I had the pleasure of attending a luncheon this week with economist Steve Moore, and boy, was it enlightening. Steve shared data on the massive wave of migration pouring into Florida and other conservative states, as families and retirees flee the high taxes and overreach of blue states like New York, New Jersey, and California.
He was recently interviewed on Fox News about this very trend — you can read it below.
‘Gone to Florida and Texas’: New billboards slam NY, NJ over massive resident flight to red states
Those billboards showing the exodus from blue states makes us smile.
But while everyone else is smiling… my stomach is turning.
Because behind the sunshine, low taxes, and red-state freedom, there’s a dark and dangerous secret no one is talking about — one that could devastate the very people bringing their generational wealth into Florida.
💰 The Wild, Wild West of Guardianship
Florida may be a financial paradise for tax purposes, but when it comes to probate and guardianship, it’s the Wild, Wild West — and the law isn’t always on the side of the people.
Unsuspecting retirees move here, believing they’ve made the smartest financial decision of their lives. But once they arrive, they could be walking straight into a trap — one set by unscrupulous guardians, lawyers, and even judges who know exactly how to manipulate a broken system.
Imagine this:
You’ve spent a lifetime building your wealth. You move to Florida to enjoy it. You get older, maybe develop a health issue or – maybe you don’t and you are perfectly healthy — yet suddenly, someone files for guardianship “to protect you.” That someone can be anyone and that’s where the wild, wild west plays out in Florida.
A court steps in and you lose control of your own money — and your own life even if you have spent time and money to create the right documents to protect you and your money. Our probate system in Florida can shoo away those documents with the wave of a hand by a judge and all those documents are then filed in the trash bin of your life. Your kids might live somewhere else and suddenly they hear you are under control of a guardian and they can’t do a damn thing about it. (I hate to swear but this damn guardianship issue brings out the worst in me.) They have to hire a lawyer to get you out and it isn’t easy and it’s expensive. So what happens to your wealth while they fight to extricate you from guardianship jail? Attorneys, guardians, the courts and other bad actors eat up your wealth and make money off your retirement while you wait for someone to help you. Unfortunately in most cases in Florida — no one comes to help because no one can believe the system is at fault.
Does all this sound far-fetched? It’s not.
We’ve been sounding the alarm about this for years at Eye on Jacksonville. See below:
Betrayal of Trust: Exposing Legal and Political Corruption Against Florida’s Baby Boomers
Exposing Florida’s Broken Guardianship System Where Seniors Become Prey
If you don’t believe us at Eye, we encourage you to also check out the Center for Estate Administration Reform. See the stories they post on their facebook page to put faces with these harrowing stories:
https://www.facebook.com/CEARjustice.
These stories aren’t fiction. They’re happening right now in our courtrooms. And they’ll only get worse as billions in generational wealth flood into Florida over the next decade. The bad actors in the guardianship culture in Florida are foaming at the mouth to get your money.
My Billboard Idea
Those billboards welcoming blue-state refugees into the freedom of red America are nice but…
— here’s one I’d add at the Florida line:
If that sounds dramatic, good. It should. Because every day this broken system goes unaddressed, more Florida families lose their rights, their assets, and their dignity.
A Call to Action
It’s time for Governor DeSantis and the Florida Legislature to step up and fix this mess in the next legislative session. The state cannot continue to market itself as a haven for wealth while quietly allowing a system that preys on our hard-earned dollars and assets to operate unchecked.
Call your state legislator today and demand real reform of Florida’s guardianship and probate systems. Refer them to our articles and let them know they have a responsibility to protect you and all of us from the predatory probate system in Florida. It’s broken – prove us wrong!
And guess what… freedom doesn’t just mean lower taxes. It means being safe — even from those who claim they’re protecting you.
