Florida Revocable Living Trusts in Pensacola

What a Florida revocable living trust can do

• Avoid probate. Assets titled in the trust pass to your beneficiaries without a court-supervised probate, which usually means faster distribution and lower costs.
• Keep your affairs private. A will becomes part of the public court file once it's admitted to probate. The terms of your trust generally stay private.
• Plan for incapacity. Your successor trustee can manage trust assets if you can't, with no guardianship needed.
• Stay flexible. You can amend or revoke the trust at any time while you have capacity.
• Protect young or vulnerable beneficiaries. You decide when and how children, grandchildren or a beneficiary with special needs receive their inheritance, and who manages it until then.
• Avoid probate in more than one state. If you own real estate outside Florida, holding it in your trust can spare your family a second (ancillary) probate in that state.

What a revocable living trust cannot do

• Medicaid planning. Assets in your revocable trust are still counted as yours for Medicaid eligibility.
• Creditor protection during your life. Your creditors can reach trust assets while you're living. After death, Florida law makes a revocable trust answerable for estate expenses and creditor claims to the extent your probate estate can't cover them (Fla. Stat. § 733.707(3)).
• Tax savings. A revocable trust doesn't reduce income or estate taxes by itself. Florida has no estate or inheritance tax, and the federal exemption is $15 million per person in 2026, so taxes are not a concern for most families.

Signing requirements under Florida law

The provisions of a Florida revocable trust that dispose of property at your death must be signed with the same formalities as a will: signed by you in the presence of two witnesses who also sign (Fla. Stat. § 736.0403(2)(b)). We also have the trust notarized. A trust signed in another state is generally valid in Florida, but it's worth having it reviewed after a move.

Funding your trust

A trust only avoids probate for assets that are actually in it. Funding means retitling assets into the name of the trust or naming the trust as beneficiary:

• Real estate is transferred by a new deed recorded in the Official Records of the county where the property sits, such as Escambia, Santa Rosa, Okaloosa or Walton County.
• Bank and brokerage accounts are retitled, or given a pay-on-death designation to the trust.
• Life insurance and retirement accounts are coordinated through beneficiary designations. Retirement accounts need care because of income tax rules.
• A short "pour-over" will catches anything left outside the trust.

After a death: the trustee's first steps

When the person who created the trust dies, the trustee must file a Notice of Trust with the court in the county where that person lived (Fla. Stat. § 736.05055). The trustee then gathers assets, pays final expenses and distributes to the beneficiaries according to the trust.

Getting started with a revocable living trust

Schedule a free Peace of Mind Estate Planning Strategy Session online, or call 850-607-2222. Our staff will explain what to expect and which documents to bring.

Revocable trust questions