A Florida family trust is a legal arrangement, governed by Chapter 736 of the Florida Statutes, that lets you place assets under a trustee’s control for the benefit of your family, keep those assets out of probate, and plan for incapacity or death. Most families use a revocable living trust, which you can change or dissolve at any time during your life, and pair it with a pour-over will as a backup. The trust only works, though, if it is drafted correctly, signed with the right formalities, and actually funded by retitling your assets into it.
Revocable or Irrevocable
The first choice is structural. A revocable trust keeps you in full control: you can amend the terms, change beneficiaries, add or remove property, or revoke the whole thing. Florida law presumes a trust is revocable unless the document says otherwise.1The Florida Legislature. Florida Code 736.0602 – Revocation or Amendment of Revocable Trust You revoke or amend it using the method spelled out in the trust, or, if the document is silent, through a later will that specifically refers to the trust or any other method that shows clear intent.
An irrevocable trust is the opposite bargain. Once assets go in, you generally cannot pull them back or change the terms without the beneficiaries’ consent or a court order. That loss of control is the price of stronger creditor protection and possible estate-tax savings. Families use irrevocable trusts for Medicaid planning, life insurance ownership, and moving appreciating assets out of a taxable estate. Many families end up with both types for different purposes.
What Makes the Trust Legally Valid
Florida requires five elements for a valid trust. The settlor (the person creating it) must have mental capacity, must intend to create a trust, must name at least one definite beneficiary, must give the trustee actual duties to perform, and cannot be both the sole trustee and the sole beneficiary.2Florida Senate. Florida Code 736.0402 – Requirements for Creation Miss any of those and a court can declare the trust invalid.
The parts of a revocable trust that control what happens to assets after your death also carry execution formalities. Those provisions must be signed with the same formalities as a Florida will, which means two witnesses.3The Florida Legislature. Florida Code 736.0403 – Trust Instrument Skip that step and you can invalidate the distribution provisions you cared about most. Notarization is not required by statute, but many attorneys recommend it because a notarized trust is easier to use when retitling assets at banks and title companies.
Funding the Trust
Drafting the document is only half the job. A trust controls only what is actually titled in the trustee’s name. Sign a trust agreement, never move your accounts or real estate into it, and those assets still pass through probate as if the trust did not exist. This is the single most common Florida estate planning mistake.
Funding means retitling each asset one at a time. For bank accounts, you request the bank’s change-of-ownership form and provide a certification of trust, a summary document that proves the trust exists without revealing all its terms. The account is retitled into something like “Jane Smith, Trustee of the Jane Smith Revocable Living Trust dated March 1, 2026.” Brokerage accounts follow a similar process. Real estate requires recording a new deed transferring the property from you into the trust. If the property has a mortgage, that deed is subject to Florida’s documentary stamp tax based on the outstanding mortgage balance attributable to the interest transferred.4Florida Department of Revenue. Documentary Stamp Tax Recording fees are modest but vary by county.
A pour-over will is a safety net that directs any forgotten assets into the trust at your death. The catch: those assets still pass through probate before they land in the trust, which means public record and administration costs. The point of thorough funding is to leave the pour-over will with nothing to catch.
Choosing a Trustee
The trustee holds, invests, and distributes trust assets according to the document. In Florida, a trustee can be an individual (including you during your lifetime), a family member, or a corporate entity such as a bank or trust company. Many settlors name themselves as the initial trustee of their revocable trust and designate a successor to take over at death or incapacity.
Florida holds trustees to a prudent-person standard. A trustee must administer the trust the way a careful and skilled person would, considering the trust’s purposes, distribution requirements, and circumstances. Trustees with professional expertise are held to a higher standard based on those skills. Investment decisions follow Chapter 518 of the Florida Statutes, which incorporates modern portfolio theory: diversification, total-return focus, and risk management tailored to the beneficiaries.5Florida Senate. Florida Code 736.0901 – Applicability of Chapter 518
A trustee must also keep trust property separate from personal assets, maintain accurate records, and incur only expenses reasonable for the trust’s size and purpose.6Florida Senate. Florida Code 736.0810 – Recordkeeping and Identification of Trust Property These duties are not optional. Mixing trust funds with personal money or failing to keep records exposes the trustee to personal liability.
Florida law also requires trustees to keep qualified beneficiaries reasonably informed about the trust and its administration, including notification within 60 days of accepting the role.7Florida Senate. Florida Code 736.0813 – Duty to Inform and Account That notification requirement cannot be overridden by the trust document.8The Florida Legislature. Florida Code 736.0105 – Default and Mandatory Rules For irrevocable trusts, the trustee must give qualified beneficiaries a formal accounting at least annually and on any change of trustee or termination.
