Estate Planning for Blended Families and Second Marriages in Boca Raton

Remarriage rewrites your family tree, and Florida law does not automatically keep up. When you bring children from a prior relationship into a new marriage, the default rules of the Florida Probate Code, the homestead protections in the Florida Constitution, and the spousal elective share can produce results no one intended. Our Boca Raton practice focuses on estate planning for blended families and second marriages, so the people you love are provided for in the order and proportions you actually choose.

Why Blended Families Need More Than a Basic Will

In a first marriage, leaving everything to your spouse is usually uncontroversial because the children are shared. In a second marriage, that same plan can disinherit your own children entirely once your surviving spouse later updates their plan. Florida adds further complications: a surviving spouse has a right to an elective share of roughly 30% of the elective estate under Florida Statutes section 732.2065 and following, and homestead property cannot simply be left to children if a spouse survives. Planning that ignores these rules tends to end in litigation among stepfamily members.

Common Boca Raton Scenarios We Address

Many of our clients are professionals and retirees in Palm Beach County who married later in life, each bringing assets, a home, and adult children. Typical goals include letting a surviving spouse remain in the condominium or single-family home while ultimately passing it to the first spouse’s children, protecting an inheritance received before the marriage, and coordinating beneficiary designations on retirement accounts that often override a will entirely.

Tools We Use

Depending on your situation, a plan may combine a Florida will executed under section 732.502, a revocable living trust under Chapter 736 to keep assets private and out of probate, a qualified terminable interest property (QTIP) trust to support a spouse while preserving the remainder for your children, durable powers of attorney under Chapter 709, and advance health care directives. For real estate, a Lady Bird (enhanced life estate) deed can transfer the home outside probate while you retain full control during life.

Florida Has No State Estate or Inheritance Tax

Florida imposes no state estate tax and no inheritance tax, which is one reason many families relocate here. That makes planning for blended families primarily about control, fairness, and avoiding conflict rather than state death taxes. Federal estate tax still applies only to very large estates.

Work With a Boca Raton Estate Planning Attorney

Every blended family is different, and this page is general information, not legal advice for your situation. Florida law changes and applies to specific facts in ways only a licensed attorney can assess. We invite you to schedule a confidential consultation to discuss how a tailored plan can protect both your spouse and your children. A Florida-licensed estate planning attorney can review your assets, marital agreements, and beneficiary designations and recommend the right combination of documents for your goals.

For more on our Florida practice, see our overview of estate planning in Boca Raton. Morgan Legal Group's affiliated New York office also handles how a will is contested in New York.