How to Move To Florida in 1 Hour

Yes, it's absolutely true!  Within one single hour this past Wednesday, I managed to:

• Trade in my Illinois Driver's License for a new Florida DL
• Title, register, and license both my RV and car to Florida
• Register to vote 
• Get a Declaration of Domicile document filled out, notarized, and filed with the County Clerk's office
• And, with a couple minutes to spare, take this cheerful "selfie" of Florida's newest resident! 

Now, obviously, it took much more time beforehand to prepare for this super-smooth morning in Florida.  If you're a full-time RVer looking to change your domicile state soon, read on to find out how (and why) I "moved" to the Sunshine State.

Why I Left Illinois After 40+ Years?

There were lots of reasons why Illinois made a poor domicile choice for a full-time RVer-- nomad-unfriendly DMV policies, and growing tax & insurance rates to name a few.

But nothing made a domicile change more urgent than when my current health insurer, BCBS of Illinois, notified me this past September that they'd be cancelling their PPO plans (one of which was mine) from the individual ACA marketplace (Healthcare.gov) for 2016.

Residents of Texas had gotten similar news a few months earlier from BCBS of Texas (coincidentally, owned by the same parent organization, HCSC, who was directing its other BCBS subsidiaries to cancel or restrict their ACA PPO plans as well).

After my cancer experience this past year, I wanted to do anything possible to find a replacement plan in 2016 that preserved these 3 benefits:

• An ACA-compliant plan (no exclusions for my new pre-existing condition)
• Broad nationwide selection of "in-network" providers
• Capped out-of-pocket out-of-network costs (The ACA requires insurers to cap in-network OOP costs, but the original law was silent on out-of-network OOP caps.  This now is, increasingly, the new "gotcha" that insurers are exploiting to boost their profits).

I waited to make my domicile decision until the new Healthcare.gov 2016 plans and pricing were released on November 1st.  Within a couple hours that day, I now had my answers.  Illinois no longer offered any plans that met my above 3 needs.   In fact, none of the Illinois ACA plans still offered capped out-of-network out of pocket costs for 2016-- if I needed healthcare outside of the state (which would be quite likely as a full-timer), I'd have to risk unlimited out of pocket costs!  So, it was an easy decision, time to leave Illinois for a new domicile state.

Why Florida?

Kyle Henson, the go-to knowledge expert for RVers seeking healthcare insurance in TX, SD, and FL published an excellent RVer Guide to 2016 ACA Open Enrollment to help many of us "under-65" full-time RVers navigate the rapidly shrinking options in those states.

Some quick checks of Healthcare.gov confirmed Kyle's assessment-- there were no "nationwide network" plans still being offered in Texas or South Dakota for 2016.  So, those 2 states got dropped from my list of contenders immediately.

That left Florida.  Thankfully, at least for 2016, they still offered ACA plans that met all 3 of my needs.  As a fantastic bonus, the Florida plans were also priced far less than Illinois as well!

Florida has always been a popular full-time RVer domicile state for its lack of state income tax, and nomad-friendly DMV and voter rules.  But now with its superior (and cheap) ACA health plans, it was now a "no-brainer" to become my new home state.

Where Best in Florida to call "Home"?

With that decision made, it was now time to review options, gather quotes, and determine which Mail Forwarder's county/zip code would be the most advantageous. 

Unlike some other states, Florida allows you to become a resident without needing to physically bring your vehicles with you.  I would be able to fly in with my paperwork, get my new licenses, and fly out as a new resident.  

I evaluated the following 3 mail forwarding services (shown on the map below) not only for their mail forwarding costs/features, but also for each county/zip's healthcare and vehicle insurance rates, and costs to travel to each location from my present location in New Mexico.  Here are my impressions of each:

St. Brendan's Isle - Green Cove Springs, FL (Clay County / zip: 32043)

Located in northeastern Florida near Jacksonville, SBI is one of the oldest and most highly-regarded mail forwarding services in Florida.  Popular with both the full-time boating and full-time RVing communities, SBI offers reasonable and very straight-forward fees as well as an excellent mail scanning service.  SBI does not require that you be a member of a club to sign up (or get the best prices) for their services.

If my domicile selection was based solely on the mail forwarder service, I would have chosen SBI in a heartbeat for its simplicity, cost, and features.  But when I added insurance costs to the equation, both healthcare plans and vehicle insurance quotes were significantly higher in Clay county than the 2 counties below-- adding up to a whopping $901 more per year in my particular case.  So, I sadly had to cross SBI off my list.


