How to Get a Prenup in Florida (Step by Step)

How to Do a Prenup

To do a prenup in Florida, each spouse hires a lawyer, the two of you exchange a written financial disclosure, and you sign a negotiated agreement before two witnesses and a notary weeks before the wedding. Six steps get you there.

Talk it through. Decide together what each of you wants to protect, separate property, a business, an inheritance, debt, children from before. Our guide to what a prenup covers maps the options.
Each of you gets a lawyer. Independent counsel for each spouse is what makes the agreement hard to challenge later.
Exchange full financial disclosure. Assets, debts, income, property. Honest and documented.
Draft and negotiate. We prepare the agreement; the two sides settle any open terms.
Sign well before the wedding, with the right formalities, never on the eve of the ceremony.
Store it and coordinate it with your will or trust, so your divorce and death provisions agree.

Not sure you need one at all? Start with whether you need a prenup; a short honest read answers it for most people. Weighing the cost against the stakes is the subject of is a prenup worth it.

Where Do You Get a Prenup?

You get a prenup from a Florida lawyer who drafts it for one spouse while the other spouse’s own lawyer reviews it. No court, clerk or county office issues one, because a prenup is a private contract that nobody files. This firm drafts for one spouse at a flat fee from $2,450 and reviews an agreement the other side drafted from $750. The first meeting is a No-Cost Phone Consult, so the Miami office is not a trip you have to make from Tampa or from abroad. The prenup review page is the place to start when someone has already handed you a draft.

How Long Does It Take to Get a Prenup?

The work takes two to four weeks, and the signing belongs weeks before the wedding. A straightforward agreement takes a couple of weeks to draft, and gathering each spouse’s disclosure and a round or two of changes from the other lawyer fill the rest. A business valuation or property in another country adds time. Starting two to three months before the wedding leaves room for the work and for each of you to read the signed copy at leisure.

Florida sets no deadline, and three cases show how courts treat the calendar. In Gordon, the Fourth District held that ten days before the marriage was enough time to review the agreement and see a lawyer, and the agreement stood. In Flaherty, a wife received the final draft at 11:30 on the night before a Las Vegas wedding, after her own lawyer had advised her not to sign, and the court set the prenup aside for duress and coercion. In Bakos, a dentist worth about $800,000 told a hygienist worth about $12,000 to sign or call off the marriage within 24 hours of the wedding, and the court held the agreement voidable. Ten days held and the final night failed, and each result turned on the facts of the signing rather than a count of days. A signature in the last week is still the fact a duress claim gets built on.

Why DIY Templates Go Wrong

A download cannot ensure disclosure, independent advice, or proper timing, and it usually misses the Florida estate pieces (waiving the elective share and homestead rights). Those are exactly the things Florida courts look at when deciding whether to enforce a prenup. The few hundred dollars a template saves can cost the entire agreement. See what a real prenup costs.

Do it once, do it right.

A No-Cost Phone Consult walks you through the steps. Drafting for one spouse is a flat fee from $2,450.

Book a no-cost consult

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I Get a Prenup Without a Lawyer in Florida?

You legally can, but it is risky. Florida sets a prenup aside if there was no fair financial disclosure, if someone was pressured, or if the terms are unconscionable, and an agreement where one spouse had no lawyer is far easier to attack on those grounds. Courts give the most weight to agreements where each spouse had independent counsel. A template you both sign cold is the version most likely to fail exactly when you need it. If you want it to hold up, have it drafted and have each side review it.

How Long Before the Wedding Should We Sign?

As early as you reasonably can, and definitely not on the eve of the wedding. A prenup signed days before the ceremony invites a claim that it was signed under pressure. Starting a few months out gives time for honest disclosure, negotiation, and each spouse’s review, all of which make it stronger. If the wedding is close, a postnuptial agreement after the marriage is a cleaner option than rushing.

What Do We Need to Disclose?

Each of you provides a fair and reasonable picture of your finances, including assets, debts, income, and major property. Hiding or low-balling assets is the fastest way to get the agreement thrown out later. Full, documented disclosure (or a knowing written waiver of it) is one of the pillars of an enforceable Florida prenup.

What Are the Steps?

In short, (1) talk openly about what you each want to protect; (2) each of you retains your own attorney; (3) exchange full financial disclosure; (4) we draft the agreement and the two sides negotiate any terms; (5) sign well before the wedding, with the right formalities; (6) store it with your estate-planning documents and coordinate it with your will or trust. We handle the heavy lifting and keep it efficient.

Do You Have to Sign a Prenup Before Getting Married?

A prenup has to be signed before the wedding, because it is an agreement made in contemplation of marriage that takes effect on the wedding day. Florida sets no deadline, so an agreement signed the week before is not void for timing alone, though a last-minute signature is the fact a duress or overreaching claim is built on. If the wedding comes first, the same terms go into a postnuptial agreement instead.

Can You Write Your Own Prenup and Have It Notarized?

You can, and a notary stamp does not fix what usually goes wrong. A self-written agreement often lacks the financial disclosure, the written waiver of disclosure and the separate legal advice that protect it from challenge, and it commonly misses the two subscribing witnesses Florida requires for a waiver of rights at death. A notary confirms who signed. The notary does not confirm that the agreement works.

Do Both Parties Need a Lawyer for a Prenup?

Florida does not require it, and each person should still have one. One lawyer can represent only one side of an agreement where the interests are opposed. A separate lawyer for the spouse giving up rights is the strongest evidence that the signature was informed and voluntary, which is what a later challenge would attack.

How Do You File a Prenup?

You do not file it. A Florida prenup is a private contract, and no court or county office records it. Each spouse keeps a signed original or a copy with the estate-planning documents, and the lawyers keep copies of the signed agreement and the disclosure. The agreement reaches a court only if it is enforced in a divorce or a probate case.

How Do You Sign a Prenup?

In one sitting, with both spouses, two subscribing witnesses and a notary present. Each person initials every page, including the financial schedules, and signs the signature page in front of the witnesses. Signing that way satisfies the probate code for the death-rights waiver and makes a swapped page or a disputed signature hard to claim.

Does a Prenup Need to Be Notarized in Florida?

Not technically. Under Florida law a prenup must be in writing and signed by both of you, and for divorce purposes that is the whole formal requirement. The part that waives rights at death, such as the elective share and homestead, also needs the waiving spouse to sign in front of two subscribing witnesses when signed in Florida. We still sign in ink before a notary and have each person initial every page, including the financial schedules. Those steps cost nothing and make it much harder for anyone to claim later that a page was swapped or a signature was rushed. We handle the signing logistics as part of the flat fee, which starts at $2,450 for one spouse.

Sources of Law

Gordon v. Gordon, 25 So. 3d 615 (Fla. 4th DCA 2009); Flaherty v. Flaherty, 128 So. 3d 920 (Fla. 2d DCA 2013); Bakos v. Bakos, 950 So. 2d 1257 (Fla. 2d DCA 2007). Opinions read in full; retrieved 2026-10-07.

Updated on October 7, 2026. Reviewed by Kevin D. Klagge, Esq., Fla. Bar No. 99502. General information about Florida law, not legal advice. Each spouse should have independent counsel. Do not send confidential information until we have agreed to represent you.

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