When people find out I'm an estate planning attorney in Florida, I usually hear some version of the same confession: "I know I should have a will or a trust… I just haven't gotten around to it."
I understand it completely. Estate planning feels intimidating, expensive, and easy to put off. But after years of practicing law here, I've watched what happens when families don't have a plan — or worse, when they have one that doesn't actually work under Florida law. That's the reason I founded Cornerstone Wealth & Legacy Law and built the Florida Estate Kit: to make getting it right simple, affordable, and unmistakably Florida.
The two families I kept meeting
Over the years, I noticed two groups of people who kept running into the same wall.
The first were lifelong Floridians who assumed a basic will was enough — and didn't realize that a will alone still goes through probate, a process that's public, slow, and costly for the family left behind.
The second surprised me more: people moving to Florida from other states. They'd arrive from New York, New Jersey, Ohio, Michigan — often for retirement — carrying a will or trust they'd signed years ago up north. They assumed it would just carry over. It often doesn't. Florida's rules are genuinely different, and documents that were perfectly valid in another state can fall apart here.
Why Florida is its own world
Florida law gives families remarkable advantages — but only if your plan is built to use them.
- Homestead protection. Florida's constitution gives your home special protection, but it also restricts how your homestead can pass at death. Out-of-state documents almost never account for this.
- No state income or estate tax. It's one of the reasons people move here — and the right plan helps your family keep that advantage.
- Probate avoidance through trusts. A properly funded Florida living trust can keep your estate private and out of the court system entirely.
- Execution formalities. Florida has specific witnessing and signing rules. An out-of-state self-proving will may not satisfy them.
When you move to Florida, you're not just changing your address — you're changing the law that governs your estate. That's an opportunity, but only if someone makes sure your plan takes advantage of it.
The gap I wanted to close
For most families, the choice felt like two bad options: pay thousands of dollars in hourly legal fees, or gamble on a national do-it-yourself form site that isn't built for Florida and misses the details — homestead, trust funding, proper execution — that matter most.
I didn't think that was a fair choice. So we built a third option.
What the Florida Estate Kit does
The Florida Estate Kit lets you build a complete, Florida-specific estate plan online — a will, a revocable living trust, a durable power of attorney, a health care surrogate, and a living will — in about 20 minutes, at a flat, upfront price. Every document is drafted for Florida law, including the homestead and probate-avoidance details that out-of-state forms ignore.
And because some plans deserve a lawyer's eyes, you can choose an attorney-guided option, where I personally review your plan before you sign. It's the part national form sites can't offer: a licensed Florida attorney standing behind the work.
Why "Cornerstone"
I named the firm Cornerstone because that's what a good estate plan is — the foundation everything else rests on. It's not about documents for their own sake. It's about a parent knowing who would raise their children. A spouse knowing they'll be cared for. A family being spared confusion and cost during the hardest moment of their lives.
That's the work. Whether you've lived in Florida your whole life or you just unpacked the last box, my goal is the same: help you protect the people you love, the right way, under Florida law.
See Where Your Plan Stands
Take the free 3-minute estate-plan quiz and get a personalized Florida gap analysis — then build your plan online, self-guided or attorney-guided by Arthur Simpson, Esq.
Take the Free Quiz →Arthur Simpson, Esq. is a Florida attorney (Florida Bar #529265) and the founder of Cornerstone Wealth & Legacy Law, PLLC, a firm focused on estate planning, elder law, and real estate. This article is attorney advertising and is provided for general information only. It is not legal advice and does not create an attorney-client relationship. No particular result is guaranteed.