Florida is a wonderful place to live, with great weather year-round. However, it is also a wonderful place to protect wealth from the claims of potential future unforeseen creditors. Florida law provides a variety of methods to help its residents (and sometimes nonresidents) protect their wealth. In fact, protecting your wealth and many forms of income is a right embedded in the state constitution. The following article discusses some of these methods.

Homestead Exemption

Any discussion of methods of protecting wealth in Florida begins with the homestead, that is, an individual’s primary residence. The homestead exemption is an exemption from forced sale (not to be confused with the homestead property tax exemption). There are important rules that must be followed to qualify for this exemption. First, to claim the exemption benefits, an individual must be a full-time resident of Florida. Second, the individual seeking to claim the benefits must carefully consider the location of the primary residence. For instance, if the residence is located in an incorporated area (a municipality), a resident can claim up to one-half acre of land as a homestead. If the residence is located in an unincorporated area, the resident can claim up to 160 contiguous acres of land. Importantly, there is no monetary cap on the value of the homestead exemption that can be claimed. Thus, a homeowner with $100,000 of equity in their residence is as protected as the homeowner with $15 million of equity, so long as the property is within the parameters of the homestead exemption.