Is a Prenup Signed in Another State or Country Valid in Florida?

Does Florida Honor a Prenup Signed Somewhere Else?

Florida’s premarital agreement act is the state’s version of the Uniform Premarital Agreement Act, and it lets a couple choose in the agreement the law that governs how the agreement is read. Florida courts generally enforce that choice unless the chosen law would contravene strong Florida public policy, and the spouse who wants to avoid the chosen law has to prove the conflict. For the law of another country, a Florida statute adds that a court in a divorce may not enforce the choice if the foreign law contravenes strong Florida public policy or is unjust or unreasonable.

A 2018 case shows how seriously the appeals courts take the clause. A couple married in Israel on July 28, 2011, three days after signing a prenup drafted by the husband’s lawyer that chose Israel’s Spouses Property Relations Law. The couple later lived in Brevard County, and in 2015 the husband filed for divorce there. The wife asked the court to set the agreement aside as unconscionable, and the trial judge did so under Florida law, explaining that neither side had challenged the agreement in Israel and all the pleadings had been filed in Florida. The Fifth District reversed, writing that “This analysis fails to consider Florida public policy, relying instead on convenience.” The case went back to the trial court for the wife’s challenge to be heard under the law the agreement chose. Prenups for Canadian couples and prenups for foreign nationals cover agreements tied to another country in more detail.

Practice pointer. Read the choice-of-law clause before anything else in an agreement signed elsewhere. The clause tells you which law will judge every other term, including whether the agreement can be set aside at all.

When the Agreement Chose No Law

Many older agreements say nothing about which law applies. Florida’s general rule for contracts is that the law of the place where the contract was made governs its execution, interpretation and validity, and the Fourth District applied that rule to a prenup in 1995, in the case retold at the bottom of this page. The same court carved out Florida homestead, because the homestead protections in the Florida Constitution are a public policy strong enough to override the law of the place of signing.

Florida’s appellate courts have not all handled these agreements the same way. In 1990 the Third District applied Florida law to a prenup signed in New Jersey, under which a husband had waived any interest in his late wife’s estate, and wrote that “Under Florida law the agreement is valid, regardless of the nature or extent of the premarital disclosure of assets.” A Fourth District judge has twice urged that court to weigh which state has the most significant relationship to the agreement instead of the place of signing, in a 1995 dissent and again in a 2021 concurrence. Until the Florida Supreme Court decides the question, the answer can depend on where in Florida the case is heard.

Practice pointer. An agreement with no choice-of-law clause is the strongest candidate for a postnup that adds one. Two spouses who agree today on which law governs can remove the question from any later fight.

Does an Out-of-State Prenup Waive Florida Rights at Death?

Clients who moved here with an agreement from another state are often confused about the death side, and ask me, “Our prenup was written for a divorce in New York, so does it still cover my estate in Florida?” A Florida surviving spouse can claim 30 percent of the elective estate whatever the will says, along with homestead, exempt property and a family allowance. Florida’s probate code lets a spouse waive those rights before or after marriage, and it has a sentence written for agreements signed elsewhere. Any waiver “executed by a nonresident of Florida, either before or after this law takes effect, is valid in this state if valid when executed under the laws of the state or country where it was executed, whether or not he or she is a Florida resident at the time of death.” The requirement of two subscribing witnesses applies only to waivers signed by Florida residents.

The probate code also says that a waiver of “all rights,” or equivalent language, in the property or estate of a present or prospective spouse waives the elective share, homestead and the other rights at death, unless the waiver provides otherwise. An agreement that waives all rights in the other’s estate can therefore do more in Florida than the couple expected. An agreement written only for a divorce, which divides property and alimony and never mentions the estate, may waive nothing at death. Moving to Florida with an existing estate plan works through that difference, and whether a prenup applies at death covers the waiver itself.

What Happens to a Florida Prenup if You Move Away?

A Florida prenup does not stop working when a couple moves, and a court in the new state decides whether to enforce it, using that state’s own rules about which law applies. Kevin drafts for that day in three ways.

1. A clear choice of law. The agreement states that Florida law governs its interpretation and enforcement wherever the couple lives, for divorce and for death.
2. Formalities that travel. The agreement is signed in front of two witnesses and a notary, with each person’s financial disclosure attached and initialed, so that a court elsewhere sees a signing that would satisfy a demanding state.
3. A review after the move. A lawyer in the new state reads the agreement once the move happens, because rights at death follow the law of the state where a spouse lives and dies, and the new state may have its own spousal share or community-property rules.

