{ "_about": "Dated source table for the beneficiary audit and Florida document-education perk (membership perk #5). One file, one year, every fact cited. Mirrors the 70-numbers-2026.md discipline: anything not confirmed for 2026 is marked CONFIRM in `status` and must NOT be rendered as fact. This is EDUCATION, not legal advice. The Senior Desk does not draft documents, does not review anyone's documents for adequacy, and does not advise who should receive what. Drafting legal documents for another person is the unlicensed practice of law in Florida (Fla. Stat. 454.23). Where documents are needed, the member is pointed to a Florida attorney and The Senior Desk receives no compensation for the referral.", "data_year": 2026, "last_verified": "2026-07-27", "jurisdiction": "FL", "not_legal_advice": "General education about how designations and documents work. Not legal advice, not a review of any person's situation, and not a statement of who should receive anything. Florida law and how it applies depend on the facts; a Florida attorney is the place for advice.", "sources": { "flstat_732": "Fla. Stat. ch. 732 (Probate Code / Intestate Succession and Wills), https://www.flsenate.gov/Laws/Statutes/2025/Chapter732/All", "flstat_736": "Fla. Stat. ch. 736 (Florida Trust Code), https://www.flsenate.gov/Laws/Statutes/2025/Chapter736/All", "flstat_709": "Fla. Stat. ch. 709 (Florida Power of Attorney Act), https://www.flsenate.gov/Laws/Statutes/2025/Chapter709/All", "flstat_765": "Fla. Stat. ch. 765 (Health Care Advance Directives), https://www.flsenate.gov/Laws/Statutes/2025/Chapter765/All", "flstat_744": "Fla. Stat. ch. 744 (Guardianship), https://www.flsenate.gov/Laws/Statutes/2025/Chapter744/All", "flstat_710": "Fla. Stat. ch. 710 (Florida Uniform Transfers to Minors Act), https://www.flsenate.gov/Laws/Statutes/2025/Chapter710/All", "flstat_655_82": "Fla. Stat. 655.82 (Pay-on-death accounts), https://www.flsenate.gov/Laws/Statutes/2025/655.82", "flstat_711": "Fla. Stat. ch. 711 (Florida Uniform Transfer-on-Death Security Registration Act), https://www.flsenate.gov/Laws/Statutes/2025/Chapter711/All", "fl_const_homestead": "Fla. Const. Art. X, s. 4(c) (homestead; restrictions on devise), https://www.flsenate.gov/Laws/Constitution", "fl_const_tax": "Fla. Const. Art. VII, s. 5 (estate, inheritance, and income taxes), https://www.flsenate.gov/Laws/Constitution", "fl_dor_estate": "Florida Department of Revenue, Florida Estate Tax, https://floridarevenue.com/taxes/taxesfees/Pages/estate_tax.aspx", "egelhoff": "Egelhoff v. Egelhoff ex rel. Breiner, 532 U.S. 141 (2001) (ERISA preempts state automatic-revocation-on-divorce rules)", "kennedy": "Kennedy v. Plan Administrator for DuPont Sav. & Investment Plan, 555 U.S. 285 (2009) (plan pays the beneficiary named on the plan's form)", "erisa_rea": "Employee Retirement Income Security Act; Retirement Equity Act spousal-consent rules for qualified plans, 29 U.S.C. 1055", "irs_590b": "IRS Publication 590-B, Distributions from Individual Retirement Arrangements (IRAs), https://www.irs.gov/forms-pubs/about-publication-590-b", "nonprobate": "General non-probate transfer law: a beneficiary designation or pay-on-death/transfer-on-death registration is a contract with the institution that passes the asset outside the will." }, "beneficiary_facts": [ { "id": "override_will", "label": "A designation overrides the will", "status": "ok", "source": "nonprobate", "cite_extra": ["flstat_655_82", "flstat_711"], "text": "A beneficiary designation names who receives that account or policy directly, so it passes outside your will. Whatever the will says, the form on file with the institution is what controls. Bank pay-on-death (POD) accounts and brokerage transfer-on-death (TOD) registrations work the same way." }, { "id": "contingent", "label": "The missing contingent is the most common gap", "status": "ok", "source": "nonprobate", "cite_extra": [], "text": "A contingent (backup) beneficiary receives the money only if every primary beneficiary has died before you. When no contingent is named and the primary has died, many institutions pay the account to your estate, which sends it into probate. A missing contingent beneficiary is the single most common gap a beneficiary check turns up." }, { "id": "predecease", "label": "When a named beneficiary dies first", "status": "ok", "source": "nonprobate", "cite_extra": [], "text": "If a named beneficiary dies before you and the form is never updated, that share may go to the surviving named beneficiaries, to a contingent, or to your estate, depending on the contract and whether the form says the share passes 'per stirpes' to that person's own children. The institution's form decides, so it is worth asking how yours reads." }, { "id": "divorce_fl", "label": "Divorce and a Florida designation", "status": "ok", "source": "flstat_732", "cite_extra": [], "text": "Under Fla. Stat. 732.703, a Florida divorce automatically voids a designation that names your former spouse on many assets. There are important exceptions, including accounts governed by federal law, so it is not safe to assume it applied. Asking the institution for the current form on file is the only way to know." }, { "id": "erisa_divorce", "label": "Workplace plans follow federal law", "status": "ok", "source": "egelhoff", "cite_extra": ["kennedy"], "text": "Workplace retirement plans such as a 401(k), 403(b), or pension are governed by federal ERISA law, which can override a state divorce rule. The U.S. Supreme Court has held that these plans pay whoever is on the beneficiary form, even a long-divorced ex-spouse. Filing an updated form with the plan is what changes it." }, { "id": "erisa_spousal_consent", "label": "A spouse is often the automatic beneficiary", "status": "ok", "source": "erisa_rea", "cite_extra": [], "text": "For