Question 1

How do I get power of attorney for an elderly parent in Florida?

Accepted Answer

Your parent has to sign it. You can't get power of attorney for someone else, and you can't sign it for them. A power of attorney is a paper where your parent names someone to handle their money and legal business. In Florida it has to be signed in front of two witnesses and a notary, or it isn't valid. Your parent also has to understand what they're signing at the moment they sign it. If they can't, the paper isn't valid either. That's the whole reason to do this early. More on that in the next answer.

Question 2

Can I get power of attorney for my mother if she has dementia?

Accepted Answer

Maybe. It depends on how far along it is, not on the diagnosis. Florida doesn't ask what disease someone has. It asks whether they understood the document when they signed it. Someone in the early stages of dementia may still understand a power of attorney on a good day. Someone further along may not. A lawyer will talk with your mother before letting her sign, to make sure she understands. If she doesn't, the lawyer won't let it go forward, and the only remaining option is guardianship, covered further down this page.

Question 3

Where do I get a power of attorney form in Florida?

Accepted Answer

There's no free state form for this one. Florida gives away free forms for the health care papers, the living will and the health care surrogate (the paper that names who makes medical decisions for you), but not for the financial power of attorney. The reason is that Florida law is picky about the wording. Each power has to be spelled out. A form that says "I give all powers" gives none of them. And some powers, like making gifts or changing who inherits an account, have to be initialed one at a time.

Question 4

When does a power of attorney take effect in Florida?

Accepted Answer

The day it's signed. The person your parent names can act for them right away. Some people expect a power of attorney to sit in a drawer and only start working later, if the parent becomes unable to make decisions. Florida stopped allowing that kind on October 1, 2011. One signed before that date still works the old way. One signed after that date and written to start later does nothing at all. So the person your parent names gets real authority the day the paper is signed. Pick someone you'd trust with the checkbook today.

Question 5

What is a lady bird deed in Florida?

Accepted Answer

A lady bird deed is a way to pass your house to someone when you die without it going through probate court. Its formal name is an enhanced life estate deed. You sign it now, naming who gets the house when you die. Until then, nothing changes. You still own the house. You can sell it, mortgage it, or change your mind and name someone else. The person you named has no rights until you're gone. It only covers the house. Bank accounts, cars, and everything else still go through probate unless they have their own arrangement.

Question 6

Is a lady bird deed legal in Florida?

Accepted Answer

Yes, in the sense that they're used all the time and the companies that check ownership when a house is sold accept them. But no Florida law creates or governs them. The Florida Bar says there is "no Florida Statute governing such conveyances and scant judicial authority supporting the practice." They work because real estate lawyers have used them for years and agree on how they work. Most other states have a deed for this written into their laws. Florida doesn't.

Question 7

Do I need a lawyer for a lady bird deed, or can I file my own?

Accepted Answer

Nothing in Florida law stops you from doing it yourself. It takes two witnesses and a notary, and recording it with the county costs about $11. Start by asking whether you need one at all. If a spouse survives you, or a child under 18, the house already passes to them protected. The deed adds nothing you don't already have. If you do need one, know that it can fail without warning, and a failed deed can't be fixed after the person dies. Three of the common ways:

Question 8

If Medicaid pays for a nursing home, can it take the house?

Accepted Answer

Usually not. Here's why Medicaid is involved at all. Nursing home care runs thousands of dollars a month. Medicare only pays for a short stay after a hospital visit. When the savings run out, Medicaid pays, if your parent qualifies. Our page on paying for senior care covers who qualifies. Florida keeps track of what it spent and can try to get some of it back after the person dies.

Question 9

Is the house protected if my father is in a nursing home on Medicaid?

Accepted Answer

Often, yes, before anyone signs anything. While he's alive, the house doesn't count against him for Medicaid as long as he intends to return to it, even if he never does. After he dies, if your mother survives him, Florida can't collect. And the house passes to her free of his debts under Florida's homestead rules. The deeper page linked above walks through each of those steps and the situations where they don't apply.

Question 10

Will a lady bird deed cause a Medicaid penalty?

Accepted Answer

No. Florida's Medicaid manual says that when you keep this kind of deed, "no transfer has occurred." The penalty people worry about is the five-year look-back. When you apply for Medicaid, Florida checks the past 60 months for property you gave away. If it finds any, there's a waiting period before Medicaid pays for nursing home care. A lady bird deed doesn't count, because you still own the house. A regular life estate deed is different. That one counts as giving property away, and it can cause the penalty.

Question 11

Who gets the house in Florida if there's no will?

