-resident tax, their children were facing a tax bill of approximately $800,000—money that would come directly out of their inheritance.
The couple was shocked. Their Florida attorney had been excellent at updating their documents to comply with Florida law, but he wasn't familiar with Minnesota's estate tax rules. He simply didn't know to look for this issue.
Why Florida Attorneys Miss This Issue
This happens more often than you'd think. Many Florida estate planning attorneys focus exclusively on Florida law—which makes sense for most of their clients. But when you're dealing with snowbirds who still own property in states with their own estate taxes, you need someone who understands both jurisdictions.
States that currently impose their own estate taxes include:
- Minnesota ($3 million exemption)
- New York ($6.94 million exemption as of 2024)
- Massachusetts ($2 million exemption)
- Oregon ($1 million exemption)
- Illinois ($4 million exemption)
- Connecticut, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, and the District of Columbia (each with different exemptions)
If you own property—real estate, business interests, or even certain financial accounts—in any of these states, that state may impose estate tax on those assets when you die, regardless of where you live.
How We Fixed Their Problem
For the couple with the Minnesota property, we restructured their estate plan to address the Minnesota estate tax exposure. The specific strategies we used are beyond the scope of this article (every situation is different), but the solutions typically involve:
- Restructuring which assets are held where
- Using specific trust strategies that reduce the taxable estate in the high-tax state
- Sometimes liquidating or transferring out-of-state assets to eliminate the exposure
- Gifting strategies that move assets out of the taxable estate over time
- In some cases, entity restructuring to change the situs of the assets
The key point is this: you can't fix what you don't know is broken. And most people—even those who've worked with competent Florida attorneys—don't realize their old state can still reach into their estate until it's too late.
The Solution Requires Multi-State Expertise
This is one of the reasons I maintain my licenses in both Minnesota and Florida. When a client moves from Minnesota to Florida (or vice versa), I can review their complete situation—including what they still own up north—and identify tax exposures that a single-state attorney might miss.
If you moved from a state with its own estate tax and you still own property there, make absolutely certain your estate planning attorney understands both states' laws and has reviewed your complete asset picture.
Long-Term Care and Medicaid: Where Out-of-State Plans Fail Catastrophically
This is where I see the most heartbreaking situations in my practice.
A couple moves to Florida with a carefully crafted Medicaid asset protection plan created by a competent attorney in their home state. They think they're protected if one of them needs nursing home care.
Then the crisis hits. Mom has a stroke and needs 24/7 care. The family applies for Medicaid to help cover the $8,000 to $12,000 monthly nursing home costs.
And that's when they discover their plan doesn't work in Florida.
Florida Homestead: The Protection You Have (and Don't Have)
In Florida, your homestead is protected from Medicaid estate recovery—the state's attempt to be repaid after you die—with two important conditions:
- The property must be below the equity limit (currently $688,000 for 2024, though this adjusts annually)
- The property must NOT go through probate
If your home goes through probate in Florida, the state can file a claim for estate recovery. This is why a will-based plan is so dangerous for Medicaid planning in Florida. Your will forces your estate through probate, exposing your home to recovery.
A properly drafted Florida trust avoids probate and preserves homestead protection from estate recovery.
But here's the second problem: that cabin or condo you still own up north has ZERO protection.
The Two-State Medicaid Disaster
Florida's homestead laws only protect your Florida homestead. Any real estate or other assets you own in Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, New York, or anywhere else are fully countable for Medicaid eligibility and fully subject to estate recovery.
I worked with a family last year that owned homes in both Minnesota and Florida. Because that condo wasn't her Florida homestead, it was:
- Counted as an available asset for Medicaid eligibility (delaying her qualification for benefits)
- Subject to estate recovery after her death (forcing the sale of the condo to reimburse Medicaid)
The grandchildren received nothing. The condo was sold, and the proceeds went to reimburse the state for nursing home costs.
With proper planning done in advance, we could have protected that asset. But her Pennsylvania-based Medicaid plan didn't account for the fact that she was now a Florida resident with different laws and different protections.