Marrying Abroad: The Marriage Has to Be Valid Too

A Florida prenup takes effect on the marriage. If the marriage turns out to be void, the agreement is enforceable only to the extent necessary to avoid an inequitable result. A couple who signs a prenup in Florida and marries abroad therefore needs a marriage that Florida will recognize.

Florida judges the validity of a marriage celebrated elsewhere by the law of the place where it happened. The Fifth District applied that rule in 2009 to a religious ceremony in Oregon held without a marriage license and found no marriage, and the Fourth District reached the same result in 2010 for a ceremony in Virginia. In 2017 the Second District held that a woman who had lived for 23 years with an Israeli man as his recognized partner, and had four children with him, was not his surviving spouse in Florida, because Israel recognizes only religious marriage and the couple had never married there.

The same rule applies at home. Florida abolished common-law marriage for marriages after January 1, 1968, and in 2010 the First District, sitting en banc, held that a church wedding in Pensacola with a minister, attendants and a reception was not a marriage, because the couple never obtained a license. According to the court, the groom had refused to get the license the week before the wedding because the prenup was not yet agreed. A New York appeals court dismissed a divorce in 2023 for the same reason after a religious ceremony in Florida held without a Florida license.

1. Sign the prenup in Florida before you travel. The signing then happens under Florida formalities, with two witnesses and a notary, and nobody is signing in a hotel lobby the night before the ceremony.
2. Confirm the civil requirements of the country. A lawyer there tells you whether a civil ceremony is required, what documents the registry needs, and whether the registry asks the couple to choose a property regime. Any regime chosen abroad must say the same thing as the Florida prenup.
3. Bring home the civil marriage certificate. The certificate is the proof Florida will ask for, at a divorce or at a death.

What It Costs

A review of an agreement signed in another state or country is a flat fee from $750. The review covers which law governs the agreement, whether it waives rights at death in Florida, the signing formalities and the disclosure, with a written list of what the agreement does and does not do here. Drafting a new prenup for one spouse is a flat fee from $2,450, and a postnup that adds a choice-of-law clause or a waiver of rights at death is a flat fee from $2,950. More detail is on the prenup review page.

Posted fees are honored for 90 days from the posted date (October 6, 2026). Advice on the law of another state or country comes from a lawyer licensed there and is separate, and government costs are passed through at cost. A challenge to an existing agreement and any divorce or probate litigation are quoted per matter and never carry a flat fee.

Frequently Asked Questions

Common Situations

The New York prenup. A couple signed a prenup in New York in 2004, chose New York law and moved to Boca Raton in 2020. The agreement divides property in detail and never mentions death. A postnup, signed with two witnesses now that they are Florida residents and with fresh disclosure, adds the waiver of rights at death that the original agreement lacked.

The destination wedding. A Miami couple plans a wedding in Italy. The couple signs the prenup in Miami six weeks before the trip, an Italian lawyer confirms the civil requirements, and the couple brings home the civil certificate.

The agreement from abroad with no clause. A couple signed a marriage contract in their home country in the 1990s and has lived in Florida for twenty years. The contract chose no law. The review identifies which law a Florida court would likely apply, flags the home as homestead, and recommends a postnup that settles the question.