Accepted Answer

First, check the deed. If your parents owned the house together as a married couple, it usually goes to the surviving spouse automatically, with no probate and no will needed. The same is true if the deed names another joint owner "with right of survivorship." If the house was in your parent's name alone, Florida decides who gets it. And for the family home, Florida has its own rules that override even a will.

Question 12

Is a handwritten will valid in Florida?

Accepted Answer

Only if two witnesses signed it, the same as a typed one. An unwitnessed handwritten will fails completely. Florida doesn't accept spoken wills either.

Question 13

How long does probate take in Florida?

Accepted Answer

The Florida Bar says even the simplest estate has to stay open three months, and that a simple case takes about five or six months. Probate is the court process that settles what someone owned when they died. Creditors get three months from the first newspaper notice to file claims, which is why nothing closes faster than that. Full probate takes longer, and in almost every case a Florida lawyer has to handle it. Our page on settling a home after a death covers what to do in the meantime.

Question 14

Does everything have to go through probate in Florida?

Accepted Answer

No. A lot of what a person owns skips probate, because it already has a built-in way to pass to the next person: bank and investment accounts with a joint owner, or with a named beneficiary (sometimes called payable-on-death or transfer-on-death) life insurance and retirement accounts, which go to whoever is named as the beneficiary a house owned jointly with a right of survivorship, or with a lady bird deed

Question 15

Is there a faster way to do probate in Florida?

Accepted Answer

Yes, called summary administration. As of 2026 you can use it when the estate is worth $150,000 or less, after subtracting the protected home, or when the person has been dead more than two years. That number changed this year. It was $75,000 through 2025. Older articles, and The Florida Bar's own booklet, still say $75,000. The current figure is in Florida Statutes section 735.201. Since the protected home doesn't count toward the total, an estate can qualify even when the house is worth more than $150,000.

Question 16

What happens if my parent can't make decisions and never signed anything?

Accepted Answer

The family has to ask a court to appoint a guardian. Guardianship is a judge giving someone the legal power to make decisions for a person who can't. Within five days the court picks three people to examine your parent. One has to be a psychiatrist or another doctor. They report back within fifteen days. The court gives your parent their own lawyer, every time. If most of the examiners find nothing wrong, the case is dismissed.

Question 17

What rights does a person lose under guardianship in Florida?

Accepted Answer

Only the ones the judge names. Rights come away one at a time, not all at once. Some can never be taken: the right to a lawyer, to privacy, to have visitors, and to ask the court to give their rights back. Some can be taken but not given to anyone else, like the right to vote and to marry. Anything the court doesn't name, your parent keeps.

Question 18

How much does guardianship cost in Florida?

Accepted Answer

We can't give you a number. Florida caps what the clerk charges to file, currently no more than $395. Lawyer and guardian fees are set case by case by the judge, with no cap. That's why nobody can quote you a total ahead of time.

Question 19

Where can a senior get free legal help in Citrus, Hernando or Pasco County?

Accepted Answer

Start with the state helpline. Which legal aid office covers you after that depends on your county. Florida Senior Legal Helpline: free legal advice by phone for Florida residents 60 and older, in all three counties. Covers probate, advance directives, Medicaid and Medicare, housing, consumer problems, and elder abuse. Not criminal cases, traffic, or injury. They advise, but they don't go to court with you. Community Legal Services usually sets its income limit at 125 percent of the federal poverty guidelines. In some counties and some cases, older clients aren't held to it.

Question 20

How do I report a senior being taken advantage of in Florida?

Accepted Answer

Call the Florida Abuse Hotline. It takes reports 24 hours a day, every day of the year. For Medicare fraud or a billing scam, Florida’s free Medicare help program can help at 1-800-963-5337. It’s called SHINE, short for Serving Health Insurance Needs of Elders, and its counselors are volunteers. See our page on SHINE counseling. Medicaid, nursing homes and your house: the payback, the five-year look-back, and which homes are already protected Lady bird deeds in Florida: who needs one, how they fail, and the alternatives Dying without a will in Florida: who gets the house and everything else

Your situation	What happens
You're married and leave the home to anyone but your spouse	Florida's constitution doesn't allow it. The deed doesn't pass the house unless your spouse signs a specific waiver.
You have a child under 18	Florida doesn't let you leave the home away from a minor child at all. There's no waiver.
The person you named owes money from a court judgment or a tax lien	Those debts can't touch your house while you're alive. The moment you die, they attach to it.

Legal questions Florida families ask about an aging parent

The short version:

Power of attorney for a parent