Après la signature de votre testament de Floride

What signing did

A Florida will must be in writing, signed at the end by the testator (or by another person in the testator's presence and at the testator's direction), in the presence of at least two attesting witnesses, who sign in the presence of the testator and of each other (§732.502). Those are the only formalities the statute imposes; a will needs no notary to be valid. A notary enters through the self-proving affidavit of §732.503, in which the testator and the witnesses swear before a notary that the formalities were followed. A self-proved will is admitted to probate without calling the witnesses, which matters years later when the witnesses have moved, forgotten or died.

Florida also recognizes electronic wills executed under §732.522 and, for a will made by a nonresident, a will that was valid where it was executed (§732.502(2)); it does not recognize a holographic will — one entirely in the testator's handwriting without witnesses — or an oral one. If the signing ceremony you remember had two witnesses and, ideally, a notary, the will is what it says it is.

The original, and where it lives

Probate wants the original. A copy can sometimes be admitted, but only after a proceeding to establish a lost or destroyed will (§733.207), with the presumption that a will last known to be in the testator's possession and not found at death was revoked. So the first decision after signing is custody: a fireproof place at home that the personal representative can reach; the drafter's vault, if the drafter offers it; or a safe-deposit box, with the caution that a box in the decedent's sole name may need a court order to open. Florida keeps no registry of wills during the testator's life, and the clerk of court accepts a will for deposit only after death.

Copies are for information, not for probate. Give the personal representative a copy, keep a copy with the trust if there is one, and write on each copy where the original is. Do not sign copies; a signed copy becomes a question in probate.

If the original does end up in a safe-deposit box in the decedent's sole name, Florida's search procedure keeps it from being locked away. Under §655.935 the institution may permit the decedent's spouse, a parent, an adult descendant, or the person named as personal representative in a copy of the will to open the box in the presence of an officer of the institution, to search for a will, a deed to a burial plot or burial instructions, and to deliver any will found to the court. It is a search, not access to the contents; everything else waits for letters.

Tell the personal representative what to expect

The person you named as personal representative — Florida's term for an executor — has no authority until a court appoints them, and nothing to do until you die. What they need now is knowledge: that they were named, where the original is, who the drafter was, what assets exist and how they are titled, and that Florida requires the custodian of a will to deposit it with the clerk of the court having venue within 10 days after learning of the death (§732.901). Whether they are eligible to serve is also worth confirming now: a personal representative must be a Florida resident or a close relative of the decedent as §733.304 defines it, and must be at least 18, mentally and physically able, and not a felon (§733.303). A named personal representative who lives outside Florida and is not a relative within §733.304 cannot be appointed, however clear the will is about the choice; naming an alternate who qualifies, or a Florida trust company, avoids a scramble at the worst moment.

A short letter of instruction does the rest — where the documents are, the advisers, the accounts, the digital life, the funeral wishes that a will is too slow to carry. It changes nothing in the will and saves the first weeks.

Keep it current, and know what changes it for you

A will is changed by a codicil or replaced by a new will, each executed with the same formalities (§732.502); it is revoked by a later writing executed with those formalities (§732.505) or by the testator's act of burning, tearing, cancelling or destroying it with the intent to revoke (§732.506). Handwritten changes on the signed original are not amendments; they are evidence of an intent the law will not honor without the formalities, and they can cast doubt on the whole document.

Some changes happen to a will without a signature. A divorce revokes every provision in favor of the former spouse, who is treated as having died first (§732.507(2)); a marriage after the will gives the new spouse an intestate share unless the will or a marital agreement provides otherwise (§732.301); a child born or adopted after the will takes a share as a pretermitted child unless the will shows a different intent (§732.302). Each is a reason to read the will again after the event, and a move to Florida from another state is a reason to confirm that the execution satisfies §732.502(2) and that the plan still fits Florida's homestead and spousal rules.

• Marriage, divorce, a birth, an adoption, a death among the beneficiaries or the named fiduciaries
• A move to or from Florida; a new home; a business started or sold
• A change in the law, or simply the passage of several years

What a will does not do

A will governs only probate property: what the testator owned in an individual name at death with no beneficiary designation and no survivorship. It does not control jointly held property with survivorship, accounts with payable-on-death or transfer-on-death designations, retirement accounts, life insurance, or property titled in a trust; those pass by title and by designation, whatever the will says. Reviewing the designations beside the will is the only way to know the plan is one plan.

A will does not avoid probate; it directs it. And a will cannot devise Florida homestead away from a surviving spouse or minor child (§732.4015): the constitution and §732.401 decide who takes the home in that case, and a will that says otherwise is set aside on that point. A will also does not help during incapacity — that is the work of a durable power of attorney (chapter 709) and a health care surrogate designation (chapter 765), which sit beside the will in a complete Florida plan.

What happens at your death

Within 10 days of learning of the death, the custodian deposits the original will with the clerk (§732.901). Someone — usually the person named as personal representative — petitions for administration; the court admits the will, which a self-proving affidavit makes routine, and issues letters of administration. Estates with probate assets of $75,000 or less, or where the decedent has been dead more than two years, may qualify for summary administration under §735.201; others proceed by formal administration under chapter 733. The personal representative publishes a notice to creditors (§733.2121), which gives creditors three months from first publication to file claims (§733.702) against an outer bar of two years from death (§733.710), collects and inventories the assets, pays valid claims and expenses, files the tax returns, and distributes under the will.

Homestead is handled separately: the personal representative petitions to determine homestead status, and the home passes under §732.401 and the will only to the extent §732.4015 allows. If a revocable trust exists, the will's pour-over clause (§732.513) carries whatever was left outside the trust into it, and the trust's successor trustee administers from there.

The will and the trust, together

Most Florida plans that include a revocable trust also include a pour-over will, and the two are read together: the trust holds and distributes what was funded into it, the will catches what was not, and the personal representative and the successor trustee are often the same person. The will still needs the formalities of §732.502, still needs an original, and still goes through probate for whatever it catches, which is why funding the trust is the way to make the will's job small. The companion guide covers what to do after signing the trust.

If you have not signed yet, or need a change

TrusteeClear does not draft wills, codicils or trusts and does not review yours; it organizes the record for the personal representative's and trustee's side of the story. Florida estate-planning documents — a will, a revocable trust, a durable power of attorney, a health care directive — are drafted at EstateDraftFL, TrusteeClear's sister platform, with guided intake and execution reminders. Questions about your own will, a change to it, or whether your plan fits Florida's homestead and spousal rules are for a licensed Florida attorney of your choosing.