Moved to Florida from Pennsylvania? What happens to your estate plan

What Pennsylvania can still reach

• Pennsylvania's inheritance tax is 0 percent for a surviving spouse, for a parent inheriting from a child aged 21 or younger, and for a child aged 21 or younger inheriting from a parent. It is 4.5 percent for grandparents, parents, children and other lineal descendants (including stepchildren), and a child's spouse. It is 12 percent for siblings and 15 percent for other heirs. Charities and government bodies are exempt.

  Applies to 2026.

• For a decedent who lived elsewhere, the tax reaches real estate and tangible personal property located in Pennsylvania. Bank accounts, stocks, and other intangibles are exempt.

  Applies to 2026.

For comparison: The federal basic exclusion amount is $15,000,000 per person for 2026, and a surviving spouse may use the unused exclusion of the first spouse to die (portability). Florida has no estate tax and no inheritance tax.

Worth knowing

Act 50 of 2025, approved November 24, 2025, changed Pennsylvania's intestacy statute (20 Pa.C.S. § 2103) so that an estate with no family heirs passes to a local endowed community fund before the Commonwealth. It did not change inheritance tax rates.

Carl B. Zacharia of Zacharia Frey PLLC is licensed in Pennsylvania as well as Florida.

Proving you left

Every state with an income or estate tax has a reason to question a move to Florida. Your estate planning documents are part of the record: a will that recites your Pennsylvania address and Pennsylvania law points the wrong way. How domicile is decided and the Florida domicile checklist.

Your Pennsylvania documents in Florida

• Is my out-of-state will valid in Florida?
• Can someone who lives out of state be my personal representative?
• Will my power of attorney work at a Florida bank?
• Do my health care directives work in Florida?
• Is my trust actually holding anything?