How to Put Your House in a Trust in Florida

How Putting Your House in a Trust Actually Works

Your house does not move into a trust on its own, and no page of the trust document moves it either. The transfer happens by deed, a new deed from you, the owner, to you as trustee of your trust, recorded with the clerk of court in the county where the home sits. That recorded deed is the whole event. Before it, the trust is a plan; after it, the trust holds title. And the order matters. The trust must exist first, because the deed needs a trustee to receive the property. If you are still deciding whether a trust fits at all, start with how a Florida revocable living trust works.

The deed itself has formalities. Florida law requires two witnesses and a notary, the same signing ceremony as a sale. A well-drafted deed also spells out the trustee’s authority on its face, so a future buyer, lender, or title company can rely on the public record instead of demanding the whole trust. Once it is recorded, daily life does not change. You are the trustee, so you keep full control. Live in the home, rent it, sell it, refinance it, or revoke the trust and deed the house back to yourself.

Putting Your House in a Trust: Pros and Cons

Here is the honest ledger. Start with the plus side.

• No probate on the house. At your death, your successor trustee passes the home under the trust terms, privately, with no court case.
• Incapacity is handled. If you can no longer manage your affairs, the successor trustee you chose steps in, without a guardianship proceeding.
• Privacy. A will becomes a public court file in probate. A trust keeps who gets the house between your family and your attorney.
• Out-of-state property. A vacation home in another state can go into the same trust, sparing your family a second probate case there.

And the minus side, stated plainly.

• No protection from your creditors. Because you can take everything back, Florida law lets your creditors reach revocable-trust assets during your life. Your homestead keeps its own constitutional protection, but the trust adds none.
• No Medicaid help. Assets in a revocable trust stay countable if you ever need long-term-care Medicaid.
• Cost, for a simple estate. If your whole goal is passing one Florida home to adult children, a lady bird deed at $399 does that without a trust. The deed-versus-trust comparison walks through which fits.
• It only works if you finish. A trust with no deed behind it controls nothing, and the house goes through probate anyway.

What Happens to Your Florida Homestead in a Trust?

This is the question that stops most homeowners, and the fear is reasonable. Your home has more protection in Florida than almost anywhere else, and nobody wants to sign that away. The good news is that a correctly drafted transfer keeps all three protections. Your homestead tax exemption and the Save Our Homes cap (the limit on how fast your assessed value can climb) continue, because Florida’s property-tax law treats your interest in the trust as equitable title; the trust has to say so in the right words, and the property appraiser needs to know about it. The constitutional creditor protection survives too, because a Florida appellate court has held that homestead keeps that shield inside a revocable trust.

Two rules follow the house into the trust. If you are married, your spouse must also sign the deed (lawyers call it spousal joinder); the Florida Constitution requires it, and a homestead deed missing that signature is void as to the homestead. And the homestead inheritance restrictions still apply. A trust cannot leave the homestead away from your spouse without a valid written waiver, and if you have a minor child, the home generally cannot be left away from the family at all.

Can You Put Your House in a Trust Without a Lawyer?

Yes. Florida does not require an attorney to prepare or record a deed, and we will not pretend otherwise. What we can tell you, from cleaning up the aftermath, is exactly where do-it-yourself transfers go wrong.

• The wrong deed type. Many DIY transfers use a bare quitclaim deed (it transfers whatever the signer owns, with no assurances about the title), which can raise title questions later that a properly drafted deed avoids.
• Lost homestead language. A deed or trust that skips the homestead provisions can cost you the tax exemption, and a married owner who records without the spouse’s signature has a deed that is void as to the homestead.
• Documentary-stamp surprises. A transfer into your own revocable trust with no mortgage owes only the minimum stamp, about 70 cents. When the home carries a mortgage, Florida can treat the unpaid balance as consideration, and that is something to check before recording, not after.
• Execution defects. A deed signed without two witnesses and a notary does not convey Florida real estate, no matter how good the trust is.
• The unfunded trust. The most common failure of all. The trust gets signed, the deed never gets recorded, and the family discovers it in probate court.

If you have a trust and need the house moved into it, an attorney-prepared and recorded deed is a flat $399. Measured against your largest asset, it is the cheap part of the plan.

What Happens to Your Mortgage?

Most mortgages contain a due-on-sale clause (a term letting the lender demand full payment if you transfer the property). Homeowners read that and freeze. You can relax. Federal law has barred lenders from enforcing that clause against a transfer into your own living trust since 1982, as long as you remain a beneficiary of the trust and the transfer does not change who has the right to live in the home. You keep making the same payments to the same lender, usually without the lender ever noticing the deed.

