Key Takeaways

• A will does not avoid probate — it actually triggers it. Probate is the court process of proving a will and retitling assets to beneficiaries.
• Estate planning isn’t just for the wealthy. Anyone who cares where their assets go when they die needs a plan — and without one, Florida’s intestacy laws decide for you.
• Signed documents aren’t permanent. Major life changes — remarriage, new children, a move to Florida, a health crisis — all require an estate plan review.
• DIY estate planning documents can cost families $7,000 to $100,000 or more to untangle, far exceeding the cost of doing it right from the start.
• Florida’s homestead laws are both the greatest protection and the most dangerous trap in the state — and they require Florida-specific legal expertise to navigate correctly.

There’s no shortage of estate planning advice floating around — at the dinner table, on social media, and in online legal template libraries. The problem is that a lot of it is wrong. And in Florida, wrong information about estate planning doesn’t just create inconvenience. It creates probate disputes that drag on for years, tax consequences that cost families hundreds of thousands of dollars, and in the worst cases, irreparable family damage.

Stephen Lacey of Lacey Rezanka Attorneys at Law has spent 25 years in practice as an estate planning, probate, real estate, elder law, land use, and zoning attorney serving clients throughout Brevard County, Indian River County, and Palm Beach County — from Titusville and Rockledge to Melbourne, Viera, Palm Bay, Merritt Island, Cocoa Beach, Satellite Beach, Indian Harbor Beach, Indialantic, Melbourne Beach, Malabar, and Cape Canaveral. He’s seen just about every estate planning mistake there is. In this episode of Legacy Liftoff, he walks through the most dangerous estate planning myths circulating among Florida families — and what the truth actually costs when people get it wrong.

Why Estate Planning Myths Are So Dangerous

Before diving into specific myths, it’s worth understanding why getting this wrong matters so much.

Stephen Lacey: “It basically comes down to unintended consequences.”

Those consequences can take many forms. A probate dispute with a former business partner kept one estate tied up in court for over eight years. Choosing the wrong person to manage an estate — often the oldest child by default — can result in money being withheld from other beneficiaries, dishonesty, and litigation. Overlooking a minor grandchild as a beneficiary can trigger an expensive court-supervised guardianship. And in blended families, failing to plan at all can turn what should be a difficult-but-manageable loss into something far worse.

As Stephen Lacey notes, “It’s surprising how basically free money — which is what an inheritance is — can make rational people very irrational.”

Myth #1: A Will Avoids Probate

This is probably the most widespread estate planning myth in Florida, and it causes real harm.

Stephen Lacey: “The very definition of probate is proving a will. So if you have a will-based plan and a person passes away and assets are titled in their individual name, it has to go through the probate process.”

Probate is how courts retitle assets from a deceased person’s name to the names of their beneficiaries. Without it, you can’t sell an inherited house. You can’t access financial accounts. A will doesn’t bypass that process — it initiates it.

That said, wills are still important documents. A will designates who is in charge of the estate, who gets the assets, when and how they receive them, and — critically for young families — who will serve as guardian for minor children if both parents pass away. Not having that guardian named in writing is an invitation for a painful family dispute at an already devastating moment.

So why do so many people believe a will avoids probate? Stephen Lacey calls it “barbershop talk” — misinformation that gets repeated often enough that it takes on the feeling of fact. If probate avoidance is the goal, a revocable trust is the tool, not a will.

Myth #2: Estate Planning Is Only for the Wealthy

This myth has a traceable origin. When the federal estate tax exemption was as low as $750,000 per person, planning was closely associated with large estates and tax minimization. That threshold is now $15 to $30 million for a married couple. But the old assumption never fully went away.

The reality is simpler: anyone who has assets and cares where those assets go needs an estate plan. That includes middle-class homeowners, retirees on fixed incomes, and anyone with children.

Without a plan, Florida’s intestacy statutes take over — and the distribution they produce is often nothing like what the person would have wanted. In a blended family, for example, a surviving spouse may receive only 50% of the estate, with the other half going to the deceased’s descendants — including children who are not the surviving spouse’s own. Worse, with the widespread use of DNA testing services, Stephen Lacey has seen cases where a previously unknown child comes forward after a parent’s death with documentation proving their parentage — and a legal right to a share of the estate.

Stephen Lacey: “Estate planning is to determine who or what you care about, and how and when you want those assets to go to those people when that time comes.”

Without a plan, someone else — the state of Florida — makes that determination for you.

Myth #3: Once the Documents Are Signed, You’re Done

An estate plan isn’t a one-time transaction. It’s a living set of documents that needs to reflect current assets, current family circumstances, and current law. Treating it as a checkbox to complete once and file away is one of the most common — and costly — estate planning myths Stephen Lacey encounters.