Sources of Law

• Premarital agreements: Fla. Stat. §61.079(1) (Uniform Premarital Agreement Act), (4)(a)7 (choice of law governing construction), (5) (effective upon marriage), (8) (void marriage; enforceable only to the extent necessary to avoid an inequitable result). Foreign law: Fla. Stat. §61.0401(2)(a), (4). (2026 statutes, read 2026-10-06.)
• Rights at death: Fla. Stat. §732.702(1) (waiver of the elective share, intestate share, pretermitted share, homestead, exempt property, family allowance, community-property claims and preference in appointment, before or after marriage, signed in the presence of two subscribing witnesses; the witness requirement applies only to Florida residents; a waiver “executed by a nonresident of Florida … is valid in this state if valid when executed under the laws of the state or country where it was executed”; a waiver of “all rights” or equivalent language waives all of those rights unless the waiver provides to the contrary) and (2); §732.2065 (elective share of 30 percent). Marriage: Fla. Stat. §741.211 (common-law marriages after January 1, 1968 void). (2026 statutes.)
• Choice of law cases: Gal v. Gal, 243 So. 3d 466 (Fla. 5th DCA 2018); In re Estate of Santos, 648 So. 2d 277 (Fla. 4th DCA 1995) (lex loci contractus applied to a Puerto Rico prenup; homestead excepted as paramount public policy; Warner, J., dissenting in favor of the significant relationship test; question certified); Gordon v. Russell, 561 So. 2d 603 (Fla. 3d DCA 1990) (Florida law applied to a New Jersey prenup); Williams-Paris v. Joseph, No. 4D20-1760 (Fla. 4th DCA Nov. 17, 2021) (Warner, J., concurring).
• Marriage validity cases: Preure v. Benhadj-Djillali, 15 So. 3d 877 (Fla. 5th DCA 2009); Betemariam v. Said, 48 So. 3d 121 (Fla. 4th DCA 2010); Cohen v. Shushan, 212 So. 3d 1113 (Fla. 2d DCA 2017); Hall v. Maal, 32 So. 3d 682 (Fla. 1st DCA 2010) (en banc). Other states, persuasive only: Bernstein v. Benchemoun, 216 A.D.3d 893 (N.Y. App. Div. 2d Dep’t 2023). Opinions read in full from the local CourtListener corpus. (retrieved 2026-10-06)

The Puerto Rico Prenup That Followed a Couple to Broward County

I disagree with the standard advice here, and the reason is a Florida opinion most summaries do not mention. The standard advice is that once you live in Florida, Florida law governs your marriage. For a prenup signed somewhere else, a 1995 Florida decision shows how far the law of the place of signing can follow a couple.

An optometrist, farmer and merchant in Puerto Rico, 66 years old and recently divorced, with three children from his first marriage and substantial property, married a secretary with no assets in Ponce in January 1969. Before the wedding they signed a prenup providing that their property, however and whenever acquired, would be kept separate. The couple lived in Puerto Rico until 1981, moved to Florida, went back to Puerto Rico from 1985 to 1988, and then returned to Florida, where he died in May 1989 at 86. Along the way they won $400,000 on a lottery ticket they bought together, and during the marriage property moved into her name, some of it under a power of attorney he gave her the month before they moved back to Florida for the last time.

The widow became his personal representative, and his children from the first marriage asked the Broward County court to make her return what she held. The court applied Puerto Rico law, because the prenup was made there. Under Puerto Rico law the prenup could not be changed or abandoned during the marriage, so the transfers to her were void apart from moderate holiday gifts, and her defense that the couple had abandoned the agreement was unavailable. In 1995 the Fourth District affirmed with one exception. A house in Plantation titled in her name might be Florida homestead, and if it was, Florida’s homestead protection would override Puerto Rico law.

I walk clients through that sequence because each fact in it is ordinary. In reading that opinion with a couple who signed elsewhere in mind, I have a few take-home points.

The first is that the law of the place of signing can travel with a couple for decades and through more than one move. Twenty years of marriage and two moves to Florida did not make Florida law govern that agreement. Practice pointer. Find out what the law of the place of signing says about amending or abandoning the agreement before anyone relies on conduct during the marriage to have changed it.

The second is that Florida homestead sits outside the deal. The home was the one asset Florida’s public policy reached regardless of what Puerto Rico law said. Practice pointer. Address the Florida home separately in any agreement or postnup, in words that work under Florida’s homestead rules.

Avoid treating a power of attorney or a change of title as an amendment to the prenup. The widow in that case had both and still returned the property, and Florida’s own act now requires a written agreement signed by both spouses to amend a prenup after the wedding.

An honest limit belongs here. The Fourth District certified the question to the Florida Supreme Court over a dissent that would have weighed which place had the most significant relationship to the marriage, and the Third District had applied Florida law to a New Jersey agreement five years earlier. The rule for an agreement with no choice-of-law clause is less settled than either court made it sound, which is why I would rather a couple choose the law in writing.

Kevin D. Klagge, Esq., admitted in Florida since 2012. The cases described above are published decisions of Florida courts in other parties’ matters, not matters this firm handled, and past results do not guarantee a similar outcome.

Updated on October 6, 2026. Reviewed by Kevin D. Klagge, Esq., Fla. Bar No. 99502. General information about Florida law, not legal advice on the law of any other state or country, and no attorney-client relationship is created. Do not send confidential information until we have agreed to represent you.