What a Florida Trust Actually Protects
The creditor-protection story is more nuanced than most marketing suggests. A revocable trust provides almost no creditor protection during your lifetime. Florida statute is blunt: the property of a revocable trust is subject to the claims of the settlor’s creditors to the same extent it would be if the settlor owned the property directly.9The Florida Legislature. Florida Code 736.0505 – Creditors’ Claims Against Settlor Moving a bank account into a revocable trust does not shield it from a lawsuit judgment.
Irrevocable trusts offer stronger protection but are not bulletproof. Under the same statute, a creditor of the settlor can reach the maximum amount the trustee could distribute to or for the settlor’s benefit.9The Florida Legislature. Florida Code 736.0505 – Creditors’ Claims Against Settlor Protection is strongest when the settlor has no right to receive trust income or principal. Florida does not recognize self-settled asset protection trusts the way Nevada or South Dakota do, so you cannot create an irrevocable trust for your own benefit and expect Florida courts to protect it from your creditors.
Where Florida trusts do help with protection is after death. Properly funded assets bypass probate and its public creditor-claim process, and the trust can include spendthrift provisions that restrict a beneficiary from assigning their interest and limit that beneficiary’s creditors from reaching trust assets before distribution.
Homestead Property
Florida’s homestead exemption is one of the most valuable asset protections in the country, and moving your home into a revocable trust does not automatically forfeit it. Strict conditions apply: the trust beneficiary must have beneficial or equitable title for life, must have the present right to occupy the property, and the deed transferring the property into the trust must be recorded. If those conditions are met, the homestead tax exemption stays intact.
Land trusts work differently. Under Florida’s Land Trust Act, legal and equitable title sits with the trustee, and the beneficiary holds only a personal property interest. Because the homestead exemption requires an interest in real property, a land trust beneficiary typically does not qualify. Families choosing a land trust for privacy or liability reasons need to weigh that against losing the homestead protection.
Taxes
Florida imposes no state estate tax and no inheritance tax. The state’s estate tax was tied to the federal credit for state death taxes, and after that credit was eliminated no Florida estate tax has been due for anyone who died on or after January 1, 2005.10Florida Department of Revenue. Florida Department of Revenue – Estate Tax
Federal estate tax still matters for larger estates. For 2026, the basic exclusion amount was increased to $15,000,000 per individual under the One, Big, Beautiful Bill signed into law on July 4, 2025.11Internal Revenue Service. What’s New – Estate and Gift Tax Estates below that threshold owe no federal estate tax, and married couples can effectively shelter up to $30,000,000 combined through portability of the unused exclusion.12Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 2010 – Unified Credit Against Estate Tax Irrevocable trusts remain a key tool for families whose wealth exceeds those thresholds, because assets placed in one during life are generally removed from the taxable estate.
For income tax, a revocable trust is invisible to the IRS while the settlor is alive. The settlor is treated as the owner of all trust assets, the trust is disregarded as a separate tax entity, income is reported on the settlor’s Form 1040, and no separate trust return is required. Once the settlor dies and the trust becomes irrevocable, the trust needs its own taxpayer identification number and must file Form 1041 annually. Trust income tax brackets are far more compressed than individual brackets, which is why many trusts are designed to distribute income to beneficiaries rather than accumulate it.
What It Costs
Attorney fees for drafting a Florida family trust typically range from a few hundred dollars for a simple revocable trust to $5,000 or more for complex arrangements involving multiple trusts, irrevocable provisions, or business interests. Beyond drafting, expect recording fees when transferring real estate (which vary by county), documentary stamp tax if the property carries a mortgage, and possible retitling fees at banks and brokerage firms. Some institutions handle trust retitling at no charge; others impose account-opening fees. Amending an existing trust document usually costs a fraction of the original drafting fee, which is one of the practical advantages of the revocable structure.
Family Trust Companies for High-Wealth Families
Families with substantial wealth sometimes form a dedicated trust company rather than using a commercial bank or individual trustee. Florida’s Family Trust Company Act, in Chapter 662 of the Florida Statutes, creates two categories: licensed and unlicensed family trust companies.13Florida Senate. Florida Statutes Chapter 662 – Family Trust Companies Both must meet a $250,000 minimum capital floor, and licensed companies with two designated relatives must maintain $350,000.14The Florida Legislature. Florida Code 662.124 – Minimum Capital Account Required Unlicensed companies register with the Florida Office of Financial Regulation, pay a nonrefundable $5,000 fee, and cannot offer trust services to the public.15The Florida Legislature. Florida Code 662.122 – Registration of a Family Trust Company Licensed companies face regular audits and OFR oversight. This structure is not relevant to most families setting up a standard revocable living trust, but it exists for those managing significant multigenerational wealth.