The Florida Marriage Asset Protection You Already Have (But Probably Just Lost By Accident)

A Lake Mary couple, a routine bank visit, and a $70,000 surprise

Henry and Jean had been married thirty-eight years. Henry retired from the City of Orlando in 2024. Jean still worked part-time at a Lake Mary medical practice. Their finances were boring in the best way. A joint checking account at a national bank, a brokerage account at Schwab, the house off Markham Woods Road, and a 2018 Toyota Highlander.

Then Henry was rear-ended on I-4 in late 2025. The other driver's insurance was minimal. Henry was sued personally for the difference. The plaintiff's lawyer ran an asset search and quickly found two surprises. The brokerage account had been retitled in 2023 when Schwab moved them to a new platform. A teller had checked the box marked "joint with right of survivorship" because it sounded right. The checking account had been opened years earlier when only Henry was on it, and Jean was never added back after a 2019 fraud reset.

Both accounts were exposed. Together they held about $70,000 the family was counting on for the next decade.

Had those two accounts been titled as tenants by the entireties, with proper Florida documentation, the plaintiff would have hit a wall. The accounts would have been protected from Henry's individual judgment. The mistake was not catastrophic, but it was avoidable, and the family is paying lawyers right now to clean up something that should never have happened.

This kind of accidental loss is one of the most common Florida planning failures we see. It almost never makes the news. It just quietly costs married Florida couples real money.

What tenancy by the entireties actually is

Tenancy by the entireties is a form of joint ownership available in Florida only to legally married spouses. The technical idea, going back to the English common law our state inherited, is that a married couple is treated as a single legal person owning the property together. Neither spouse owns half. They both own the whole.

Practically, that produces three Florida-specific protections.

First, when one spouse dies, the property automatically passes to the surviving spouse outside of probate. No will, no court, no waiting.

Second, neither spouse can sell, transfer, or pledge the property without the other's signature. That blocks unilateral mistakes.

Third, and most importantly for working families, property held this way is generally protected from the creditors of just one spouse. If a judgment is entered against Henry alone, Henry-and-Jean entireties property is off the table. Only a joint creditor of both spouses can reach it.

Florida is one of a small handful of states where this protection extends to personal property and bank accounts, not just real estate. The Florida Supreme Court confirmed that broad reach in Beal Bank v. Almand & Associates back in 2001, and our courts have honored it consistently ever since.

Why this matters more in Orlando than people realize

Central Florida is full of professionals one bad day away from a personal liability claim. Doctors, contractors, restaurant owners, real estate investors, anyone who drives a car. Florida has no state income tax, generous homestead protection, and tenancy by the entireties for everything else. Together those make Florida one of the friendliest creditor-protection states in the country for married couples who set things up correctly.

The catch is that the state will not set it up for you. The presumption that joint marital ownership is held by the entireties applies in some contexts, especially personal property under Beal Bank, but the cleanest result requires the right title language on the deed, the right account titling at the bank or brokerage, and matching beneficiary planning.

Generic joint tenancy with right of survivorship, the default at most national banks and online brokerages, is not the same thing. It gives you survivorship without the creditor protection. We see this miss constantly when an Orlando couple opens a new account online or moves to a new platform.

Common mistakes that quietly undo it

The first mistake is the platform reset. A bank merger, a brokerage migration, or even a fraud-related account reissue often defaults the new account to plain joint with right of survivorship. The customer signs the new signature card without anyone explaining what changed. The protection is gone.

The second mistake is funding a revocable trust the wrong way. Couples retitle the house to "John Smith and Jane Smith, as Trustees of the Smith Family Revocable Trust" without preserving entireties character. The trust can sometimes be drafted to maintain the protection, but only if the document and the deed work together. We see this miss often in trusts drafted online.

The third mistake is a single-name mortgage refinance. The couple owns the house entireties, then refinances with only one spouse on the loan and, sometimes, only one spouse on the new deed. The non-borrowing spouse signs off thinking it is a formality. The entireties protection is now in trouble.

The fourth mistake is moving an account into one spouse's name "for convenience" while the other is in a hospital, deployed, or out of the country. That convenience often becomes permanent because nobody remembers to fix it.

The fifth mistake is divorce. The moment a Florida divorce is finalized, entireties is gone by operation of law. Property still titled as entireties converts to tenancy in common. Many people do not retitle accounts after divorce, and we have seen the resulting confusion drag out for years.

What can happen if you do nothing

Three things tend to happen, in order.

You may lose the creditor protection without realizing it, exactly as Henry and Jean did. A car accident, a contractor lawsuit, a personal guaranty on a small business loan, any of these can suddenly reach assets you assumed were safe.

You may slow down the surviving spouse at exactly the wrong moment. If the account is not properly titled with survivorship, the bank may freeze it after the first death and require letters of administration. That is weeks to months of delay while the surviving spouse is also planning a funeral.

You may create unnecessary probate. We have opened formal administrations in Orange County for accounts that should have passed automatically to the surviving spouse. The legal fees alone often exceed what an attorney would have charged to fix the title in the first place.

Practical next steps

Pull a list of every account, deed, and titled asset in the household. Look at how each is titled, exactly. The phrase you want, where appropriate, includes "as tenants by the entireties" or "TBE."

For real estate, check the deed in the public records of the county where the property sits. Orange, Seminole, Osceola, Lake, and Volusia all post deeds online. If your deed says only "husband and wife" without TBE language, the result is probably fine because Florida case law generally presumes entireties for marital real estate, but a clean deed avoids fights later.

For accounts, do not trust the printed statement header. Ask the institution in writing how the account is titled. Banks especially are notorious for mismatched headers and underlying titling.

For trust funding, have a Florida estate planning attorney review the trust language and the deeds together, not just one or the other.

How our firm helps

We run an asset and titling audit as part of every estate planning engagement. We look at deeds, accounts, beneficiary designations, and trust documents together and tell you, in plain English, where the protection is solid, where it is shaky, and what the cleanup costs. Often the fix is a simple corrective deed and a couple of bank forms. Occasionally it is a more involved trust amendment. Either way, you find out before a claim shows up, not after.

David A. Yergey III holds an LL.M. in Taxation from the University of Miami and has spent decades helping Orlando-area couples thread the needle between asset protection, tax planning, and probate avoidance. The firm has served Central Florida families since 1928.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does tenancy by the entireties protect me from a joint debt?

No. Entireties only blocks creditors of one spouse acting alone. If both spouses signed the loan or guaranty, both are on the hook and the entireties property is fair game.

What happens to entireties property in a divorce?

The moment the divorce is final, entireties converts by law to tenancy in common. You should retitle assets afterward to match the divorce decree.

Are out-of-state assets protected?

Generally no. Tenancy by the entireties is a Florida creature and is not recognized in many states. North Carolina mountain cabin, New Jersey rental, you usually need a different strategy.

Does my online brokerage offer tenancy by the entireties?

Some do, but only if you ask and the form supports it. The default at most national platforms is plain joint with right of survivorship. That is not the same thing.

Can a revocable trust still hold entireties protection?

Yes, but only with carefully drafted language sometimes referred to as a tenancy by the entireties trust or a properly structured joint trust. Cookie-cutter online trusts almost never get this right.

Call our office

If you are married, live in Florida, and have not specifically confirmed how your accounts and deeds are titled, you have homework. Call our office at (407) 843-0430 or visit orlandoprobatelawyer.com to schedule a titling and planning review. We will tell you, in plain language, exactly where you stand and what, if anything, needs to be cleaned up. Yergey and Yergey, P.A. has been helping Orlando families since 1928, and we would be glad to help yours.