Most estate plans in Miami don’t fail because of bad intentions. They fail because of small, fixable oversights that surface only after someone passes away. Use this checklist to catch the mistakes Florida families make most often.
Mistake 1: Treating a will like it avoids probate
A will does not skip probate in Florida. It simply tells the Miami-Dade probate court who gets what. Depending on the estate’s value and timing, your family may face summary administration (for smaller or older estates) or formal administration under the Florida Probate Code (Chs. 731-735). If avoiding court is your goal, you need a funded revocable trust (Ch. 736), beneficiary designations, or both.
Mistake 2: Ignoring Florida’s homestead rules
Florida homestead protection under Article X, Section 4 of the state constitution is powerful, but it also restricts how you can leave your home. If you have a spouse or minor child, you cannot freely devise your Miami homestead to anyone you choose. Plans that try to leave the house to an adult child or a trust without accounting for these limits often get rewritten by the court.
Mistake 3: Outdated beneficiary designations
Your life insurance, IRA, and 401(k) pass by beneficiary form, not by your will. After a divorce, remarriage, or a new child, Miami families routinely forget to update these forms. The result is money going to an ex-spouse or a deceased relative. Review every designation at least every few years.
Mistake 4: Creating a trust and never funding it
An unfunded trust is one of the most common and costly errors we see. If your Brickell condo or your bank accounts are never retitled into the trust, those assets still go through probate. The trust document alone does nothing; the funding is what avoids court.
Mistake 5: Forgetting incapacity planning
Estate planning is not only about death. Without a durable power of attorney (Ch. 709) and a designated health care surrogate, your family may need a court-supervised guardianship if you become incapacitated. That process is slow and expensive in Miami-Dade. A few documents prevent it.
Mistake 6: Disinheriting a spouse by accident
Florida’s elective share law (§732.2065 and following) entitles a surviving spouse to roughly 30% of the elective estate, regardless of what your will says. Plans that leave a spouse out, intentionally or not, can be partially undone unless a valid prenuptial or postnuptial agreement is in place.
Mistake 7: Improperly signed documents
A Florida will must meet the formalities of §732.502: signed by the testator at the end and witnessed by two people who sign in each other’s presence. DIY forms and out-of-state documents frequently miss these steps, and a defective will can be challenged in court.
The Miami bottom line
Good news for Florida residents: there is no state estate or inheritance tax, so your planning can focus on probate avoidance, homestead, and family protection rather than state death taxes. The mistakes above are all preventable with a coordinated plan.
Consult a Florida attorney. Estate planning rules vary by state and by family situation. Before relying on any of the above, speak with a licensed Florida estate planning attorney who can review your specific Miami-Dade circumstances.
For more on our Florida practice, see our overview of estate planning in Boca Raton. Morgan Legal Group's affiliated New York office also handles special needs planning in New York.