MyRVMail - Crestview, FL (Okaloosa County / zip: 32536)

Located in the Florida panhandle near Pensacola, this is Passport America's mail service.  It has many of the same features of St. Brendan's Isle, including mail scanning.  While the base prices are quite reasonable, the numerous add-ons will likely really add up if you prefer to have a lot of mail scanned.  This service is also re-branded as GoodSam Mail.  Membership in PA or GS is not required to use this mail service, but members receive a 10% discount off of monthly fees, so it pays to be a member if you use the service all year long.

I was quite tempted to sign up for MyRVMail.  While their mail forwarding/scanning fees were a bit more, I greatly preferred the concept of just having a single Florida address for both domicile and mail forwarding purposes (compared to Escapees below).  I also liked that health plans were priced about the same as Sumter county below.  The main drawbacks, in my case, were that vehicle insurance would run about $120 more a year, and travel costs to get to Crestview from New Mexico would be more costly and time-consuming.  So, in the end, I had to pass on their service as well (for now, at least).


Escapees Mail Service - Bushnell, FL (Sumter County / zip: 33513)

Escapees has long been the primary advocacy and social club for full-time RVers, and has also had the most-popular mail forwarding service (based in Livingston, TX).  This year, they expanded their domicile options beyond Texas to offer domicile services in Florida and South Dakota.  Their mail forwarding service also began offering mail scanning as well.

Escapees Mail Service operates rather differently than the 2 services above.  First, you must be a member of Escapees ($39.95/yr) to sign up for mail forwarding.  Second, if you decide to use Florida (or South Dakota) as your domicile, you will be assigned 2 addresses-- one in your FL or SD domicile state for all your legal residency documents (i.e. DMV, voter card, will/trust, etc), and the other address in Livingston, TX for all the rest of your mail.   To reduce costs and avoid replication of duties in each state, Escapees forwards all mail from the Florida/South Dakota addresses to Livingston first before scanning and/or forwarding the mail to you.

While I greatly dislike the "dual address" system, and some other more cumbersome aspects of Escapees' mail and scanning services, the cost advantage was just too enticing to walk away from.  So, for now at least, I've decided on Escapee's (and Bushnell) as my new home address.  If the "dual address" system ever becomes a total nightmare (i.e. errors in getting the minimal Florida mail sent to Livingston), then I may consider switching to MyRVMail in future years if I happen to be traveling through that area.

Revising my Vehicle Insurance Plans:

For the past 3 years, I had been using Progressive Insurance for both my RV and Car.  Combined, my insurance costs (with my Illinois address) were about $1300/year.  However, I had yet to change my RV policy to a "full-time RVer" policy, so now that I no longer had a homeowner's insurance policy, this left me with a few holes in my coverage that needed updating.

Since Kyle Henson's RVerInsurance.com had been so helpful with healthcare insurance information, I decided to try it out for some vehicle insurance quotes as well.  A quick online quote form sent my request to a number of independent agents who have solid expertise in RV plans for full-time RVers.

A few of the agents replied with quotes from National Interstate insurance, but only one agent responded with all the new coverages I wanted, along with the insurer I wanted (Progressive)-- the very thorough and cheerful Estelle from American Adventure Insurance.

AAI is a "specialty agent" for Progressive (among others), and as such, was able to get me a new RV policy that provided enhanced coverage in the 2 key areas while also continuing to offer me Progressive's unique Mexico coverage.  

With my previous Progressive plan (purchased directly from Progressive), I had "Actual Value" coverage which was now only willing to pay $28K for my RV if it were totalled today (it currently would cost me $40k-45k to replace my View with the same year/model).  Various RVers recommended I now look for a policy providing "Agreed Value" coverage instead.  With my new AAI Progressive plan, I now have that-- if my View is ever totalled, I'll now get an agreed value of $40k no matter if the accident happens tomorrow or 5 years from now.

My previous Progressive Direct plan had $20k in coverage for personal effects (i.e. the contents inside the RV).  I thought this was all I'd ever need, but recently found out on some full-time RVer forums that there were major limitations in this coverage.  A call to Progressive Direct also confirmed this.  While they would indeed cover up to $20k in contents, that was limited by "category" of item.  Progressive lumps both computers and camera gear into the same category and limits that one category to just $3,000!  So, all the extra money I'd been paying for the larger $20k coverage was not getting me anywhere.

