Most people who ask about a prenuptial agreement are not planning for a divorce. They are planning for a business, a first marriage's children, an inheritance, or a spouse who should not inherit someone else's debt.
Our St. Petersburg prenuptial and postnuptial agreements lawyers draft agreements built to hold up if they are ever tested, and review agreements someone has already put in front of you. Khonsari Law Group works with couples across Pinellas County before the wedding and well after it.
Call Khonsari Law Group at (727) 269-5300 to talk through what you want an agreement to do.
What does Florida require for a prenuptial agreement to be valid?
Very little on paper, which is exactly the problem. Under Fla. Stat. 61.079, Florida's Uniform Premarital Agreement Act, a premarital agreement has to be in writing and signed by both parties. It is enforceable without consideration beyond the marriage itself, and it takes effect when the couple marries.
No witnesses. No notary. No mandatory financial disclosure. No requirement that either person hire a lawyer.
That minimal standard is what makes weak agreements so easy to sign and so easy to attack later. The statute sets the floor for validity. It does not set the standard for an agreement that survives a challenge in a Sixth Judicial Circuit courtroom eleven years later, and those are two very different documents.
The Act applies to agreements executed on or after October 1, 2007. Older agreements are judged under the case law that came before it.
What can a Florida prenuptial agreement cover?
More than most couples expect. The statute lets prospective spouses contract about property rights, how assets are divided at separation, dissolution, or death, and the establishment, modification, waiver, or elimination of spousal support.
An agreement can also address:
- Business interests. Keeping a practice, a partnership share, or a company you built out of equitable distribution, which is Florida's term for how a court divides marital property.
- Separate and premarital property. Defining what stays separate, and, just as importantly, what happens when separate money gets mixed with marital money.
- Debt. Deciding who carries student loans, business debt, or credit obligations brought into the marriage.
- Estate planning coordination. Requiring a will, a trust, or a specific arrangement, and directing who receives the death benefit from a life insurance policy.
- Choice of law. Naming which state's law governs the agreement, which matters for couples who expect to move.
What can a prenup not do in Florida?
It cannot touch a child's right to support. The statute is one sentence and it is absolute: the right of a child to support may not be adversely affected by a premarital agreement.
Courts also will not let parents contract away decisions about a child's future care. Parental responsibility and timesharing are decided on the child's best interests at the time of the case, not by a document signed before the child existed.
One more limit is worth knowing. If a provision eliminating spousal support would leave one spouse eligible for public assistance at separation or dissolution, a Florida court may order support anyway, to the extent needed to avoid that eligibility. The waiver is not void, but it has a floor.
What makes a prenuptial agreement unenforceable?
Florida gives a challenging spouse three routes, and the third is more demanding than most summaries suggest.
The agreement was not signed voluntarily
Presented the night before the wedding, with guests already flying in, is the classic fact pattern. Timing alone does not void an agreement, but it colors everything else a judge sees.
The agreement was the product of fraud, duress, coercion, or overreaching
Hidden assets, a misstated income, or pressure that removed real choice.
The agreement was unconscionable when signed, and disclosure failed
This ground has four parts and they are joined by "and," not "or." The challenger must show the agreement was unconscionable when executed and that before signing they were not given fair and reasonable disclosure of the other party's property and obligations, and did not expressly waive disclosure in writing, and did not otherwise have adequate knowledge of those finances.
That is a high bar, and it is why a written, signed disclosure schedule attached to the agreement is worth the hour it takes to prepare. Unconscionability is decided by the judge as a matter of law, not by a jury.
Have an agreement reviewed before you sign it. Call (727) 269-5300.
Does a prenup automatically protect your homestead and inheritance rights?
No, and this is the gap that costs Florida families the most money.
A prenuptial agreement is governed by Fla. Stat. 61.079. But a waiver of a surviving spouse's rights, including the elective share, the intestate share, homestead, exempt property, and family allowance, is governed by Fla. Stat. 732.702. That statute requires the waiving party to sign in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.
So an agreement drafted to satisfy only the family law statute can be perfectly valid as a prenup and still fail to waive homestead and elective share rights when one spouse dies. The document does what it was built to do in a divorce and quietly does nothing in probate.
Fla. Stat. 732.702 also draws a line most couples never hear about: financial disclosure is not required for a waiver signed before marriage, but each spouse must make fair disclosure for one signed after. That single distinction changes how a postnuptial agreement has to be prepared.
How is a postnuptial agreement different from a prenup?