Two practical notes. The federal protection covers residential property with fewer than five dwelling units, so your home and a small rental qualify while an apartment building does not. And if you refinance later, some lenders ask you to deed the home out of the trust for the closing and back in afterward. That is paperwork, not a penalty, and the deed back into the trust matters just as much as the first one.

How to Put a House in Trust in Florida, Step by Step

1. Sign the trust first. The deed needs an existing trust to receive the home. Florida requires the trust to be signed with will formalities, meaning two witnesses and a notary.
2. Prepare the new deed. It runs from you to yourself as trustee, names the trust and its date, spells out the trustee’s authority, and handles the homestead correctly. If the home is homestead and you are married, your spouse signs too.
3. Sign with two witnesses and a notary. The same formalities as any Florida deed. Shortcuts here undo everything.
4. Record the deed with the clerk of court in the county where the home sits, paying the recording fee and any documentary stamp.
5. Protect the homestead exemption. Make sure the property appraiser has what it needs so your exemption and Save Our Homes cap continue without interruption. This is the step people forget.
6. Finish the job. Let your insurance company know title has changed, and fund the rest of the trust. The house is usually the biggest asset, but it is rarely the only one.

What It Costs to Put Your House in a Trust

If we are building the trust, the deed is part of the package. The trust-based plan is a flat $3,200 for an individual or $4,500 for a couple, and it includes the revocable trust, a pour-over will, a durable power of attorney, your health-care documents, and one deed funding your Florida home into the trust. The full cost breakdown shows what each piece does, and the complete price list is posted.

If you have a trust and only need the deed, a standalone deed into an existing trust is $399. The only additions in either case are government costs passed through at cost, mainly the county recording fee and any documentary stamp, and posted fees are honored for 90 days. And if your estate is one Florida home headed to adult children, say so at the consult. A $399 lady bird deed may do everything you need without a trust, and we would rather tell you that than sell you the bigger plan.

Frequently Asked Questions

Common Situations

The trust that never owned the house. A Port St. Lucie widow brought in her late husband’s trust binder from an online service, ten years old and professionally printed. The trust was fine on paper, but no deed was ever recorded, so the house was still titled in his name alone and his estate went through the probate the couple had paid to avoid. For her own plan, the deed was signed and recorded the same month as the trust.

The missing signature. A married Brandon man prepared his own deed moving the homestead into his new trust and left his wife’s signature off, reasoning that the house was titled in his name only. Under the Florida Constitution, a married owner cannot transfer homestead without the spouse joining, so the deed was void as to the homestead. A corrective deed with both signatures fixed it, and only because the problem surfaced during a refinance instead of after a death.

The couple who did not need the trust at all. A Venice couple asked for a trust because a dinner seminar told them everyone needs one. They owned one Florida home, their accounts carried beneficiary designations, and everything was headed to two adult daughters who get along. A $449 joint lady bird deed did the work they wanted. We would rather say so than sell a $4,500 plan that adds nothing.

Sources of Law

• Florida Trust Code, Fla. Stat. ch. 736: §736.0505 (a revocable trust does not shield assets from the settlor’s own creditors); §736.1109 (homestead held in a revocable trust). flsenate.gov (retrieved 2026-08-11)
• Engelke v. Estate of Engelke, 921 So. 2d 693 (Fla. 4th DCA 2006): homestead keeps its constitutional creditor protection inside a revocable trust (district-court-of-appeal authority).
• Garn-St Germain Depository Institutions Act, 12 U.S.C. §1701j-3(d)(8): a lender may not enforce a due-on-sale clause against a transfer into an inter vivos trust in which the borrower is and remains a beneficiary, for residential property with fewer than five dwelling units.
• Fla. Stat. §689.01 (deed execution: two subscribing witnesses); §196.041(2) (homestead tax exemption through equitable title in a trust); §201.02 and Fla. Admin. Code R. 12B-4.013 (documentary stamp tax on deeds; mortgage balance as consideration). (retrieved 2026-08-11)
• Fla. Const. Art. X §4 (homestead protections; §4(c) requires the spouse to join a transfer of homestead); Fla. Stat. §732.7025 (spousal homestead waiver).
• Advertised fees are honored for 90 days from the posted date; government costs (recording, documentary stamps, certified copies) are additional and passed through at cost. Fees are not a prediction of outcome.

Updated on August 11, 2026. Reviewed by Kevin D. Klagge, Esq., Fla. Bar No. 99502. Attorney Kevin Klagge represents families, businesses, and international clients in estate and tax planning, business structuring, and international law, with a focus on Florida legal tools. He litigates estate and business issues in court. General information about Florida law and our posted fees, not legal advice, and no attorney-client relationship is created. The right plan depends on your specific facts, which we confirm at a free consult.