The "Moving Back North" Risk
Here's a scenario that plays out more often than you'd think:
You move to Florida at 65, healthy and independent. At 80, your health declines, and your kids live in Minnesota. You decide to move back north to be closer to family and support.
Now your estate plan needs to work in Minnesota again. Your Medicaid planning needs to comply with Minnesota rules. Your homestead protections are governed by Minnesota law, not Florida law.
If your plan was updated for Florida but doesn't contemplate the possibility of returning north, you're exposed.
A sophisticated plan accounts for this possibility. It includes provisions that work in both states or can be easily modified if you move again. We can build this flexibility into your plan as well because I know that life changes and circumstances change.
Your estate plan should be resilient enough to handle those changes.
The Five-Year Look-Back Period
Both Florida and Minnesota (and most states) have a five-year look-back period for Medicaid. Any assets you transfer for less than fair market value during those five years can result in a penalty period where you're ineligible for benefits.
If you did asset protection planning in Minnesota and then moved to Florida, you need to make sure:
- Your Florida plan is consistent with your Minnesota planning (so you don't accidentally undo prior transfers)
- Any new planning you do in Florida accounts for transfers that are still within the look-back period
- Your plan anticipates which state you might apply for Medicaid in (Florida if you stay here, or your former state if you move back)
I've seen families lose hundreds of thousands of dollars because their planning wasn't coordinated between states. Assets that were properly protected under Minnesota law became exposed when the family applied for Medicaid in Florida, simply because the planning wasn't updated and integrated.
Powers of Attorney: The Document That May Fail When You Need It Most
Your power of attorney is arguably one of the most important documents you have while you're alive. It allows someone you trust to manage your finances if you become incapacitated.
But here's the dirty little secret: powers of attorney created in other states frequently fail to work in Florida.
Why Banks Reject Out-of-State Powers of Attorney
I've seen this scenario dozens of times. A snowbird becomes incapacitated. Their spouse or child tries to access accounts using a power of attorney created in Pennsylvania or Minnesota.
The bank refuses to accept it.
Why? Because Florida Statutes Chapter 709 establishes specific requirements for powers of attorney. Banks and financial institutions in Florida are understandably nervous about accepting documents that don't comply with Florida law. They worry about liability if they make a mistake.
So they reject the document or demand weeks of legal review—exactly when your family needs access to funds to pay for your care.
Even worse, some banks simply won't accept any power of attorney more than a few years old, regardless of what state it's from. If your power of attorney was signed in 2015 in Minnesota, good luck getting a Florida bank to accept it in 2024.
The Solution: Florida-Compliant Documents
The answer is simple: update your power of attorney to comply with Florida law. Include the specific language Florida requires. Date it recently so banks can't claim it's stale.
This isn't complicated or expensive—but it's absolutely critical.
I've seen families forced to go through guardianship proceedings—a process that can cost $15,000 to $30,000 and take months—simply because the bank wouldn't accept an out-of-state power of attorney. The guardianship could have been avoided entirely with a $500 update to their documents.
Health Care Directives: When Your Wishes Aren't Followed
Your health care directive (sometimes called a living will or health care power of attorney) tells doctors what medical care you want if you can't speak for yourself.
But Florida has its own specific requirements for these documents, too.
I've seen situations where Florida hospitals were hesitant to follow health care directives created in other states—not because they wanted to ignore the patient's wishes, but because they weren't certain the document complied with Florida law.
In a medical crisis, the last thing you want is confusion about who can make decisions for you and what your wishes are.
Florida health care directives include specific provisions about:
- Designating a health care surrogate
- End-of-life decisions
- Organ donation
- HIPAA authorization
Make sure your documents include all of these provisions in compliance with Florida law.
What About Digital Assets and Cryptocurrency?
This is a newer area, but it's increasingly important.
Florida updated its laws in recent years to address digital assets—everything from email accounts and social media to cryptocurrency and online financial accounts.
