When you remarry or build a life with stepchildren, your estate plan has to do more than divide property. It has to balance the rights of a current spouse with the wishes you hold for children from a prior relationship. Our West Palm Beach firm focuses on exactly that tension. We help blended families across Palm Beach County build plans that respect Florida law while keeping the peace between the people you love.
Why Second Marriages Change the Math
A simple “everything to my spouse” plan often backfires in a blended family. If your surviving spouse inherits everything outright, nothing legally compels them to pass assets to your children later. Florida law also gives a surviving spouse powerful default rights that can override a will, including the elective share under section 732.2065 and protections tied to the homestead. A plan that ignores those rules can collapse the moment it is needed most.
Florida Rights That Shape Every Blended-Family Plan
Three Florida rules drive most of our planning. The elective share entitles a surviving spouse to 30 percent of the elective estate, regardless of what the will says. The homestead provisions in the Florida Constitution restrict how you can devise your primary residence when you leave a spouse or minor child. And the probate process under Chapters 731 through 735 of the Florida Statutes determines how assets actually transfer. We design around these realities rather than against them.
Tools We Use for Mixed Families
The right structure depends on your goals. A revocable living trust under Chapter 736 can provide for a second spouse during their lifetime while preserving the remainder for your children. A QTIP-style marital trust lets you support your spouse yet control where assets go after they pass. A properly drafted will under section 732.502, durable powers of attorney under Chapter 709, and coordinated beneficiary designations round out the plan. For some clients, a Lady Bird deed keeps the homestead out of probate while protecting a spouse’s right to live there.
What We Help You Decide
- How to provide for your current spouse without disinheriting your children
- Whether a marital trust or outright gift fits your family dynamic
- How homestead and elective share rules affect your residence
- Who serves as personal representative or trustee when loyalties may divide
- How to use a prenuptial or postnuptial agreement to waive spousal rights cleanly
Serving Palm Beach County Families
We work with clients throughout West Palm Beach, Palm Beach, Wellington, Jupiter and the surrounding communities. Whether you are newly remarried, blending households, or updating an outdated plan after a divorce, we translate Florida’s probate and trust rules into a strategy that fits your family.
A note on legal advice: This page is general information, not legal advice. Florida estate planning rules are detailed and fact-specific. Please consult a licensed Florida attorney before acting on anything here.
For more on our Florida practice, see our overview of powers of attorney in Florida. Morgan Legal Group's affiliated New York office also handles how a will is contested in New York.