He describes a client who came in for a business matter and mentioned in passing that he might need to update his estate plan. When asked when he’d last done it, the answer was 26 years earlier. In those 26 years, he had moved from Georgia to Florida, his assets had grown by a factor of 100, and his son had passed away. Almost every possible trigger for an update had occurred — and nothing had been done.

The life changes that should prompt an estate plan review include:

• A significant change in assets (growth or loss)
• Adding children or other family members
• Divorce or remarriage
• Major changes in the law
• A serious health diagnosis or decline

There’s also a Florida-specific version of this problem. Retirees who relocate to the Space Coast and Treasure Coast from other states often bring estate plans drafted by out-of-state attorneys. Those documents may be technically valid, but they won’t account for Florida’s unique legal landscape — particularly the elective share law (a surviving spouse can’t simply be disinherited without a prenuptial or postnuptial agreement) and Florida homestead laws, which Stephen Lacey describes as among the biggest traps for out-of-state practitioners.

Myth #4: A Spouse Automatically Gets Everything

It’s a reasonable assumption — but it’s only sometimes true, and only for certain types of assets.

Assets held jointly as husband and wife do pass automatically to the surviving spouse. But an IRA with no named beneficiary goes through probate. A bank account in one spouse’s name alone goes through probate. And without a plan in place, Florida’s intestacy laws determine the outcome — which in a blended family means the surviving spouse receives 50%, with the other 50% going to the deceased’s descendants.

Even with an estate plan, Florida’s elective share law allows a surviving spouse to claim 30% of the estate if they feel the plan didn’t provide adequately for them. And Florida homestead law — without proper planning — can result in a surviving spouse receiving only a life estate in the family home rather than outright ownership, with the remainder interest passing to the children.

Stephen Lacey shared one case that illustrates how badly this can go. A car dealer died during the 2008 financial crisis. The homestead was in his name only. His surviving spouse — his second or third wife — was forced to split ownership of the home with his children from a prior relationship. The children, who resented her, made her life unbearable. She ultimately took her own life at 60 years old. The tragedy, as Stephen Lacey tells it, stemmed directly from a failure to plan — both for the spouse and for the competing interests of the children from the previous marriage.

Stephen Lacey: “The planning for that can be very difficult because the husband or wife who died wants to take care of their spouse — but they also want to make sure they’re taking care of their children. And sometimes those two goals don’t quite match up. They’re definitely not going to match up if you don’t do proper planning.”

Myth #5: DIY Estate Planning Documents Are Good Enough

Online templates, downloadable forms, and AI-generated legal documents have made it easier than ever to feel like you’ve handled your estate plan. Stephen Lacey uses a simple analogy: owning a hammer doesn’t make you a carpenter. You can pound nails. You probably can’t build a bench that holds weight when you actually need it.

The specific ways DIY documents fail in Florida are numerous:

• A power of attorney without two witnesses and a notary is invalid under Florida law
• A power of attorney that doesn’t enumerate specific powers (Florida requires each power to be listed individually) may not include the authority needed — such as applying for Medicaid or transferring assets in a Medicaid-compliant way, which can force a family into guardianship at the worst possible time
• Wills without a self-proving affidavit and two witnesses are not valid in Florida
• No online template accounts for Florida’s homestead laws, which are fact-specific and require individualized analysis

When these documents fail, the financial cost is significant. Stephen Lacey puts the floor for a DIY mistake at $7,000 to $8,000. If litigation results, the number climbs to $50,000 or $100,000 — far more than any attorney fee for doing it correctly from the start. And that doesn’t include the personal representative’s lost work time, the emotional toll on all parties, or the fractured family relationships that outlast any legal dispute.

Myth #6: Florida Has No Estate Tax, So Planning Isn’t Necessary

Florida’s lack of a state estate tax is real — but treating it as a reason to skip estate planning misunderstands what estate planning actually does.

The federal estate tax only applies to estates above roughly $15 to $30 million for married couples. That affects a very small percentage of families. The reasons to plan have almost nothing to do with estate tax:

• Income tax and the step-up in basis: a home transferred as a gift during life carries the original low basis. A home transferred at death receives a stepped-up basis equal to fair market value. A parent who bought a home for $15,000 sixty years ago and transfers it as a gift today passes that $15,000 basis to the child — who then owes capital gains on the full appreciation when they sell. The stepped-up basis at death eliminates that problem.
• Choosing the right fiduciaries: who makes decisions when you can’t? Stephen Lacey is direct — defaulting to the oldest child is not always the right answer, particularly if that child has substance abuse problems or a history of financial mismanagement.
• Values-based provisions: a trust can be structured to reflect what the grantor believes in. A provision that matches trust distributions dollar-for-dollar with W-2 income, for example, rewards work and discourages dependence.
• Protecting assets in divorce: planning around a son-in-law or daughter-in-law you don’t trust, or who you can see heading for divorce, is a legitimate and important estate planning goal.
• Blended family dynamics and Florida-specific laws: homestead, elective share, and intestacy rules all require deliberate, Florida-specific planning regardless of the size of the estate.

