The section
This part may be cited as the “Community Property Trust Act.”
Section 736.1501, Florida Statutes. Created by s. 29, ch. 2021-183.
Part XV runs from section 736.1501 to section 736.1512 and took effect on July 1, 2021.
What it is for
American states divide into two camps on marital property. In community property states, most property acquired during a marriage belongs to both spouses equally as it is acquired. In separate property states, property belongs to whoever acquired it, and the law equalises things at divorce or death instead.
Florida is a separate property state. This Part does not change that. It creates a narrow opt in. A married couple may put assets into a trust that expressly declares itself a community property trust, and section 736.1502(1) then provides that the property, and its appreciation and income, are community property for purposes of general law.
Florida was not first. Several states without community property systems, including Alaska and Tennessee, had already enacted elective regimes of this kind. Note also that this Part is not styled a uniform act, unlike Part XIV in the same chapter. There is no uniform community property trust act behind it.
The reason couples ask about it
The attraction is a federal income tax one and it concerns basis on the death of the first spouse. Community property can be treated differently from jointly held separate property, and the difference can be substantial for a surviving spouse who later sells appreciated assets.
We are deliberately not going further than that. This is a page about a Florida statute, and the benefit people are chasing is a federal tax outcome. Anyone considering a community property trust should be getting tax advice on their own numbers, not relying on a general description.
What we can say from the Florida side is that the Legislature was alert to the cost. Section 736.1503(4) requires the trust to begin with a warning, in capital letters, drafted by the Legislature itself, telling both spouses that the consequences may be very extensive for their rights against creditors and third parties and for their rights against each other during the marriage, at divorce and on death. It also says that separate legal counsel for each spouse, while not required, is strongly advisable. That is a statute anticipating that one lawyer acting for a couple may face a conflict.
What the rest of the Part does
The Part is short and it is organised around the moments when the character of property matters.
- Section 736.1502 defines the terms, including the date gate and the qualified trustee requirement.
- Section 736.1503 sets the four requirements for creating one.
- Section 736.1504 covers the agreement, amendments and revocation.
- Section 736.1505 covers classification, enforcement, duration, management and control.
- Section 736.1506 covers satisfaction of obligations, and section 736.1509 the right of a child to support.
- Section 736.1507 covers the death of a spouse, and section 736.1508 dissolution of marriage.
- Section 736.151 covers homestead property, and sections 736.1511 and 736.1512 the Internal Revenue Code and unenforceable trusts.
Note that last grouping carefully. There is a section 736.151, with three digits after the decimal, sitting between 736.1509 and 736.1511, and there is no section 736.1510. Part XIV has the same feature at section 736.141. A research habit built around four digit section numbers will miss both.
Where it came from
Part XV was created by chapter 2021-183, Laws of Florida. So was the Florida Uniform Directed Trust Act at Part XIV. One act created two entire Parts of the Trust Code, which is why so much of chapter 736 now carries a 2021 history line, including amendments to section 736.0103 and section 736.1017.
Part XV was amended again in 2025, and that amendment was made remedial, meaning it reaches trusts created before as well as after. Our page on section 736.1502 sets out the retroactivity note.
No court has applied any of this Part
Our review found no citing decision for this section, with a Florida court filter and nationwide, at every precedential status. The same is true of the sections we have examined alongside it.
That is what you would expect rather than a finding of any weight. The Part is five years old, only trusts created or amended from July 2021 can qualify, and the consequences the Part is built around arise on the death of a spouse or on dissolution of the marriage. Those events, followed by a dispute, followed by an appeal, take longer than five years to produce a written opinion.
There is a two part Florida Bar Journal article on this Part, listed below. We could not read it. The Bar’s site refused automated access, the Internet Archive was down when we tried, and the copies we located elsewhere were paywalled extracts. We list it because it exists, and we have relied on none of it.