Is your out of state will valid in Florida?

Attorney Tom Olsen: Sometimes people come to us and say, “Tom, I had a will done in another state, is that will going to be valid here in the state of Florida?” I tell people, “Look, if your will was valid when you did it in the other state, then it's going to be valid here in the state of Florida, even if it does not meet our requirements.” By the way, Florida has some pretty minimal requirements. Those are that it be in writing, that you've signed it, and there be at least two witnesses. I don't know of any states out there that might have something less than that.

Attorney Holley Knapik: There's one or two states where you only need one witness. There's typically you must sign in front of a witness or two witnesses. [inaudible 00:00:38].

Attorney Tom Olsen: Okay. Florida requires two witnesses. I've had people come to me with homemade wills before, and so they signed it. They got to a notary to notarize it. That's not a valid will here in the state of Florida. Notary is great, but that does not make a valid will got to have at least two witnesses. I tell them that, that will's probably valid, but when you do a will remember that we do three other related documents. We do the living will, We do a healthcare surrogate. We do a financial power of attorney, and we do a living will declaration. Those other three documents. The living will, healthcare surrogate, financial power of attorneys. They are all specific to Florida law.

Attorney Holley Knapik: They are.

Attorney Tom Olsen: All very important documents. Even if your will from out-of-state was still valid, we probably still need to redo those other three related documents.

Attorney Holley Knapik: Correct. Because it's rare. We'll come across, for instance, a power of attorney for finances that really literally checks all the boxes for Florida law.

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