Florida estate planning · Four documents
Every Floridian needs four signed documents. Without them, the people who love you have to ask a court for permission to help you, and Florida's statutes decide who gets what. Answer plain questions online and have all four reviewed, delivered, and ready to sign this week.
Suggested: two adult children and an aging parent at a kitchen table, papers between them, everyone calm. Show the relief, not the paperwork. Avoid gavels, columns, and stock lawyers.
4:5 · 1200 × 1500 px
Nothing signed
Four documents signed
The problem
Estate planning is not really about death. It is about the two moments when someone else has to act on your behalf — and whether they are allowed to.
Moment one
A stroke. A fall. A car on I-95. Your spouse cannot sign for the house, cannot reach the retirement account, cannot get a straight answer from the hospital. Marriage alone does not grant that authority in Florida.
To fix it after the fact, someone has to file a guardianship petition and ask a judge to appoint a decision-maker. The court chooses. Not you.
Moment two
Florida's intestate succession statute takes over. It has one formula for everyone, and it does not know about the stepdaughter you raised, the brother you have not spoken to in twenty years, or the promise you made about the house.
If either spouse has a child from another relationship, the surviving spouse takes only half. That surprises almost every couple who hears it.
We understand
It is not that you do not care about your family. It is that the task has no deadline, the first phone call costs $350, and every website you have tried wanted a subscription before it would tell you the price.
So it sits on the list. For years. Until the week it is needed, when it is too late to sign anything.
We built Justice Xpress to remove all three obstacles: a fixed price you can see before you start, plain questions instead of blank legal forms, and instructions specific enough that you actually finish.
Our founder created peoples-law.org, Maryland's public legal information library. It is now operated by the Maryland Judiciary as a service to that state's citizens.
That work was built on one belief: ordinary people can handle their own legal paperwork when someone explains it honestly and gives them the right form.
Justice Xpress Florida applies the same standard, and the same honesty about limits. When your situation needs a lawyer, we tell you so on this page — before you pay.
What you get
Two of them speak for you while you are alive. Two of them speak for you after. Together they cover every moment someone might need authority to act on your behalf.
Takes effect after death
Names who receives your property, who raises your minor children, and who administers your estate. Without one, Florida's statute answers all three questions using a formula written for strangers.
Florida requires two witnesses. We include the self-proving affidavit so your will can be admitted without tracking those witnesses down years later.
Takes effect while you are living
Authorizes the person you trust to handle money: the mortgage, the bank, the insurance claim, the tax return, the sale of the car. This is the single document that most often prevents a guardianship.
Florida no longer recognizes “springing” powers that activate on incapacity. Choosing your agent well matters more here than anywhere else, and our guide explains why.
Takes effect while you are living
Your written instructions about life-prolonging treatment if you have an end-stage condition and cannot speak. It answers the question no family should have to guess at, in your words, in advance.
Two witnesses required, and one of them may not be your spouse or a blood relative. Our execution sheet tells you exactly who may sign.
Takes effect while you are living
Names the person who talks to your doctors and consents to treatment when you cannot — and, if you choose, gives them access to your medical records starting today, not only after a doctor certifies incapacity.
Pairs with the Living Will: one states your wishes, the other names the person who enforces them.
Plain-language explanations of every choice you will make, written the way we wrote Maryland's public law library. Read it before you start, or keep it with the signed originals.
Step-by-step signing sheet: who may witness, who may not, where each initial goes, when a notary is required, and where to store the originals. Most self-prepared documents fail here, not in the drafting.
The plan
Step one
Who you are, who you trust, and who receives what. No legal vocabulary and no blank forms — help text sits on every screen. Stop and come back whenever you like; your answers are saved.
Step two
A trained Florida legal document preparer reviews your completed package before it is released — included in the price, not an upsell. Then everything lands in your secure Justice Xpress Vault — downloadable forever, with the Estate Planning Guide and execution instructions attached.
Step three
This is the step that decides whether any of it works. Follow the execution sheet: the right number of witnesses, the right people as witnesses, the notary where Florida requires one.
Choose your package
Two packages. Both include all four documents, the Florida Estate Planning Guide, the Will Execution Instructions, and a review by a trained Florida legal document preparer before anything is released to you. We do not sell an unreviewed version.
Estate Planning Package
For one person
Comparable Florida attorney engagement: $800–$1,800
Legal document review included
Secure checkout · Reviewed and delivered within one business day
Estate Planning Package
For a married couple — two complete sets
Comparable Florida attorney engagement: $1,500–$3,000
Legal document review included for both spouses
Secure checkout · Reviewed and delivered within one business day
The four documents are the foundation everyone needs. A living trust sits on top of them and handles what a will cannot — avoiding probate and managing property during a long incapacity. It is $129 for one person and $229 for a couple, also with document review included, and it does not replace your power of attorney, living will, or health care surrogate.
Prefer to read first? Start with the free Florida Estate Planning Guide — no email required.
What is at stake
Here is what your family actually faces when the four documents do not exist.
Someone petitions the court, an examining committee is appointed, a hearing is held, and a judge names your decision-maker. It costs thousands and takes months — and a durable power of attorney signed on a Tuesday afternoon usually prevents it entirely.
Intestate succession splits your estate by statute. Blended families, unmarried partners, and stepchildren are the ones it hurts most, because the statute does not recognize any of them the way you do.
Doctors need someone with authority to consent. Without a surrogate designation, the decision moves down a statutory list of people — which may not be the person you would have picked, and may be a room full of relatives who disagree.
Florida’s homestead protections are generous and unforgiving in equal measure. A will drafted with them in mind directs the property properly. Silence leaves your family to sort it out in probate.
What success looks like
“The hardest part was believing it could be this simple. My mother had nothing signed, and we spent four months in court. When my husband and I sat down to do ours, it took one evening.”
Illustrative — replace with a real Justice Xpress customer statement before publishing.
We would rather lose the sale than have you sign the wrong document. Our directory lists Florida attorneys who handle specific tasks for a fixed, upfront fee: Find a Florida lawyer.
Before you start
Yes, if it is signed the way Florida requires. Validity turns on execution — the right witnesses, in the right presence, with the right formalities. That is why the execution instructions are part of every package rather than an upsell.
A trained Florida legal document preparer reads your completed package for completeness and internal consistency: missing fields, names that do not match across documents, a successor you named in one place but not another. It is a quality check on the paperwork, it is included in both prices, and nothing is released to you until it is done.
No, and we will not pretend otherwise. We prepare documents from the information you provide and give you legal information. We do not advise you on which choice is right for your situation. If you need that, use the stop list above and hire a lawyer.
No. An estate planning document that is wrong does not reveal the problem at checkout — it reveals it years later, when the person who signed it can no longer fix it. We are not willing to sell that, so review is built into the price rather than offered as an upgrade.
Sometimes. A trust is worth considering if you own real property, want to avoid probate, or want someone able to manage assets during a long incapacity. Compare the living trust package before you buy.
Documents live in your Justice Xpress Vault and can be downloaded any time. Life changes — a marriage, a divorce, a death, a move to another state — are the moments to revisit them.
Because most of the work is shared. You answer one interview together, the system generates two mirrored sets, and the reviewer reads both at once — which is also the only way to catch the places where two spouses’ plans contradict each other.
Start the interview now. Nothing is charged until you have seen exactly what you are buying.
Get My Estate Plan →$119 one person · $199 married couple · legal document review included in both