With the new AAI Progressive plan, I've now got a special line item called "Scheduled Personal Effects" where each item I list will be covered for a depreciated amount of its original purchase price.  In other words, no more category cap for my "high-ticket" electronics and camera gear, each will be covered individually up to my total coverage amount.

Additionally, the new AAI plan features "full-time RVer coverage" which provides additional liability coverage similar to what my old homeowner's insurance covered for my house-- if someone is injured in my RV or at my campsite, I now have the proper insurance coverage for these scenarios.

Before switching to AAI, I called Progressive Direct to see how their quotes would compare.  To my surprise, they were $100 more than AAI, and they would not offer Agreed Value or Scheduled Personal Effects coverage.  So, going with a specialty RV insurance agent was, indeed, the best way to go.  I still can access my new plans online via Progressive.com, and it still looks and behaves just like my old direct plans, but I now have the added coverages that only a specialty agent, like AAI, could sell.  

Planning/Prep (4 to 8 weeks)-- 

Now that I had insurance and a mail forwarding service figured out, it was time to review Escapee's Florida Domicile web page to get all the required documentation lined up for my visit to Florida.

It took me about 6 weeks to complete the steps below (mainly due to needing a replacement copy of my Social Security card).  If you have a U.S. Passport and Social Security card already in hand, you can likely get through these steps in less time.  In general, plan on about 4 to 8 weeks lead time before your visit to Florida.

1. If you don't currently have a U.S. Passport and/or Birth Certificate, and don't have a Social Security card, get them.  They are required to get your new Florida Driver's License.  (Getting a replacement copy of my SS card was tricky-- it required 2 trips to Albuquerque to visit the Social Security office there, and then a 10-day wait for the card to finally arrive in the mail).

2. If you don't have original titles for your vehicles, get them.  If your vehicles are not yet paid off, you'll need to contact the Sumter County Tax Collector's Office to get a letter of request so that the titles can be released from the lienholder before you arrive to Florida.
3. Compare Mail Forwarding Services. Look at "upfront" costs as well as add-ons such as scanning per-page, handling fees per mail shipment, etc.   

4. Get Vehicle & Health Insurance Quotes for each Mail Forwarder's county/zip code.
5. Calculate travel costs/schedules to get to each Mail Forwarding Location for your in-person visit.

6. Finalize and sign-up with your desired Mail Forwarder.  For Escapees Mail Service, download the Florida form from this page.  All forwarders will ask for a U.S. Postal Service Form 1583 which must be notarized before you can send it with your application.  I was able to get mine notarized by a local bank in New Mexico.

7. Get your new address(es) & start changing all your current mail over to the new address(es) -- the goal here is to have 2 proofs of the new Florida address for the DMV's driver's license requirement above.  Do NOT use the word "Box" or "PMB" on your FL address-- use just "#1234" or just the digits on address line 2.  While the Escapees checklist says you can just bring the Escapees "welcome letter" and "letter of acknowledgement" (received in your welcome packet), the DMV clerk I worked with at the Sumter Tax Collector's Office did not want to accept these, and instead, used copies of my insurance quotes (that showed my new Florida address) instead.  I just printed these out from email (no need for a postmarked envelope).
8. Call the county tax collector's office you intend to visit (better yet, call them twice and talk to 2 different people).  Confirm their requirements and all the documentation you intend to bring.  This will hopefully avoid any major hang-ups once you get onsite. 

9. Once you have the above documents ready, book your flight to Florida (set the date you will plan to visit the DMV).  I booked my travel 2 weeks in advance to get the most-optimal airfare rates.

10. Buy your new FL vehicle insurance & set the effective date to the day before your DMV visit.  Technomadia's Florida Domicile post gave a warning about activating your new insurance too far ahead of time, so I was able to avoid this potential problem.  IMPORTANT TIP:  Give yourself 10-14 days lead time so you will have your final Insurance ID cards printed out before you visit the DMV.  While the Sumter Vehicle Requirements page said that a temporary ID card or Insurance Binder document would be sufficient, this was not the case with the DMV clerk I worked with-- she said those documents did not sufficiently prove the agent was licensed to sell Florida plans.  Thankfully, I had just printed my final Insurance ID cards before my visit, and those 2 cards were exactly what she was looking for.   One other tip:  Leave your current state's insurance in effect until you've successfully received your new Florida license plates (just in case anything should go wrong with your DMV visit and your Florida residency is delayed).

