You didn't plan on needing a lawyer for your engagement — then a prenuptial agreement landed in your inbox. This page is for the spouse-to-be on the receiving end: what independent review means, what we look for, what can actually be negotiated, and why signing unrepresented is the one option you should take off the table today. Flat-fee review, direct with the attorney, usually turned around in days.
First: being handed a prenup is not the insult it feels like
Start with the honest reframe. A prenup proposal is usually driven by a family, a business partner, an earlier divorce, or a lawyer's advice — not by doubt about you. And the document is not inherently against your interests: Florida's default rules are a one-size-fits-all statute, and a negotiated agreement can give you more certainty than the law would — a guaranteed support schedule, a defined share of appreciation, life insurance, the house. Whether this particular draft does that is precisely what review determines. What you should not do is treat the document as either a betrayal or a formality. It is an opening offer in the most important contract negotiation of your life, and you are entitled to counsel for it.
Why "their lawyer seems nice" is not protection
The attorney who drafted the agreement represents your fiancé(e) — ethically, exclusively, no matter how warm the emails are. One lawyer cannot represent both parties to a contract being negotiated between them. When that office suggests you "have any attorney look it over," take the suggestion seriously and literally: your own lawyer, chosen by you, paid to think only about your side. Independent review exists because the two of you have genuinely different interests in this one document — and because Florida courts, weighing voluntariness and overreaching years later, treat the presence of real independent counsel as one of the strongest facts in the case. Ironically, your having a lawyer protects both of you: them from a future claim the agreement was forced, you from terms you never understood.
What our independent review actually covers
The legality screen. We read every clause against section 61.079 and Florida case law: terms that are void (child support caps, custody predeterminations, temporary-support waivers), terms that overreach, execution plans that miss the two-witness formality for estate waivers, and the ERISA retirement-benefit promises the agreement can and cannot lawfully make.
The disclosure audit. Their schedules are the foundation of everything you are waiving. Are they itemized, recent, and complete? Does the business have a stated value with a basis, or a suspiciously round number? Are debts and guarantees shown? We tell you what questions to ask and what documents to demand — and a drafting side that resists reasonable disclosure questions has told you something important.
The outcome model. The heart of the review. We map what you would receive under the agreement at year 5, year 15, year 30, and at death — versus what Florida's defaults (equitable distribution, the post-2023 durational alimony framework, elective share) would likely provide on the same facts. Most unrepresented signers never see this comparison; it is the difference between consenting and guessing.
The negotiation. Review without negotiation is half a service. Prenup terms move more often than people expect, because the drafting side wants a signed, defensible agreement. The asks that succeed most: sunset or step-up provisions tied to length of the marriage; a support floor replacing a bare waiver; carve-outs for the marital home and for your own earnings and retirement growth; life-insurance security for the promises; mutual attorney's-fee protection; and softened one-sided boilerplate. We put the requests in writing, in lawyer's terms, without drama — protecting the relationship is part of the job.
The written advice. You get our analysis in plain English: what the agreement does, what we changed, what remains one-sided, and our recommendation. If you choose to sign against advice, that is your right and it stays your decision — documented, which protects you either way.
The timeline problem — and how we handle short fuses
Most review clients call with a wedding date bearing down. Our process is built for it: conflict check and engagement same day, the agreement and schedules reviewed within days, a call with the attorney — not a paralegal — to walk the outcome model, then negotiation as the calendar allows. If the runway is truly impossible (days, not weeks), we say so honestly and lay out the options: a focused negotiation of the two or three terms that matter most; a deferral — marry on schedule and negotiate a postnuptial agreement deliberately afterward; or, where the draft is abusive and immovable, clear-eyed advice about what signing would mean. What we will not do is bless a document nobody had time to read. See timing for why the pressure itself is a legal issue.
Red flags that should slow everything down
Some patterns tell you the process — not just the paper — is wrong: the first draft appears inside a month of the wedding with "this is non-negotiable"; disclosure is vague, missing, or you are asked to sign a waiver of disclosure "to keep things simple"; you are discouraged from getting your own lawyer, or steered to one hand-picked and paid by the other side without your choice; terms changed at the last minute after your review was done; or the signing is planned rushed, unwitnessed, un-notarized. None of these automatically voids an agreement — but each one is a fact pattern we later use to attack prenups, and you should not volunteer to be the star witness in that story. Slow it down, in writing, politely: "I want us to have an agreement that holds — that requires doing this properly."
Already signed one you never had reviewed?
We also review executed agreements — quietly, on a flat fee — for spouses who signed years ago and want to understand their position now. Sometimes the answer is reassurance; sometimes it is a map of the agreement's weaknesses and what events would put it in play; sometimes, where both spouses agree the deal should be fairer, it becomes a renegotiated postnuptial amendment. Knowledge here costs little. Discovering your rights for the first time in a divorce filing costs the most.
Common questions
A flat fee, quoted before we start, based on the agreement's length and the finances involved. Straightforward reviews with a written analysis sit at one number; add active negotiation and revisions and the fee steps up predictably. It is a fraction of what the same questions cost to answer in a divorce — and unlike the wedding's other line items, this one is enforceable for decades.
Handled professionally, negotiation usually lowers the temperature — it moves the conversation from between fiancés to between counsel, where it belongs. Reasonable, explained requests (a support floor, a home carve-out, a sunset clause) are ordinary; drafting lawyers expect them, and a signed agreement both sides shaped is stronger and easier to live with. If a modest, well-reasoned request detonates the process, that reaction is information you deserved before the wedding.
Who pays matters less than who chooses and who directs. Florida ethics rules allow a third party to pay your fee only if you select the lawyer freely, the representation stays independent, and your confidences remain yours alone — conditions we put in writing. An offer to fund your independent review, with counsel of your own choosing, is generally a good-faith sign. Being handed one specific lawyer, pre-paid and friendly with the drafting firm, is different — choose your own.
That is your absolute right — a prenup requires two voluntary signatures, and no one can be ordered to sign one. The honest follow-through: your fiancé(e) then decides whether to marry without an agreement, and Florida's default rules govern. Before planting that flag, let us show you the outcome model; sometimes the defaults genuinely favor you and refusal is rational, and sometimes a negotiated agreement would leave you measurably better protected than the statute. Decide from the numbers, not the emotion.
Once engaged with the agreement and disclosure in hand, initial review and the attorney walkthrough typically happen within a few business days — faster when a wedding date demands it. Negotiation length depends on the other side. Call with your date and we will tell you immediately whether the runway is workable and what to request from the drafting lawyer today to save a week of back-and-forth.
Handed a prenup? Get your own eyes on it — this week.
Flat-fee independent review, directly with the attorney. Call (407) 749-1034 or request a confidential consultation.
General information about Florida law — not legal advice, and no attorney-client relationship is created by reading it. Authorities referenced include § 61.079, Fla. Stat., § 732.702, Fla. Stat., and Rule 4-1.8(f), Rules Regulating The Florida Bar (verified July 2026). Every situation turns on its own facts.