Florida Will Requirements: Signing, Witnesses, and Revocation

To make a valid will in Florida, you must be at least 18 or an emancipated minor, of sound mind, and put the document in writing signed at the end in front of two witnesses who then sign in your presence and in each other’s presence. Florida’s will requirements are set out in Chapter 732 of the Florida Statutes, and the state layers several rules on top of the basic execution formalities: homestead property cannot be freely given away if you leave a spouse or minor child, a surviving spouse can claim a share regardless of what the will says, some people are disqualified from serving as personal representative, and divorce automatically wipes your ex out of the document.¹ Miss any of the execution formalities and the whole will fails, no matter how clearly it states your wishes.

Who Can Make a Will

You must be 18 or older, or an emancipated minor, and of sound mind at the time you sign.¹ Sound mind means you understand what you own, who your close relatives are, and what it means to distribute your property after death. A diagnosed cognitive condition does not automatically disqualify you; a lucid interval during execution is enough.

Florida does not recognize oral wills. It does not recognize handwritten (holographic) wills either, even if you sign them. Every will has to be in writing and executed according to the statutory formalities.²

How the Will Must Be Signed and Witnessed

Execution is where wills most often fail. Florida requires three things at the signing.

First, you sign at the end of the will. If a physical condition prevents you from signing, you can direct another person to sign your name for you, but they must do so in your presence and at your direction.²

Second, at least two witnesses must be present when you sign, or when you acknowledge to them that the signature on the document is yours.²

Third, those witnesses must sign the will in your presence and in each other’s presence.² All three of you should be in the same room, watching each other sign.

Any competent person can witness a will. Florida does not set a minimum age for witnesses, and a will is not invalid just because a witness is also a beneficiary.³ Still, using a beneficiary as a witness opens the door to undue-influence arguments later. Pick disinterested witnesses when you can.

Making the Will Self-Proving

A self-proving affidavit is a short, notarized statement you and your witnesses sign at the same time you execute the will (or later) confirming that everything was done correctly. It stands in for live witness testimony when the will reaches probate, which matters because witnesses may have moved, become incapacitated, or died by then.⁴

The affidavit does not change the legal effect of the will. It just makes probate faster and cheaper, and it makes execution challenges much harder to win. Without it, the court has to track down an original witness or find other evidence that the will was properly signed. There is no good reason to skip the affidavit at signing.

Electronic Wills

Florida is one of the few states that recognizes electronic wills. An electronic will is executed with an electronic signature rather than ink on paper.⁵ The core rules still apply: you must be 18 or older and of sound mind, two witnesses must observe the signing, and the will must be self-proved.

Electronic wills carry an extra requirement paper wills do not. The electronic record must be held by a “qualified custodian” from the moment of execution until the will is offered for probate, and the custodian must certify under oath that the document was not altered after signing. If custody breaks or the custodian cannot make that certification, the court may refuse to admit the will. For most people, a traditional paper will with a self-proving affidavit is the simpler and more reliable option.

Homestead Property You Cannot Freely Devise

Florida’s homestead rules are one of the biggest ways an out-of-state estate plan goes wrong here. Under the Florida Constitution, you cannot freely leave your homestead to whoever you want if you are survived by a spouse or a minor child.⁶

If you have a surviving spouse and no minor children, the homestead can go to your spouse but not to anyone else. If you have a minor child, the homestead cannot be devised at all; it passes outside the will by operation of law, typically as a life estate to the surviving spouse with the remainder to the children. A will that tries to leave the house to, say, an adult child from a prior marriage while a surviving spouse is alive will be struck down on that provision, and the court will apply the statutory result instead.

Your Spouse’s Elective Share

Florida will not let you cut a surviving spouse out entirely. Regardless of what your will says, a surviving spouse can claim an elective share equal to 30 percent of the elective estate.⁷ The elective estate is broader than probate assets alone. It reaches certain nonprobate transfers such as joint accounts, revocable trusts, and beneficiary designations, which is why the number often surprises people.

The elective share is not automatic; the spouse has to affirmatively claim it. If you are in a second marriage with children from a prior relationship, this is the rule that most often unravels an estate plan. Leaving everything to your children does not stop the surviving spouse from electing against the will. A properly drafted prenuptial or postnuptial agreement is the main tool for waiving those rights.