11. If not bringing vehicles physically with you when you visit Florida, fill out the FLDMV Form 82042 for each vehicle and get a local law enforcement officer to come verify your vehicle VINs and sign each form.  I was fortunate to have an onsite U.S. Fish & Wildlife LEO at my wildlife refuge here in New Mexico.  He was able to verify VINs while my vehicles stayed parked at the Refuge.  So easy! 

12. Travel to Florida with all of your required documents.  Also bring a printed blank Declaration of Domicile form with you.

Visiting the Bushnell DMV & Courthouse (1 hour!)

1. Before you arrive to the DMV, bring your checkbook (or better yet) bring lots of cash.  I did 2 ATM withdrawals (on 2 separate days) to have nearly $1,000 in cash when I visited the Sumter Tax Collector's Office (shown below).

2. Arrive at the Tax Assessor's office.  In Florida, each of these county offices serve as their DMV, and compared to Illinois, it's quite a difference!  I walked in at 8:30am on a Wednesday to an empty office with 4 clerks ready to assist me-- that sure never happened at any Illinois DMV office I ever visited!
3. The DMV clerk will issue your new Florida Driver's License & Vehicle Registrations.  She/he will also register you to vote.  If all goes well, you will leave with a new DL, new Florida plates w/stickers, new vehicle registration cards, and receipts of your title applications, your voter registration application, and receipt for payment.  Final titles & your voter ID card will be mailed later to your Florida address.

3. Fill out your Declaration of Domicile form & go next door to the Property Appraiser's Office.  They will watch you sign this form and notarize it for free.

4. Bring the notarized Declaration of Domicile form across the street to the County Clerk's office at the courthouse (shown above).  For a $10 fee, the clerk's office will file it, and mail you a copy of the final filed doc to your Florida address.

5. You're now officially a Floridian!  Call your insurance company and cancel your prior state's vehicle insurance.

Costs:

My 1st Year Florida costs (including 1st year license/title/registration fees, initial mail forwarding costs, and travel to/from Florida) came out to be approximately $650 less than my ongoing costs in Illinois.

If I continue as a Florida resident in 2017 and beyond, my annual savings will be in the neighborhood of $2500 less per year!

Here are a few areas where my costs differed between the states:

• Mail Forwarding Service - this was unneeded for me in Illinois as a family member did it.  In Florida, with Escapees, my initial costs were $335 (including scanning).  Ongoing costs will be $235/yr plus per-item mailing and scanning costs.
• Driver's License - My new Florida DL cost $54 and is good until 2024.  My Illinois license had just been renewed and is good until 2020 (when a new 4-year DL will run $30 or more).
• Vehicle Registration/Licenses - The initial Florida cost to title and register my RV and car (with stickers good until March, 2017) was $856.  Going forward, annual sticker costs will run around $100/year.  Illinois annual costs for new stickers (both state & city) currently run $268/year.
• Vehicle Insurance - My new Florida plans (with enhanced RV full-timer coverage) will run $700 more per year than the previous Illinois plans.
• Health Insurance - My new Florida BlueSelect EPO/PPO Silver Plan will run $2,624 less per year than my Illinois BCBS Silver Plan (including annual deductible).
• State Income Tax - My state income tax won't change much for 2015 (since my residency switched in December), but going forward, this could save me many thousands per year depending on my taxable Illinois real estate income (vs. non-taxable Florida income on interest/investments), and whether Illinois tax rates rise again from 3.75 to 5%.   

Bottom Line--

Even if FloridaBlue ends up discontinuing their ACA PPO plan after 2016 (and I need to re-evaluate my domicile state again in just 1 year), it has still been worth it for me to "move" from Illinois to Florida this year.

If you currently are a full-time RVer with a less-than-ideal ACA healthcare plan, you might want to consider a domicile change to Florida for yourself.  A state residency change counts as a "qualifying event" on Healthcare.gov and will allow you to make a mid-year plan change outside of the normal sign-up period (running until Jan. 31st).

One final note-- I've heard that there can be slight variations from county to county within Florida as to what documents they'll allow for license/registration, how they'll note your new address on the driver's license, and so on.  Keep this in mind if you should go with one of the other Florida mail forwarders.

Bidding my new state of Florida "farewell" after a very successful 2-day trip!