Moving to Florida to Protect Your Assets

Florida’s asset protection exemptions take effect the moment a new resident establishes domicile. There is no waiting period in Florida’s own courts. A person who establishes genuine Florida domicile gains immediate access to the unlimited homestead exemption, tenancy by the entirety, and full retirement account and annuity protection.

The immediate protection applies only to creditor collection through Florida state courts. Federal bankruptcy law imposes a separate 730-day residency requirement before a debtor can claim Florida’s exemptions in a bankruptcy filing. A homestead bought within roughly forty months of the filing carries a separate federal cap.

Does the 730-Day Bankruptcy Rule Apply to State-Court Collection?

No. A judgment creditor collecting through a Florida state court faces Florida’s exemptions from the day the debtor establishes domicile, however recent the move. The 730-day rule reaches only a bankruptcy filing.

A bankruptcy debtor must have been domiciled in the filing state for the 730 days before filing to claim that state’s exemptions. A new Florida resident who files within two years claims the prior state’s exemptions instead. Someone arriving from California claims a capped homestead exemption where Florida’s is unlimited and can have weaker annuity and retirement protection.

Two federal limits survive the two-year wait. Under 11 U.S.C. § 522(p), a homestead interest acquired within the 1,215 days before filing, roughly forty months, is capped at $214,000. That cap governs cases filed on or after April 1, 2025, and it adjusts every three years. Mortgage principal paid down inside the window counts as an interest acquired. Equity carried into the new home from a previous one escapes the cap only when both homes stood in the same state.

A bankruptcy court also cuts the homestead’s exempt value by whatever nonexempt property the debtor disposed of during the prior ten years to hinder, delay, or defraud a creditor.

Are Assets Acquired Before the Move Protected in Florida?

Yes. Florida measures its exemptions when a creditor tries to reach an asset, not when the owner bought it. Cash surrender value in a life insurance policy bought in another state before the move is exempt in Florida once the owner lives here.

In Slatcoff v. Dezen, a judgment creditor tried to garnish the cash surrender value of life insurance policies. The debtor had bought them while living out of state, from a Pennsylvania insurer and an Indiana insurer. The Florida Supreme Court refused to read the exemption that narrowly. Florida’s interest in its exemption laws arises when a creditor tries to reach the property, and the debtor was a Florida resident by then. The opinion added that the exemption laws were written for an honest debtor and that proof of fraud is a permanent brake on misuse.

The annuity part of the same statute reads differently. It exempts the proceeds of annuity contracts issued to citizens or residents of Florida, wording that points to the buyer’s residence when the contract was issued. An annuity bought before the move is therefore a weaker case than a life insurance policy bought at the same time.

Where the account sits does not change the Florida exemption. Florida’s retirement, annuity, and life insurance exemptions have no requirement that the account or the insurer sit in Florida. But a creditor who records the judgment where the bank or brokerage can be served usually collects under that state’s exemptions instead of Florida’s. Wages earned outside Florida work the same way, falling under the other state’s garnishment rules rather than Florida’s head-of-household protection.

Planning the Sequence of the Move

Someone moving to Florida for asset protection benefits from planning the steps in order rather than moving first and addressing protection later.

Before the move. Review existing asset ownership. Joint accounts held in the prior state may not carry entireties protection. LLCs formed in other states may have weaker charging order protection than Florida LLCs. Review insurance and umbrella coverage for adequacy before changing domicile.

During the move. Florida domicile begins the day a person occupies a Florida home intending to stay. No government form grants it. The records that prove it include a Florida driver’s license, vehicle and voter registration, a Declaration of Domicile filed with the county’s circuit court clerk, and a Florida address on financial accounts and tax returns. Filing the declaration is voluntary. The clerk records it, which fixes a sworn date on the move.

Purchase a Florida homestead. A primary residence is the single most protected asset under Florida law. Paying down or paying off the mortgage with non-exempt funds converts exposed cash into constitutionally protected homestead equity.

Title marital assets as tenants by the entirety. Joint titling alone does not accomplish that. A Florida vehicle titled with “or” between the spouses’ names is a joint tenancy, whatever the couple intended. A creditor of one spouse can levy on that spouse’s half. When a brokerage firm offers entireties as a registration choice and the couple picks joint with right of survivorship instead, one spouse’s creditor can reach the account. A Florida bank account held by a married couple is presumed to be entireties property, though the signature card can rebut the presumption.

After establishing domicile. Transfer financial accounts from out-of-state branches to Florida offices. Convert non-exempt liquid assets into exempt positions where appropriate: annuities, additional homestead equity, or retirement contributions. Evaluate whether remaining non-exempt assets justify an offshore trust. Florida does not authorize self-settled domestic asset protection trusts, so a Florida resident whose non-exempt liquid assets exceed $500,000 and who faces meaningful liability exposure may need offshore planning for what Florida’s exemptions cannot reach.

Timing and Fraudulent Transfer Considerations

Outside bankruptcy, buying a Florida homestead with non-exempt cash is protected even when the buyer’s purpose is to defeat a creditor. Only three kinds of claims reach a Florida homestead:

• Taxes and assessments
• Obligations contracted for buying, improving, or repairing the home
• Obligations for labor performed on the home

A motive to keep money away from a creditor is not on that short list. The Florida Supreme Court settled the point in Havoco of America, Ltd. v. Hill and held in the same decision that the Legislature cannot use Chapter 222 to narrow what the constitution protects.

Hill paid about $650,000 in cash for a Destin house, eleven days after his creditor won a $15 million judgment, and the house stayed his. A court can still put a lien on a homestead when the money that bought it belonged to the creditor, whether or not fraud was involved.

Retirement accounts, annuities, and life insurance draw their protection from Chapter 222. Two sections of that chapter reach a conversion of non-exempt assets into exempt ones. Under section 222.29, an exemption the chapter grants fails whenever it came out of a fraudulent transfer. Section 222.30 goes further and unwinds the conversion itself, as far as the claim requires, once the creditor shows the debtor meant to hinder, delay, or defraud. The four-year clock on that claim starts at the conversion.

The act of converting proves nothing about intent by itself. A purchase made after a demand letter arrives is evidence of that intent. The Eleventh Circuit has upheld an order returning annuity money to a bankruptcy estate, where the debtors bought the contracts soon after learning that annuities are beyond a creditor’s reach.

A conversion made after a claim arises stands unless the creditor proves that intent.

What Florida Does Not Protect

Florida’s exemptions cover specific categories of assets. Non-exempt liquid assets in individual bank or brokerage accounts have no statutory protection. Non-homestead real estate (rental properties, vacant land, commercial buildings) receives no exemption, though LLCs can provide charging order protection for those assets. Federal tax claims, child support, and alimony can reach assets that are otherwise exempt from private creditors.

A judgment from the prior state follows the move. A creditor records it with a Florida clerk under the Florida Enforcement of Foreign Judgments Act, and from that point it is enforced as if a Florida court had entered it. Florida’s exemptions govern the collection, so where the judgment was entered does not decide what a creditor can reach.