Miami is a city built by newcomers. Many of the small businesses that line Brickell, Doral, Sunny Isles, and Little Havana were founded by immigrants who arrived with a visa, a work ethic, and a plan to build something lasting. If that describes you, your estate plan cannot be an afterthought. The intersection of estate planning and immigration law creates traps that catch even sophisticated business owners, and getting it wrong can mean unnecessary estate tax, frozen assets, or a court deciding who raises your children. Below are the issues we see most often, and why you almost always need two professionals working together: an estate planning attorney and dedicated immigration counsel.
The non-citizen spouse problem and the QDOT trust
U.S. citizens can leave an unlimited amount to a citizen spouse free of federal estate tax under the unlimited marital deduction. That deduction does not apply when the surviving spouse is not a U.S. citizen, even if that spouse is a lawful permanent resident living in Florida. Congress was concerned a non-citizen spouse could inherit and then leave the country with assets that were never taxed.
The standard solution is a Qualified Domestic Trust, or QDOT. Property passing into a properly structured QDOT can defer estate tax until distributions are made from the trust, preserving the marital benefit for a non-citizen surviving spouse. QDOTs have strict requirements, including a U.S. trustee and rules on principal distributions, so they must be drafted deliberately under Florida’s trust code (Chapter 736, Florida Statutes). If your spouse later naturalizes, the analysis changes again. This is precisely the kind of moving target that requires your estate plan and your immigration timeline to be coordinated.
Estate tax exposure for non-resident, non-citizen owners
If you are a non-resident alien for tax purposes but own U.S.-situs assets, such as Florida real estate or shares in a U.S. company, your estate can face federal estate tax on those assets with a far smaller exemption than U.S. citizens and residents receive. A foreign investor who buys a Miami condo or capitalizes a U.S. LLC may be quietly accumulating estate tax exposure with no plan to address it. Structuring ownership correctly, sometimes through entities, is a planning decision that should be made before death, not discovered after.
Immigration status, beneficiaries, and inheritance
An inheritance generally does not jeopardize a beneficiary’s immigration status, and non-citizens can inherit Florida property. But the details matter. Distributing assets to a beneficiary who is mid-process on a green card or naturalization case can raise questions, and naming the wrong fiduciary or beneficiary structure can complicate both the estate and the immigration file. If your beneficiaries are pursuing status through marriage, this is where you want competent immigration counsel involved; we routinely refer clients pursuing marriage-based green cards to a dedicated immigration firm, because that side of the work is not something an estate firm should handle.
Guardianship for the children of immigrants
Under Florida law you can nominate a guardian for your minor children in your will. For immigrant families this is critical: if both parents are abroad, detained, or deceased, and no guardian is designated, a Florida court decides who raises your children, potentially someone you would never have chosen. Your will must meet Florida’s execution formalities under section 732.502, Florida Statutes, signed and witnessed correctly, or the nomination may fail. If your intended guardian lives outside the United States, plan for that contingency explicitly.
Powers of attorney when you travel abroad
Immigration matters often require travel: consular interviews, biometrics, or extended stays in your home country. If you are out of the country and a business deal closes, a tax deadline hits, or you are incapacitated, a durable power of attorney lets a trusted person act on your behalf in Florida. Pair it with a health care surrogate. Without these documents, your family may need a court-supervised guardianship to do what a one-page form could have authorized.
Coordinating the two plans
Florida’s homestead protections, our trust code, and your will all interact with your citizenship status and your pending immigration case. We handle the estate side. For the immigration side, including green-card and naturalization matters, we recommend working with experienced immigration counsel, and for our many Russian-speaking clients in South Florida we suggest a Russian-speaking immigration attorney who can manage the case in your language. Newcomers to Florida need both. Build them together, and revisit the plan each time your status, or your spouse’s, changes.
For more on our Florida practice, see our overview of estate planning in Palm Beach. Morgan Legal Group's affiliated New York office also handles how a will is contested in New York.