What Happens If You Die Without a Will in Florida?
Without a will, Florida law decides who inherits, not you. Here is how that actually works, and why it rarely matches what people assume.
Dying without a will is called dying "intestate," and when that happens, Florida's intestacy statute decides who inherits your assets, in what shares, and in what order. It does not ask what you would have wanted. It applies a fixed formula based on your family structure at the time of death, and that formula surprises a lot of people.
Who inherits depends on your family situation
The distribution changes based on whether you are married, whether you have children, and whether those children are also the children of your surviving spouse. A blended family, a long-term partner you never married, stepchildren you raised but never adopted: none of these are treated the way most people assume under intestacy. A surviving partner you were not legally married to receives nothing under Florida intestate succession, no matter how long the relationship lasted.
The court still gets involved either way
Intestacy does not avoid probate. It happens inside probate. The court still has to open a case, appoint a personal representative to administer the estate, and confirm who the heirs are under the statute before anything can be distributed. Without a will naming who you want to serve as personal representative, the court decides that too, based on a statutory priority list, which is not always the person you would have chosen.
What a plan actually changes
A will lets you name who inherits, in what shares, and who is in charge of carrying that out, instead of leaving it to a formula that does not know your family. A revocable living trust goes further, letting assets pass to the people you choose without probate court involvement at all. Neither has to be complicated to be effective. What matters is that it reflects your actual family, not a default statute written for the general case.
Decide who inherits. Do not leave it to a formula.
Tell us about your family and what matters to you, and we will build the plan around it.
