Every estate planning attorney could fill a book with cases from the probate courts that illustrate, more vividly than any textbook, what happens when the documents are not right. Florida's courts are no exception. The cases below are not to mock the people involved — grief and money are hard, and most people do not think clearly about estate planning until something goes wrong. They are to illustrate, concretely, the points that general planning advice makes in the abstract.
The Pet Provisions That Failed
Florida law does not allow you to leave property directly to an animal. A bequest "to my cat Biscuit" has no legal effect — animals cannot own property. But Florida does allow pet trusts under Fla. Stat. § 736.0408, which can direct a trustee to hold funds for the animal's care and name a caretaker.
This distinction matters in practice. A client who wants to leave $20,000 for the care of a dog needs a trust that names a caretaker, a trustee (who may be the same person), and provides instructions for how the funds are to be used. A will that simply bequeaths money to the dog, or that names a relative "to take care of Biscuit," with no trust and no enforceable obligation, produces a gift with no legal mechanism to ensure it is actually used for the pet's benefit. The money may be spent; the animal may not be cared for. Florida courts cannot enforce an unenforceable bequest.
DIY Documents and the Specific Failure Mode
Florida's durable power of attorney statute (Fla. Stat. § 709.2202) requires that specific "superpower" authority — including the authority to make gifts, to change beneficiary designations, to create or amend trusts — must be separately initialed in the document to be granted. This is a formal requirement. A DPOA that includes these powers in a general list but does not have the separate initials next to each one does not grant those powers.
The failure mode is consistent: a family member downloads a DPOA template from the internet, signs it, and attempts to use it during an incapacity to restructure assets, change beneficiary designations, or transfer property. The institution refuses — correctly — because the initials required by Florida law are absent. The only remedy at that point is a guardianship proceeding, which costs multiples of what proper drafting would have cost and takes months.
This same issue arises with will execution. Florida requires two witnesses who sign in the presence of the testator and of each other. Online forms frequently include incorrect or insufficient witness attestation language. A will that does not meet Florida's formal requirements is not valid in Florida courts.
The Digital Asset Problem
An increasing share of estate administration involves digital assets — cryptocurrency, online brokerage accounts, digital storefronts, domain names, social media accounts, and content monetization accounts. Florida addresses this under the Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act (Fla. Stat. Chapter 740).
The problem is access. A personal representative who cannot find the decedent's login credentials and has not been given access through a digital asset directive or a platform's legacy-contact tool may find that valuable assets are inaccessible or permanently lost. Cryptocurrency held in a non-custodial wallet with no written backup of the private key or seed phrase is, for practical purposes, gone forever — no probate court order will recover it.
A complete estate plan in 2024 should address digital assets explicitly: an inventory of significant digital accounts, instructions for access, and authorization language that complies with both Florida law and the terms of service of the relevant platforms.
When Communication Was the Plan
Perhaps the most common pattern in Florida probate litigation is the case where the decedent communicated their wishes clearly to family members but put nothing in writing, or put something in writing that the law does not honor. "I told all three of my children that the house goes to the oldest" does not create a legally enforceable gift. "I wrote it on a piece of paper in my own handwriting" does not create a valid Florida will — Florida does not recognize holographic (handwritten, unwitnessed) wills.
The result is litigation between family members who each believe they know what the decedent intended — and they may all be right about what was communicated — but the law will not enforce those communications. The dispute drains the estate and harms the people the decedent was trying to benefit.
Clear instructions in enforceable documents are not just a formality. They are the difference between a family that grieves together and a family that litigates together.
