You can make a do-it-yourself will in Florida, and it will hold up in probate court as long as you follow the state’s execution rules exactly. The document must be in writing, signed at the end by you (or by someone signing for you at your direction), and witnessed by two people who sign in your presence and in each other’s presence.1Florida Senate. Florida Code 732.502 – Execution of Wills Miss any part of that ceremony and a court can throw the entire will out. Florida layers on homestead restrictions, spousal rights, and personal representative rules that catch many DIY drafters off guard, so knowing those traps before you write anything matters as much as the signing itself.
Who Can Write Their Own Will
You qualify to make a Florida will if you are 18 or older (or a legally emancipated minor) and of sound mind.2Online Sunshine. Florida Code 732.501 – Who May Make a Will Sound mind means you understand you’re making a will, you have a general sense of what you own, and you know who your close family and intended beneficiaries are.
Florida does not recognize holographic wills (handwritten documents without witnesses) or oral wills created by Florida residents. A handwritten document is fine, but only if it goes through the full signing and witnessing process below.1Florida Senate. Florida Code 732.502 – Execution of Wills
The Signing Ceremony That Makes a Will Valid
This is where DIY wills most often fail. The requirements are strict, and a will that doesn’t meet them is void no matter how clearly it states your wishes.
- You must sign at the end of the document. If you physically can’t sign, another person can sign your name for you, but only in your presence and at your explicit direction.
- Your signing (or your acknowledgment that you already signed) must happen in front of at least two attesting witnesses.
- Both witnesses must then sign the will while you and the other witness are all present together.
All three people need to be in the same room at the same time. A witness who signs later, or who steps out of the room while the other witness signs, can invalidate the whole document.1Florida Senate. Florida Code 732.502 – Execution of Wills Pick competent adults as witnesses, and avoid using anyone who stands to inherit under the will. Florida doesn’t technically bar beneficiary-witnesses, but it creates problems you don’t want.
Add a Self-Proving Affidavit
A self-proving affidavit is optional but worth doing. It’s a notarized statement attached to the will in which you and both witnesses swear under oath that the will was properly executed. Without it, the probate court may need to track down your witnesses after your death to confirm the document. With it, the court can accept the will without that step.3Florida Senate. Florida Code 732.503 – Self-proof of Will
You can add the affidavit at the time of signing or later, as long as you and the original witnesses appear together before a notary. For a DIY will, it’s one of the cheapest pieces of insurance available.
Decisions to Make Before You Draft
Work through these before writing anything. Changing your mind later means executing a new document with the full witness ceremony again.
Start with an inventory: real estate, bank accounts, investment accounts, vehicles, valuable personal property, and any debts. Keep in mind that a will only governs probate assets. Life insurance, retirement accounts, payable-on-death bank accounts, and property held jointly with rights of survivorship pass by their own designations and bypass the will entirely. If most of your wealth sits in those categories, updating the beneficiary forms is a separate job the will cannot replace.
Then decide who receives what. You can make specific gifts (a particular ring, a dollar amount to a charity) and name someone to receive whatever is left over. Name at least one alternate beneficiary in case your first choice dies before you do.
If you have minor children, naming a guardian is one of the most important things a will does. The court isn’t bound by your choice, but it carries heavy weight. Name an alternate in case your first choice can’t serve.
Choosing a Personal Representative
The personal representative is the person who shepherds your estate through probate. Any Florida resident who is at least 18 and hasn’t been convicted of a felony can serve. If the person you want lives outside Florida, though, they must be your spouse, a sibling, parent, child, aunt, uncle, niece, nephew, or another close relative by blood or adoption.4Online Sunshine. Florida Code 733.304 – Nonresidents A best friend in Georgia cannot serve. Name someone who doesn’t qualify and the court picks a replacement, which defeats the point of choosing.
Name at least one alternate. Consider including a provision that waives the bond requirement. Without the waiver, the court will require your personal representative to buy a surety bond, which is paid from estate funds.5Online Sunshine. Florida Code 733.402 – Bond of Fiduciary; When Required; Form
The Homestead Trap
This is the single biggest pitfall for DIY will-makers in Florida. Under the Florida Constitution, you cannot freely leave your homestead property to anyone you choose if you are survived by a spouse or a minor child. The only exception: you can leave the homestead to your spouse if you have no minor children.6Online Sunshine. Florida Code 732.4015 – Devise of Homestead
If you have both a surviving spouse and minor children, you cannot devise the homestead to anyone at all. Any attempt is void. The property instead descends by statute: the surviving spouse gets a life estate (the right to live in the home for life), with the remainder passing to the descendants. The surviving spouse can alternatively elect to take a one-half ownership interest as a tenant in common, with the other half going to the descendants.7Online Sunshine. Florida Code 732.401 – Descent of Homestead
In practical terms: if you write a will leaving your home to your adult child from a prior marriage but you’re survived by your current spouse, that provision is void. The homestead rules override the will. For many Floridians the home is the most valuable asset, so a will that gets this wrong fails at its most important job.
