Do separate trusts cost married couples protection in Florida?

Why separate trusts were common

Many plans written ten or twenty years ago split a couple's assets between two trusts, often with a credit shelter or disclaimer trust at the first death. That design came from estate tax rules that applied when the federal exclusion was far lower and portability between spouses did not exist.

For 2026 the federal basic exclusion is $15,000,000 per person, and a surviving spouse can use the unused exclusion of the first spouse to die. Unless a couple's combined estate approaches twice that amount, the split structure adds work at the first death and saves nothing in federal tax. A couple who still owns property in a state with its own estate tax is a separate question; see your state's page.

What Florida offers instead

Florida law lets a qualifying joint trust hold property as tenancy by the entirety property, protected from claims of the creditors of only one spouse, as long as both spouses are alive, married, and beneficiaries of the trust.

How we Floridize it

For most married couples, one Florida joint revocable trust, drafted for a first marriage or a second marriage, with the home and accounts retitled into it.

Common questions

Should a married couple in Florida have one trust or two?

For most couples in a first marriage, one Florida joint trust. Second marriages and taxable estates can justify separate trusts; the trade-off is worth discussing.