The Steps, in Order
- Decide if you need one. A trust earns its cost for multi-state property, blended families, minor children, privacy, or incapacity planning. For a single Florida home, a lady bird deed may do the job for a few hundred dollars. We will tell you straight.
- Choose your trustee and successor. Usually you are your own trustee while alive, with a successor trustee who takes over at incapacity or death.
- Name your beneficiaries and how they inherit (outright, or in protective shares for young or vulnerable heirs).
- Draft and sign it properly (see the Florida signing rules below).
- Fund it. The step that makes or breaks the plan, covered next.
- Add a pour-over will as a backstop for anything you forget to move in.
The Step DIY Plans Skip: Funding
A trust only avoids probate for the assets actually inside it. Funding means recording a new deed to put your home in the trust, retitling your bank and investment accounts into the trust’s name, and updating beneficiary designations where it makes sense. An unfunded trust is just paper, and your family ends up in probate anyway. This is the single most common reason cheap online trusts fail, and the reason our flat fee includes the funding deed and guidance on the rest.
Want it set up and funded right the first time?
Book a free 30-minute consult. We will map your plan, quote a flat fee, and handle the trust and the funding.
Book your free consultFlorida Signing Rules (Why Templates Backfire)
A revocable living trust that distributes property at your death must be signed with the same formalities as a will: in writing, signed by you in front of two witnesses who also sign. Get this wrong and the trust’s death-time provisions can be unenforceable. Add Florida’s homestead and spousal rules, which generic forms ignore, and you can see why DIY templates so often fail at the worst possible moment. See how a Florida living trust works →
What It Costs
A complete revocable living trust plan is a flat $3,200 individual / $4,500 couple, including the trust, a pour-over will, durable power of attorney, health-care documents, and the deed that funds your home. See the full cost breakdown →, or if your estate is simple, check whether a lady bird deed is enough.
Frequently Asked Questions
How Do I Set Up a Living Trust in Florida?
In short: decide whether you actually need a trust, choose your trustee and a successor, name your beneficiaries, have the trust properly drafted and signed under Florida’s rules, and then, most important, fund it by retitling your assets into it. A trust only avoids probate for what is actually inside it, so the funding step is what makes or breaks the whole plan. Most people pair the trust with a short pour-over will as a backstop. We handle all of it as one flat-fee plan.
Can I Set Up a Living Trust Myself in Florida?
You can buy a template, but DIY living trusts fail far more often than people realize, and you do not find out until it is too late to fix. The two most common failures are not funding the trust (so assets still go through probate) and signing it incorrectly under Florida law. Florida also has homestead and spousal rules that trip up generic forms. A document that is never funded or is improperly executed sends your family straight back to the courthouse, which is exactly what you were trying to avoid.
What Are the Signing Requirements for a Florida Living Trust?
A revocable living trust that distributes property at your death must be signed with the same formalities as a will: in writing and signed by you in the presence of two witnesses who also sign. Getting this wrong can make the trust’s death-time provisions unenforceable. We execute your trust with the proper formalities (and a notary), so it holds up.
What Does It Mean to "Fund" a Trust?
Funding means actually moving your assets into the trust: recording a new deed to put your home in the trust, retitling bank and investment accounts into the trust’s name, and updating beneficiary designations where appropriate. An unfunded trust is just a piece of paper; the probate-avoidance only applies to assets the trust actually holds. This is the step DIY plans skip, and the step our flat fee includes, along with the deed for your home.
How Long Does It Take to Set Up?
For most clients, a couple of weeks from the consult: we map the plan, draft the documents, you review and sign at a signing ceremony, and we record the funding deed and guide you through retitling accounts. It is not a rushed process, because the details matter, but it is not drawn out either. You will know the flat fee up front.
How Much Does It Cost to Set Up a Living Trust in Florida?
At our firm a complete revocable living trust plan is a flat $3,200 for an individual or $4,500 for a couple, which includes the trust, a pour-over will, durable power of attorney, health-care documents, and one deed to fund your home into the trust. That is the whole number, not just a document. For a simple estate, we will tell you honestly if a lady bird deed at $399 would do the job instead.
Common Situations
The unfunded template. A man set up an online trust years ago but never retitled his home into it. At his death, the house went through probate anyway, the exact outcome the trust was meant to prevent. We fund trusts as part of the plan so this does not happen.
The right-sized plan. A couple with a Florida home, an out-of-state condo, and young children sets up a funded trust that coordinates everything and names guardians, all in one flat fee.
Sources of Law
- Fla. Stat. §736.0403 (a revocable trust with testamentary provisions must be executed with the formalities of a will, two witnesses per §732.502). Funding (retitling assets) is required for probate avoidance; Fla. Stat. ch. 736 (Florida Trust Code). (retrieved 2026-06-08)
Updated on June 8, 2026. Reviewed by Kevin D. Klagge, Esq., Fla. Bar No. 99502. General information about Florida law, not legal advice, and no attorney-client relationship is created. Whether a trust fits depends on your situation. Do not send confidential information until we have agreed to represent you.