If your estate plan was created before these updates (and especially if it was created in another state that hasn't updated its laws), your plan may not give your executor or trustee the authority they need to access and manage your digital assets.
I've worked with families who couldn't access a deceased parent's cryptocurrency worth hundreds of thousands of dollars because the estate plan didn't include provisions for digital assets.
Make sure your Florida estate plan explicitly addresses digital assets and includes the legal authority required under Florida's Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act.
What You Need to Do Right Now
If you moved to Florida from another state and you haven't had your estate plan reviewed by a Florida attorney, you're at risk.
Here's what a comprehensive Florida estate plan update should include:
1. Convert from a will to a trust (if you don't already have one) to avoid Florida's expensive probate process in Florida and avoid multi-state probate if you still own property up north.
2. Update your trust to include the specific language required to preserve your Florida homestead tax exemption, 3% assessment cap, and creditor protection.
3. Review all out-of-state property and develop a plan to protect it from estate taxes, Medicaid estate recovery, and probate.
4. Update your power of attorney to comply with Florida Statutes Chapter 709 and ensure it will be accepted by Florida banks and financial institutions.
5. Update your health care directives to comply with Florida law and include all required provisions.
6. Review your Medicaid asset protection planning to ensure it works under Florida law and protects all your assets, not just your Florida homestead.
7. Address digital assets and ensure your plan includes authority to access and manage them under Florida law.
8. Coordinate business succession planning if you own business interests in your former state or anywhere else.
9. Plan for flexibility in case you move back north to be closer to children or other family in the future.
10. Build your residency documentation to protect yourself against potential residency audits from high-tax states.
This isn't about starting from scratch. Often, we can update and modify your existing plan rather than completely redrafting everything. But the update needs to happen—and the longer you wait, the more you risk.
The Cost of Doing Nothing
I've been practicing estate and elder law for nearly thirty years. I've been interviewed by USA Today, CNN, and other national media. I teach continuing education to attorneys, CPAs, and financial advisors across the country, including professionals from the IRS, Treasury Department, and state revenue agencies.
I tell you all of this not to brag, but to emphasize that I've seen virtually every estate planning disaster that can happen—and I've seen them happen to smart, successful, well-intentioned people.
The most expensive mistakes I see are the ones that could have been prevented with a simple plan update.
Families paying $48,000 to $110,000 in unnecessary probate fees. Couples losing their homestead benefits and wasting thousands annually in extra property taxes and lost creditor protection. Seniors forced to spend down their life savings on nursing home care when the money could have been protected. Estates hit with unexpected state estate taxes—like that $800,000 Minnesota tax bill—from a state the person left a decade ago.
All of this is preventable.
But only if you take action now, while you can.
Take the Next Step to Protect Your Family
If you've moved to Florida from another state—or if you're a snowbird who spends significant time here—don't leave your family's financial security to chance.
Your out-of-state estate plan probably isn't working the way you think it is. The only way to know for sure is to have it reviewed by an attorney who practices in both Florida and your former state, understands the differences between state laws, and can identify the gaps in your current plan.
That's exactly what we do at Roulet Law Firm. Call us today to schedule a consultation at 941-909-4644 for our Florida office or at 763-420-5087 for our Minnetonka, Minnesota office.
Or fill out the contact form on this page and a member of our team will reach out to schedule your appointment.
During your consultation, we'll review your current estate plan, identify any problems or gaps, and show you exactly what needs to be updated to protect your family under Florida law.
Ready to learn more right now?
Download your free copy of my book: "The Florida Snowbird Guide: A Fast & Friendly Legal Guide for FL Relocation and Snowbirds" by clicking the link. This book will walk you through everything you need to know about establishing Florida residency legally and protecting your assets. Click here for your copy
Want to dive even deeper?
Join us for my exclusive online masterclass where I reveal the strategies I use with my private clients to help them avoid probate, save on taxes, and protect the money they leave for their kids in the event of divorce, bankruptcy, or creditor claims. Click here to sign up for the masterclass today.
Your family is counting on you to get this right. Don't let an outdated estate plan put everything you've worked for at risk.