Myth #7: A Power of Attorney Stays in Effect After Death

A durable power of attorney is a powerful document — it allows a named agent to make financial and legal decisions on behalf of the person who created it. In Florida, it must enumerate every specific power granted; there is no blanket grant of authority. And the person holding it takes on a fiduciary duty to act in the principal’s best interest.

But it ends the moment the principal dies. At that point, the agent has no authority over assets, no ability to make decisions, and no legal standing to act. Authority shifts either to the probate process — if there’s a will or no plan — or to the successor trustee of a trust.

When people believe a power of attorney survives death, they often stop there and do no further planning. The result is that their family lands in the same intestacy trap as anyone else without a plan — including, in one case Stephen Lacey describes, a situation where a beneficiary was incarcerated and entitled to a share of an inheritance, creating substantial additional cost, delay, and complexity.

Florida Homestead: The Greatest Benefit and the Biggest Trap

Florida homestead comes up in nearly every estate planning conversation, and for good reason. On one hand, it’s one of the strongest asset protection tools available anywhere in the country. Creditors generally cannot touch a primary residence, with narrow exceptions for unpaid mortgages, property taxes, construction liens, and HOA dues. Property tax assessments are also capped at a 3% annual increase — a significant benefit for longtime homeowners in communities like Vero Beach, Melbourne Beach, and Satellite Beach where values have climbed dramatically.

On the other hand, transferring homestead — whether during life or at death — is where things get complicated. If you’re married and want to deed your home, your spouse must join in the transfer even if their name isn’t on the deed. Failure to do so makes the transfer void. At death, without proper planning, Florida law protects surviving spouses and minor children in ways that may not reflect the homeowner’s actual wishes — a surviving spouse may receive only a life estate, while minor children hold a remainder interest. A spouse can only waive those homestead rights through a valid prenuptial or postnuptial agreement.

Stephen Lacey: “It’s both the greatest thing that we have in Florida and the worst thing in Florida.”

Getting homestead wrong doesn’t just create legal problems. It can trigger a full property tax reassessment, turning a modest annual bill into something dramatically higher — overnight.

Planning on the Space Coast: Why Local Realities Matter

Brevard County has a population where 25% of residents are 65 or older — above both Florida’s average of 21% and the national average of 16%. That older population brings specific planning needs: asset preservation strategies, protection against cognitive decline, and defenses against financial scams that disproportionately target older adults. Dementia and Alzheimer’s disease are the fastest-growing diagnoses in the country, and having the right fiduciaries and advance directives in place is essential.

Brevard County also ranks among the top five to ten counties nationally in concentration of engineers — a highly educated, well-compensated workforce that has accumulated significant wealth and needs proactive planning. Add the military families who have retired to the area, who may benefit from VA planning as they age into assisted living or in-home care needs, and the Space Coast emerges as a community with genuinely distinctive estate planning requirements that generic documents simply can’t address.

It’s Not Too Late — Until It Is

The encouraging note in all of this is that it’s almost never too late to fix a bad plan or start a new one. Stephen Lacey is clear about when “too late” actually arrives: disability or death. Before either of those, there are almost always options.

But getting there requires honesty. An estate planning attorney needs the full picture — assets, income, family dynamics, relationships, complications. Withholding information, Stephen Lacey says, is like telling a doctor your arm hurts while hiding your chest pain. The attorney can only build a plan around what they know.

Don’t Let a Myth Cost Your Family Thousands

If any of these estate planning myths sounded familiar, you’re not alone — and it’s not too late to get a plan in place that actually works. The team at Lacey Rezanka Attorneys at Law helps families throughout Titusville, Rockledge, Viera, Melbourne, Suntree, Palm Bay, Malabar, Merritt Island, Cape Canaveral, Cocoa Beach, Satellite Beach, Indian Harbor Beach, Indialantic, Melbourne Beach, and across Brevard County, Indian River County, and Palm Beach County build estate plans that hold up — for whatever comes next.

Call (321) 608-0890 or schedule your consultation online at llr.law/contact.

The right plan starts with one honest conversation.