REVOCABLE LIVING TRUSTS · FLORIDA
A revocable living trust: your plan, outside of probate.
What is a revocable living trust?
A revocable living trust is a legal arrangement you create during your lifetime. You transfer your assets, such as your home, bank and investment accounts, into the trust, and you usually serve as your own trustee. You can buy, sell, change or cancel the trust at any time.
You also name a successor trustee, a person you trust to step in if you become incapacitated or pass away. Because the trust, not you personally, owns the assets, your successor trustee can manage and distribute them according to your instructions without opening a probate case for those assets.
Why Florida families choose a trust
- Avoid probate. Assets titled in the trust pass outside the court process, which can save time and court and administration costs.
- Privacy. A will becomes part of the public court file in probate; a trust generally stays private.
- Incapacity planning. Your successor trustee can manage trust assets if you can’t, which can help your family avoid a guardianship proceeding for those assets.
- Out-of-state and international owners. If you own Florida real estate but live elsewhere, holding it in a trust can help your family avoid a separate “ancillary” probate in Florida.
- Control over timing. Leave assets to children or grandchildren in stages, or keep them in trust for a beneficiary who needs extra support.
Funding: the step that makes a trust work
A trust only controls the assets it owns. After signing, your property needs to be retitled into the trust: a deed for your home, updated titling or beneficiary designations for accounts, and assignments for personal property. Anything left in your own name may still need to go through probate, which is why we pair every trust with a pour-over will and help you fund the trust as part of the process.
What a revocable trust does not do
A revocable trust is a powerful probate and incapacity tool, but because you keep control of it, it generally does not shield your assets from your own creditors or lawsuits. If protecting property from future claims is a goal, we can discuss Florida exemptions and other structures as part of asset protection planning.
A TYPICAL TRUST PLAN INCLUDES
- Revocable living trust agreement
- Certificate of trust, so banks and title companies can confirm your trustee’s authority
- Pour-over will
- Deed transferring your home into the trust
- Personal property memorandum
- Durable power of attorney and health care directives
Talk it through with our team
WHO THIS IS FOR
Is a living trust right for you?
You own a home in Florida
You own property in more than one state or country
You want privacy
You have minor children
You want a plan for incapacity
You’re building wealth in the U.S.
COMMON QUESTIONS
Questions families ask
No. With a revocable trust you are typically the trustee and beneficiary during your lifetime. You can manage, sell or move assets just as you do now, and you can amend or revoke the trust.
A revocable trust by itself is not a tax-saving tool; its main benefits are probate avoidance, privacy and incapacity planning. Most families do not owe federal estate tax, and Florida has no state estate tax. We coordinate with your tax advisor when taxes are a concern.
Yes. Florida homestead can be held in a revocable trust while keeping homestead protections, but Florida also limits how homestead can be left if you have a spouse or minor child. We draft with those rules in mind.
Your pour-over will directs them into the trust, although those assets may need to go through probate first. That is why funding the trust carefully matters.
The parts of a revocable trust that take effect at death must be signed with the same formalities as a will: two witnesses, and typically a notary. We coordinate the signing for you.