many private employer retirement plans, federal law makes your current spouse the automatic beneficiary, and naming someone else usually requires the spouse's written, notarized consent on the plan's own form. The plan administrator can tell you whether that rule applies to yours." }, { "id": "minor", "label": "Naming a minor outright", "status": "ok", "source": "flstat_744", "cite_extra": ["flstat_710"], "text": "A minor child usually cannot legally receive or control life-insurance or retirement money directly. If a minor is named outright, a court may have to appoint a guardian of the property to hold it until age 18 (Fla. Stat. ch. 744), or it may pass under the Florida Uniform Transfers to Minors Act (Fla. Stat. ch. 710). Asking the institution how it handles a minor beneficiary is worth doing before naming one." }, { "id": "estate", "label": "Naming your estate", "status": "ok", "source": "flstat_732", "cite_extra": ["irs_590b"], "text": "Naming 'my estate' as beneficiary pulls the asset into probate and can expose it to creditors and delay. For a retirement account it can also mean there is no 'designated beneficiary,' which can force the money out faster and raise the income tax (IRS Publication 590-B). It is worth confirming what the form actually says." }, { "id": "trust_as_bene", "label": "Naming a trust", "status": "ok", "source": "irs_590b", "cite_extra": ["flstat_736"], "text": "A trust can be named as beneficiary, but for a retirement account it only works well if the trust is written to receive that kind of asset under the IRS 'see-through' rules. Whether a particular trust qualifies is a legal question for the attorney who drafts it, not something to guess at on the form." }, { "id": "secure_10yr", "label": "SECURE Act inherited-account timing", "status": "CONFIRM", "source": "irs_590b", "cite_extra": [], "text": "The exact SECURE Act payout timing for an inherited retirement account, including whether yearly withdrawals are required within the ten-year window, depends on IRS rules that were still being finalized when this was written. It is named here for awareness only and is not stated as a rule; confirm current IRS guidance or ask a tax professional." } ], "documents": [ { "id": "will", "name": "Will", "status": "ok", "source": "flstat_732", "cite_extra": [], "text": "A will directs who receives your probate assets and names a personal representative to carry it out. It controls only the assets that do not already pass by beneficiary designation or joint title, and it takes effect through the probate court (Fla. Stat. ch. 732)." }, { "id": "durable_poa", "name": "Durable power of attorney", "status": "ok", "source": "flstat_709", "cite_extra": [], "text": "A durable power of attorney lets a person you name handle your financial and legal affairs, and 'durable' means it keeps working if you later become unable to act for yourself (Fla. Stat. ch. 709, the Florida Power of Attorney Act)." }, { "id": "health_care_surrogate", "name": "Health care surrogate designation", "status": "ok", "source": "flstat_765", "cite_extra": [], "text": "A health care surrogate designation names a person to make medical decisions for you if a doctor determines you cannot make them yourself (Fla. Stat. 765.202)." }, { "id": "living_will", "name": "Living will", "status": "ok", "source": "flstat_765", "cite_extra": [], "text": "A living will states in advance what life-prolonging treatment you would or would not want if you were terminally ill, end-stage, or in a persistent vegetative state (Fla. Stat. 765.302)." }, { "id": "revocable_trust", "name": "Revocable living trust", "status": "ok", "source": "flstat_736", "cite_extra": [], "text": "A revocable living trust holds assets you transfer into it and can let those assets pass without probate; you can change or revoke it while you are alive and competent (Fla. Stat. ch. 736, the Florida Trust Code)." } ], "florida_facts": [ { "id": "homestead", "label": "Florida homestead limits what a will can do", "status": "ok", "source": "fl_const_homestead", "cite_extra": ["flstat_732"], "text": "Florida's constitution restricts how a homestead can be left in a will when the owner is survived by a spouse or a minor child (Fla. Const. Art. X, s. 4(c); Fla. Stat. 732.4015 and 732.401). In that situation the law, not the will, can decide who takes the home. Whether it applies and how depends entirely on the family, so this is only that the restriction exists." }, { "id": "lady_bird", "label": "Lady Bird (enhanced life estate) deed", "status": "ok", "source": "nonprobate", "cite_extra": [], "text": "A Lady Bird deed, also called an enhanced life estate deed, lets an owner keep full control of a home during life, including the right to sell it or change their mind, while naming who receives it automatically at death so that home avoids probate. It is a recognized Florida real-property tool, is not created by any single statute, and must be prepared by a lawyer." }, { "id": "self_proving_will", "label": "A self-proving will in Florida", "status": "ok", "source": "flstat_732", "cite_extra": [], "text": "A Florida will is 'self-proving' when it is signed by the maker and two witnesses who are all present together, and the maker and both witnesses then sign a sworn affidavit before a notary public. A self-proved will can be admitted to probate without tracking down the witnesses years later (Fla. Stat. 732.502 and 732.503)." }, { "id": "no_estate_tax", "label": "Florida has no state estate tax", "status": "ok", "source": "fl_const_tax", "cite_extra": ["fl_dor_estate"], "text": "Florida has no state estate tax and no state inheritance tax (Fla. Const. Art. VII, s. 5; Florida Department of Revenue). A separate federal estate tax still exists, but it reaches only a very small number of estates." } ] }