Estate Planning Attorney for Coral Springs, Florida

A Florida trust that leaves your home or savings to someone at your death has to be signed the way a will is signed, with two witnesses who watch you sign and a notary. Florida law voids the parts of a trust that pass property at death when they are signed without those formalities, and Florida courts have thrown out trust amendments that carried one witness instead of two. We run the signing with our own witnesses and notary, by video or in person. If you would rather sign locally, these are the places nearby.

A Florida deed needs two witnesses and a notary. We set up the signing for you by video, or you can sign in person in Coral Springs. The UPS Store at 4613 North University Drive lists notary services, and the store asks you to call ahead at 954-227-0831 because a notary is scheduled only when staffing allows. The store is a short drive north of City Hall, or about 30 minutes on foot.

If you are recording a deed yourself, Broward checks it against a list before it will record. Each witness’s printed name and address goes under the signature, the top right corner of the first page needs a three-inch blank square, and the deed needs the parcel number and a “prepared by” line. A deed missing any of these comes back, which in the mail queue can mean weeks. When we draft it, those are handled.

If you have errands around the signing, most of them sit on North University Drive just east of City Hall, at 9500 West Sample Road. The Chase branch at 3120 North University Drive is about 7 minutes on foot, with Bank of America at 3200 and Wells Fargo at 3201 on the same stretch, which helps if you bank at one of them and need a cashier’s check. Trader Joe’s at 2796 North University Drive is about 15 minutes on foot for a quick lunch to take home. The Coral Springs Post Office is at 3255 NW 94th Avenue, about 12 minutes on foot, with its window open weekdays from 8:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Saturday from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. For some air afterward, Mullins Park at 10000 Ben Geiger Drive has paved walking trails and shade, about 20 minutes on foot.

For hot coffee, the Starbucks at 3451 North University Drive, at the corner of Sample Road, opens at 5 a.m. every day, closes at 10 p.m. (9 p.m. on Sunday) and has seats inside, about 10 minutes on foot from City Hall.

Inside Mullins Park, the Museum of Coral Springs History at 10250 NW 29th Street tells how the city began, about 21 minutes on foot from City Hall. The museum building is the 30 by 20 foot real estate office Coral Ridge Properties put up in 1964 to sell lots in a city that did not yet have a paved road. The little office was moved again and again, served as the first police station in 1968, and survived a fire when volunteer firefighters used it for smoke drills at the city dump, until a flatbed truck towed it to Mullins Park behind a parade on October 20, 1977. The museum opens free to visitors one Saturday a month.

• Saturday, November 21, 2026, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., Museum of Coral Springs History, 10250 NW 29th Street
• Saturday, December 19, 2026, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., Museum of Coral Springs History, 10250 NW 29th Street

Putting your home into the trust means recording a new deed, from you to yourself as trustee, in Broward County’s official records. The trust deed is recorded at the same office, and in the same way, as any other deed.

In Broward, deeds are recorded by the county itself, not the Clerk of Courts. The Recording Office of the Records, Taxes and Treasury Division is in Room 114 of the Broward County Governmental Center, 115 South Andrews Avenue in Fort Lauderdale, open 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., at 954-831-4000 and [email protected]. Broward publishes only that one recording counter, with no branch in Coral Springs, so a deed recorded in person means a trip downtown.

You will not need to go. We record your deed electronically through Simplifile, which appears under its ICE Mortgage Technology name on Broward’s own list of approved e-recording services. That matters here right now. The county’s status page, updated September 22, 2026, showed it was still working through mailed and courier documents received August 4. An e-recorded deed never joins that pile.

The recording fee Broward posts is $10 for the first page and $8.50 for each page after, so a two-page deed costs $18.50 to record.

A home held in your revocable trust keeps its homestead exemption when the trust gives you a lifetime interest in the home, which is how we draft it. The Property Appraiser still asks for proof of the trust, and each county asks for something slightly different, so here is what this one wants.