Spousal Rights You Cannot Write Around
Beyond homestead, Florida gives surviving spouses rights your will cannot eliminate. Writing provisions that conflict with these doesn’t override them; it just invites litigation.
The Elective Share
A surviving spouse can claim 30 percent of the “elective estate,” a broadly defined pool that includes not just probate assets but also certain lifetime transfers.8Online Sunshine. Florida Code 732.2065 – Amount of the Elective Share If your will leaves your spouse less, your spouse can elect against the will and take the statutory share instead. You can leave more; you can’t go below 30 percent without your spouse’s agreement.
Exempt Property
The surviving spouse is also entitled to certain exempt property regardless of what the will says: household furniture and appliances up to $20,000 in value, up to two motor vehicles used by the family, and any prepaid college plans.9Florida Senate. Florida Code 732.402 – Exempt Property With no surviving spouse, these items pass to the children. Exempt property is in addition to anything received under the will, the homestead, or the elective share.
Children Born or Adopted After You Sign
If you have a child born or adopted after signing your will and never update it, Florida’s pretermitted child statute gives that child a share equal to what they would have received if you had died without a will at all.10Online Sunshine. Florida Code 732.302 – Pretermitted Children That share comes out of the other beneficiaries’ portions and can reshape the distribution you intended.
Two exceptions: the child doesn’t receive the automatic share if the will shows you intentionally omitted them, or if you already had children when you signed, left substantially everything to the other parent of the new child, and that parent survived you. The practical move is to update your will after any birth or adoption. One sentence acknowledging the new child and specifying their share, even if that share is nothing, prevents the statute from rearranging your plan.
Where to Keep the Original
A will that can’t be found after your death is effectively no will at all. A fireproof safe at home keeps the document accessible but risks loss in a disaster or a situation where family can’t get in. A bank safe deposit box creates a catch-22: banks typically restrict access once they learn the owner has died, and proving authority to open the box may require the will locked inside it. Florida does allow supervised access to search for a will, but the process adds delay.
Florida law also lets you deposit your will with the clerk of the circuit court in the county where you live during your lifetime for safekeeping. After your death, whoever has custody of your will must deposit it with the appropriate clerk within 10 days. Wherever you store the original, tell your personal representative exactly where to find it. A copy does not substitute for the original in probate.
Updating or Revoking Your Will
Marriage, divorce, a new child, a major financial change, or the death of a named beneficiary or personal representative all call for a revisit.
You can modify an existing will by adding a codicil, which must be signed and witnessed with the same formalities as the original.1Florida Senate. Florida Code 732.502 – Execution of Wills For anything beyond a minor tweak, a new will is usually cleaner. A new will that conflicts with the old one revokes the old one to the extent of the inconsistency. You can also sign a separate written document, with the same formalities, that explicitly revokes the earlier will.11Florida Senate. Florida Code 732.505 – Revocation by Writing
Florida also recognizes revocation by physical act. You can destroy the will yourself with the intent to revoke it, or have someone else destroy it in your presence and at your direction.12Florida Senate. Florida Code 732.506 – Revocation by Act Intent matters as much as the act. Accidental shredding doesn’t revoke it. And if the original goes missing but copies survive, the law presumes you intended to revoke, which can trigger disputes if your family disagrees.
When a DIY Will Isn’t Enough
A properly executed DIY will is legal in Florida, and it works fine for straightforward situations: single or first-marriage, adult children, simple assets, obvious beneficiaries. It consistently fails when the drafter underestimates complexity.
Blended families are the most common problem. Homestead, elective share, and pretermitted child rules interact in ways that can unravel a careful plan. If you have children from a prior relationship and a current spouse, a provision that reads clearly to you may be void under homestead law, or your spouse may elect against the will and redistribute the estate.
Families with a dependent who has special needs face another trap. A direct inheritance can disqualify that person from Medicaid and Supplemental Security Income. A special needs trust can preserve both the inheritance and the benefits, but drafting one is not a DIY project. Business owners, people with property in more than one state, and anyone with significant creditor concerns also benefit from professional help. The cost of an attorney drafting a will is almost always less than the cost of litigating a flawed one.