Source: https://www.floridabar.org/news/tfb-journal/?durl=%2Fdivcom%2Fjn%2Fjnjournal01.nsf%2F8c9f13012b96736985256aa900624829%2F1fa262bb10f76228852581830069475e
Timestamp: 2018-07-22 20:22:08
Document Index: 296104793

Matched Legal Cases: ['§732', '§732', '§732', '§4', '§732', '§732', '§732', '§732', '§732', '§732', '§732', '§732', '§732', '§732', '§732', '§732', '§13', '§2']

Florida Bar Journal – Recent Amendments Bring Important Changes to Florida’s Elective Share – The Florida Bar
by Lauren Y. Detzel and Brian M. Malec
Prior to 1999, Florida law provided a surviving spouse could elect to receive at least 30 percent of the decedent’s probate estate.2 By limiting the elective share to only probate assets, it became all too easy for a decedent to disinherit a spouse, because nonprobate transfers, such as retirement accounts, life insurance, transfer-on-death accounts, and revocable trust assets, were excluded. This changed in 1999 when Florida’s elective share laws were substantially revised3 to replace the decedent’s probate estate with an elective estate concept that incorporated virtually all nonprobate assets of a decedent in addition to probate assets.4 It was not until these changes were enacted that the elective share truly promoted Florida’s general public policy of protecting surviving spouses.
1	See Fla. Stat. §§732.201-732.2155.
2	Fla. Stat. §732.207 (1998).
3	See Ch. 1999-343, Laws of Fla.
4	Fla. Stat. §732.2035,
5	Ch. 2016-189, §4, Laws of Fla.
6	For purposes of the Florida Probate Code, real property owned as tenants by the entirety or joint tenants with right of survivorship is not “protected homestead.”
7	Fla. Stat. §732.2045(1)(i).
8	Fla. Stat. §732.2075
9	Fla. Stat. §§732.2035(3), 732.2075.
10	The drafting committee believed it was appropriate to value a surviving spouse’s life estate at 50 percent regardless of the age of such spouse, because the surviving spouse can elect to take a one-half interest as a tenant in common in the protected homestead in lieu of the life estate. Fla. Stat. §732.401(2).
11	Fla. Stat. §732.2045(1)(i).
12	See Fla. Stat. §§732.2035, 732.2045, and 732.2075 (2016).
13	See Fla. Stat. §§732.2035 and 732.2075 (2016).
14	Fla. Stat. §732.2135(5).
15	Fla. Stat. §732.2151(2).
16	If, however, a personal representative fails to file a petition to determine the amount of the elective share in accordance with Fla. Prob. R. 5.360(d)(1), and the surviving spouse files such petition, then the spouse may be awarded from the estate attorneys’ fees and costs incurred in the preparation and filing of such petition. Fla. Stat. §732.2151(3).
17	In re Estate of Simon, 549 So. 2d 210, 212 (Fla. 3d DCA 1989); Wilheim v. Adam, 136 So. 397 (Fla. 1931); Schwartz v. Zaconick, 74 So. 2d 108 (Fla. 1954).
18	Fla. Stat. §732.2145; see also Price v. Florida Nat’l Bank of Miami, 419 So. 2d 389 (Fla. 3d DCA 1982).
19	Fla. Stat. §732.2085.
20	Ch. 2016-189, §13, Laws of Fla.
21	See Ch. 1999-343, Laws of Fla.
22	Unif. Probate Code §§2-202 and 2-203 (amended 2010).
23	The authors thank Jeffrey S. Goethe for his contributions to the portion of this article addressing the 2016 legislative changes.