Homestead is handled by Marty Kiar, the Broward County Property Appraiser, whose office is in the same Governmental Center as the Recording Office, in Room 111. The exemptions desk answers at 954-357-6830, weekdays from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. You can file online at bcpa.net, and for 2027 the window runs from March 3, 2026 to March 1, 2027. The Property Appraiser asks for a Florida driver license when you file.

If you would rather sit down with a person, the Property Appraiser’s staff come to Coral Springs twice this October. Appointments are at web.bcpa.net/ExemptionsExpress, and Michael Clark at the Property Appraiser’s office coordinates the sessions, at 954-357-5579 and [email protected].

The Broward Property Appraiser answers the lady bird question in its own FAQ. An owner who deeds the future interest in the home to children or others and keeps a life estate keeps the homestead exemption and the existing Save Our Homes value. A lady bird deed keeps that life estate for you. After your death the exemption ends, the home is reassessed at market value the next year, and a family member who moves in files a new homestead application.

If your home is going into a trust instead of a lady bird deed, bring a notarized certificate of trust. The Property Appraiser asks for one before it will keep the exemption on a trust-owned home.

After your death your successor trustee steps in without a court. Within 60 days the trustee must tell the beneficiaries the trust exists, and Florida law requires a notice of trust to be filed with the court in Broward County. To sell or transfer the house, the trustee signs a deed as trustee and gives the title company a certification of trust instead of the whole trust.

After you die, the house is already your family’s. To show that in the record, they record a certified copy of your death certificate and an affidavit, and then a title company can insure a sale. We prepare and record the rest.

The Department of Health office closest to Coral Springs for certified death certificates is the Paul Hughes Health Center, 205 NW 6th Avenue in Pompano Beach, at 954-467-4413. The office is open weekdays from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and closes at 3 p.m. on the third Thursday of each month. Each certified copy is $15.

We send you the recorded deed as soon as Broward returns it. The deed also shows up in Broward’s official records search, where you can look it up by your name and open the recorded image. Print it at home for the file drawer, or send it from your phone to the Northwest Regional Library at 3151 North University Drive and collect the printout there. The library is one of the county branches with wireless print pick-up, about 9 minutes on foot from City Hall.

If a bank or title company asks for a certified copy, the Recording Office charges $1 a page plus $2 to certify.

Then take two minutes to sign up for Broward’s free Recording Notification Service. The service emails you whenever a document is recorded under a name or parcel number you are watching, which is the simplest protection there is against someone recording a false deed on your house.

A disabled veteran may qualify for more than the basic homestead exemption, and the proof is a letter from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. The Broward Property Appraiser lists a $5,000 exemption for a veteran with a service-connected disability of at least 10 percent, and a full exemption on the homestead for an honorably discharged veteran with a service-connected total and permanent disability. Each is proved with a certificate or letter from the VA, and surviving spouses of qualifying veterans can keep some of these exemptions.

Broward County Veterans Services helps with the paperwork, and one of its service locations is in Coral Springs, at the Northwest Family Success Center, 10077 NW 29th Street, about 19 minutes on foot from City Hall. Visits are by appointment at 954-357-6622. The same call starts the county’s free Parks Passport for veterans with a service-related disability, which covers the weekend and holiday entrance fee at Broward County parks for five years.

Marriage or divorce often leaves a home titled in a name you no longer use. We write the new deed with both names, the name on your old deed and your name today, so the record connects them and a future title search does not stall on the difference.

Your driver license should match as well, because the Property Appraiser asks for a Florida driver license when you file for homestead. The Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles requires every name change on a license to be made in person at a local office, and only after the Social Security Administration has updated your name, allowing 24 to 48 hours after that. The nearest state driver license office to Coral Springs is at 1135 Banks Road in Margate, 954-497-1570, open Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday from 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Wednesday from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. The office at 1160 North University Drive in Coral Springs handles motor vehicle services only, so a license name change has to go to Banks Road.