Who Can Serve as Personal Representative

Your personal representative (Florida’s term for an executor) collects your assets, pays debts and taxes, and distributes what remains. Florida disqualifies more candidates than most states.

A person cannot serve if they have been convicted of a felony, have been convicted of abuse or exploitation of an elderly or disabled person, are mentally or physically unable to perform the duties, or are under 18.⁸

Florida also restricts nonresident personal representatives. A person who does not live in Florida can serve only if they are a close relative of the decedent: a spouse, sibling, parent, child (including adopted), uncle, aunt, niece, nephew, someone related by direct bloodline, or the spouse of one of these relatives.⁹ A trusted friend who lives in another state cannot serve, whatever your will says. Confirm your chosen representative qualifies before you finalize the document.

What Divorce Does to Your Will

A Florida divorce automatically voids every provision of your will that benefits your former spouse. The court reads the will as if your ex died on the date the divorce became final.¹⁰ Any designation of the ex as beneficiary, personal representative, or trustee falls away by operation of law.

Two exceptions: you can execute a new will after the divorce that intentionally names your former spouse, and the automatic revocation does not apply if the divorce judgment itself requires you to keep your ex as a beneficiary. Marriage, the birth of a child, or an adoption does not by itself revoke an existing will, though a new spouse or child left out of the document may have rights under Florida’s pretermitted heir statutes.¹⁰ Even with the automatic protection on divorce, redoing the will after a major life event is the safer move than relying on defaults.

Assets Your Will Does Not Control

A will only governs assets that go through probate. Several of the most valuable things you own transfer automatically to a named beneficiary, and the will has no effect on them.

Retirement accounts (IRAs and 401(k)s) pass to whoever is listed on the beneficiary form at the financial institution.
Life insurance proceeds go to the named beneficiary on the policy.
Payable-on-death and transfer-on-death accounts (bank, brokerage, CDs) transfer directly to the named person.
Joint property with right of survivorship, including tenancy by the entirety, passes to the surviving co-owner.
Assets held in a revocable living trust pass under the trust document.

Beneficiary designations override your will. If the will leaves your IRA to your daughter but the beneficiary form still names your ex-spouse, the ex-spouse gets the money. Review every designation whenever you update the will, and after any marriage, divorce, birth, or death in the family.

How to Revoke or Change a Florida Will

Florida gives you two ways to revoke.

Revocation by a Later Writing

Execute a new will or a codicil (a formal amendment). If the new document contains provisions that conflict with the old one, the old provisions are revoked to the extent of the inconsistency. A new document can also declare outright that it revokes all prior wills. Either way, the new instrument must meet the same execution formalities as the original: written, signed at the end, and witnessed by two people.¹¹

Revocation by Physical Act

You can revoke a paper will by destroying it with the intent to revoke. Burning, tearing, or shredding all work, and another person can destroy it for you as long as they do so in your presence and at your direction. Intent is the key element. If a flood destroys the will, or someone shreds it without your knowledge, it is not legally revoked.¹²

Electronic wills follow a parallel rule: deleting, rendering unreadable, or obliterating the electronic record with the intent to revoke. Proving revocation of an electronic will requires clear and convincing evidence.¹²

1
The Florida Legislature. 2025 Florida Statutes Title XLII – Chapter 732 – Probate Code: Intestate Succession and Wills
2
Florida Senate. Florida Statutes 732.502 – Execution of Wills
3
The Florida Legislature. Florida Statutes 732.504 – Who May Witness
4
Florida Senate. Florida Statutes 732.503 – Self-Proof of Will
5
The Florida Legislature. Florida Statutes 732.521 – Definitions
6
Florida Senate. Florida Statutes 732.4015 – Devise of Homestead
7
Florida Senate. Florida Statutes 732.2065 – Amount of the Elective Share
8
The Florida Legislature. Florida Statutes 733.303 – Persons Not Qualified
9
Florida Senate. Florida Statutes 733.304 – Nonresidents
10
The Florida Legislature. Florida Statutes 732.507 – Effect of Subsequent Marriage, Birth, Adoption, or Dissolution of Marriage
11
Florida Senate. Florida Statutes 732.505 – Revocation by Writing
12
Florida Senate. Florida Statutes 732.506 – Revocation by Act