How Much Can Ultra-High-Net Worth Families Save on Taxes by Moving to Florida?

Barron’s recently spoke with our founder, Jason Stephens, about a pattern we have watched build for two decades: wealthy families relocating to Florida, and the arithmetic that drives the decision. Read the article with your Barron’s subscription.

Should wealthy families who snowbird in Florida make Florida their full-time residence?

For about twenty years, we have run small sessions, usually ten to twenty people, for families spending the winter in Florida and wondering whether to make it permanent. We walk through how Florida taxes its residents compared with the state they are leaving. Attendees generally have a net worth somewhere between $25 million and $200 million. This past season, we presented to roughly 250 people, up from about 150 a decade ago.

What has changed most is who is in the room. Ten years ago, it was retiring business owners. Today, it is younger financial professionals, founders, and operators who have not stopped working.

“A lot of that’s driven by technology,” Jason says. “It’s made it a lot easier for people to commute, so to speak — to work and run a business or run a division of an industry or a company from wherever they may be.”

What are the potential tax savings if you live in Florida full-time?

Florida levies no state income tax. That is the headline, but the size of the number surprises people. Below is the comparison we use for a single filer with $1 million of annual taxable income:

State	Top Rate	Tax on $1M/Year	10-Year Savings vs. Florida
California	13.30%	$130,000	$1,300,000
Connecticut	6.99%	$64,800	$648,000
Hawaii	11.00%	$107,250	$1,072,500
Massachusetts	9.00%	$85,000	$850,000
Minnesota	9.85%	$92,750	$927,500
New Jersey	10.75%	$102,500	$1,025,000
Oregon	9.90%	$93,420	$934,200
Vermont	8.75%	$82,250	$822,500
Wisconsin	7.65%	$70,125	$701,250

Figures reflect blended effective state rates at $1 million of taxable income, not top marginal rates, and are illustrative only. Sources: Evertern Wealth, Tax Foundation, 2026.

Ten years of that is real money. Thirty years of it, for a family that settles here permanently, is comfortably into seven figures. As Jason puts it: “A family that’s going to spend their last 20 or 30 years or more here is well into the seven-figure savings over a lifetime. As we joke, you get a free home when you move to Florida.”

What matters more: estate and inheritance tax?

Income tax is the number people arrive with. Estate tax is usually the number that decides it. Florida imposes no estate tax and no inheritance tax. Several of the states our clients leave impose one or both, and the exposure is measured against net worth rather than annual income, which is why the savings can dwarf anything on the income side.

Florida also permits an irrevocable dynasty trust that can hold and pass wealth for up to a thousand years without triggering gift, estate, or generation-skipping transfer taxes along the way. “That’s very significant for a lot of families who want to keep it in the family for multiple generations,” Jason says.

We recently worked with a family holding fourth-generation wealth who moved from Massachusetts specifically to preserve significant dollars of it against estate tax. That is a common shape of engagement for us.

How do you prove you’re a full-time Florida resident?

This is where we spend the most time, because it is where families get into trouble. Claiming Florida residency means demonstrating to your former state that you genuinely left. The 183-day threshold is the floor, not the test. Your prior state is entitled to look at where your actual life is, and high-tax states audit this aggressively.

• Obtain a Florida driver’s license
• Register to vote in your county
• Establish a primary-care physician here
• Keep a contemporaneous record of your days — not a reconstruction at year’s end
• Shift the ordinary anchors of daily life: banking, clubs, houses of worship, and professional advisors

“It’s not that you can’t go back to your physician that you’ve used in New York or at the Mayo Clinic or wherever it may be,” Jason says, “but you should have a relationship in Florida.”

An honest accounting of the other side

We would rather clients hear this from us than discover it later. Florida’s revenue has to come from somewhere, and it comes from consumption and property. The Tax Foundation ranks Florida fifth nationally on overall state tax competitiveness. The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, looking at the same system through a different lens, ranks it last in the country for regressivity. Low-income Florida households pay a substantially higher share of their income in state and local taxes than wealthy ones, because the system leans on sales, excise, and property taxes.

For a family in the net-worth range we work with, that structure is favorable. It is worth understanding rather than ignoring, and worth reading at the source: both organizations publish their methodology and full findings.

Practically, expect a 6% state sales tax, an average property tax rate near 0.74%, and a county-level tourist development tax of 2% to 6% layered onto sales tax in most places. None of these moves the needle against a seven-figure income and estate tax saving, but they are not nothing, and property tax on a substantial Florida home is a real annual line item.

Why do wealthy families stay in Florida?

Tax gets families to look. It is rarely what keeps them. Florida’s economy has roughly doubled over the past decade and the state holds top-tier credit ratings from all the major agencies, which shows up in the quality of public services.

“Look at the roads, look at the bridges, and you’ll find many of them have been built in the past 20 to 30 years,” Jason says. “Florida has really boomed. The infrastructure is younger and in a lot better shape, in most cases, than places that have a little more legacy to them.”

Are you considering relocating to Florida?

A Florida move is a coordinated exercise across tax, estate documents, trust structure, entity domicile, and in many cases a liquidity event running in parallel. Sequencing matters, and doing it in the wrong order can forfeit the benefit entirely. That coordination is the work we do.

If you would like to talk it through or attend one of next season’s sessions, we would welcome the conversation. Contact us →

Disclosure

This material is for informational purposes only and does not constitute tax, legal, or investment advice, or an offer or solicitation to buy or sell any security. Tax rates and rules change and vary by individual circumstance; state figures shown are illustrative estimates and should not be relied upon for planning. Certain of the information contained herein has been obtained from third-party sources and has not been independently verified. It is made available on an “as is” basis without warranty. Residency and domicile determinations are fact-specific. Consult your own tax and legal advisors before acting.