A postnuptial agreement is signed by spouses who are already married, and Florida's premarital statute does not govern it. It is a contract, judged under contract principles and Florida case law, primarily the standard from Casto v. Casto.
| Prenuptial agreement | Postnuptial agreement | |
|---|---|---|
| Governing law | Fla. Stat. 61.079 | Florida contract case law, including Casto v. Casto |
| When signed | Before the wedding, effective on marriage | Any time during the marriage |
| Financial disclosure | Not statutorily required, strongly advised | Required for a spousal rights waiver under Fla. Stat. 732.702 |
| Typical challenge | Involuntary signing, fraud, unconscionability plus failed disclosure | Fraud, duress, coercion, misrepresentation, overreaching, or an unreasonable bargain |
| Common use | Protecting premarital assets, a business, children from a prior marriage | A change in circumstances, a windfall, a business launch, or rebuilding trust |
Under Casto, a spouse can set an agreement aside by proving fraud, deceit, duress, coercion, misrepresentation, or overreaching. There is a second route: showing the agreement is unreasonable, which shifts the burden to the defending spouse to prove either full and frank disclosure or that the challenger already had a general knowledge of the marital property and the parties' income.
Postnuptial agreements are also amended and revoked differently than people assume. After marriage, a premarital agreement can only be amended, revoked, or abandoned by a written agreement signed by both parties. A handshake understanding does not change it.
Do both people need their own lawyer?
Florida does not require it. One lawyer can prepare the agreement, and the other party may sign without counsel.
Whether that is wise is a different question. Courts examining a challenge look at the whole picture of how the agreement came to be. A party who had a real chance to consult their own lawyer, with enough time to use it, stands in a very different position than one who did not.
When we draft an agreement for one spouse, we routinely encourage the other to have it reviewed independently. It costs the couple a little and protects the document a lot.
Who actually signs these agreements in St. Petersburg?
Not the people you would guess from television. The couples we work with usually fall into a few groups:
- Second marriages with children. Making sure a house or a retirement account reaches the children from a first marriage rather than being redirected by default rules.
- Business owners and professionals. Keeping a practice, a marina operation, or a family company out of equitable distribution and out of a valuation fight.
- One spouse carrying significant debt. Drawing a clean line so the other is not pulled into it.
- Expected inheritances. Protecting property that has not arrived yet, which is where commingling rules do the most damage.
- Couples already married who are rebalancing. A postnuptial agreement after a business launch, an inheritance, or a period of financial strain.
Why couples choose Khonsari Law Group
Because the value of an agreement is only visible years later, when someone tries to break it.
Rohom Khonsari is a former Assistant State Attorney whose practice is built on how documents and testimony hold up under challenge. He is an Avvo Client Choice winner, and Khonsari Law Group is BBB A+ accredited. His perspective has been featured by ABC Action News, Bay News 9, the Tampa Bay Business Journal, and the Tampa Bay Times.
We draft agreements with the challenge in mind: disclosure schedules attached, signing timelines documented, and the estate side coordinated so the family law document and the probate rules point the same direction. We also litigate these agreements in the Sixth Judicial Circuit, which serves Pinellas and Pasco counties, through the Pinellas County Clerk of the Circuit Court.
Our office is at 150 2nd Avenue North, Suite 970, St. Petersburg, FL 33701.
Questions couples ask before booking a consultation
How far before the wedding should we start?
Give it a few months if you can. There is no statutory deadline, but signing well ahead of the date removes the argument that one party had no realistic choice, and it leaves room for the other side to have the agreement reviewed.
Can we write our own agreement and have a lawyer look at it?
You can, and we review drafts regularly. Be aware that most template agreements found online are written to a generic standard and miss the Florida-specific pieces, particularly the witnessing requirement for waiving spousal rights.
Can an agreement be changed after we are married?
Yes, in writing and signed by both of you. No new consideration is needed. Couples amend agreements after a business sale, a relocation, or the birth of a child more often than you would expect.
What if my spouse refuses to sign a postnuptial agreement?
Then there is no agreement, and Florida's default rules apply if the marriage ends. That is worth understanding clearly rather than assuming, because the default outcome is sometimes closer to what you wanted than you think.
Does a prenup mean we are planning to divorce?
No. Most of the provisions we draft govern what happens at death, how a business is treated, and how separate property stays separate during a long marriage. Divorce is one contingency in the document, not its purpose.
A good agreement is quiet for decades
The agreements that work are the ones nobody has to argue about. They were drafted carefully, disclosed honestly, signed with time to spare, and coordinated with the rest of a family's planning.
Khonsari Law Group prepares and reviews prenuptial and postnuptial agreements for couples throughout St. Petersburg, Pinellas County, and Tampa Bay, and represents spouses when an existing agreement is challenged in a dissolution of marriage.
Call (727) 269-5300 or contact Khonsari Law Group to speak with a St. Petersburg prenuptial and postnuptial agreements lawyer.