Pre/Post Nup · Interactive Guide
The Pre-Nup Process
Eight steps from the first conversation to a vaulted original — scroll the timeline, tap any step to open it. This is how an agreement gets built to hold in year twenty.
Step 01
The Conversation
6+ months before the wedding
Raise it early, frame it honestly: this is planning, not doubt. The strongest agreements start as a couple's own decision — long before a lawyer touches a draft.
The voluntariness defense is built — or defeated — right here. An agreement first mentioned months out, discussed in principle between the two of you, reads entirely differently in a courtroom than one that appeared with the invitations. Agree on the big shapes first: what stays separate, what builds together, what security the less-monied spouse needs to feel safe saying yes.
If you are on the receiving end of this conversation instead, start at our independent review page — being asked is not the insult it feels like, and your leverage is highest now.
Step 02
Each Side Retains Counsel
4–6 months out
One lawyer drafts for one spouse; the other spouse gets independent review counsel of their own choosing. One attorney can never represent both.
Florida does not force anyone to hire a lawyer — and that is precisely why the record of the opportunity matters so much when agreements are attacked years later. The drafting side urges independent review in writing; the reviewing side chooses freely. An agreement negotiated between two represented parties is a contract. An agreement presented to an unrepresented spouse is a target.
Details, including who may pay for whose lawyer, on our execution & independent counsel page.
Step 03
Complete Financial Disclosure
the slow step — start it first
Itemized schedules of every asset, debt, income stream, and material expectancy — with the statements and returns behind them, delivered and receipted.
More Florida prenups die on disclosure than on any other ground: it is woven directly into § 61.079's enforcement test. Schedules itemize accounts by institution, real estate, business interests with a stated valuation basis, retirement plans (ERISA plans flagged — their survivor benefits need post-wedding consents no prenup can replace), debts, guarantees, and realistically expected inheritances.
The full build — including the disclosure-waiver trap — is on our financial disclosure page.
Step 04
Negotiation
3–4 months out
Terms move between counsel, in writing: support floors, sunset clauses, the home, life insurance. A negotiated agreement is a stronger agreement.
Prenup terms are more movable than people expect, because the drafting side wants a signed agreement that holds. The asks that succeed: step-up provisions tied to length of the marriage, a support floor instead of a bare waiver, carve-outs for the marital home and each spouse's own earnings, security for promises via life insurance. The written negotiation record doubles as enforcement evidence — exchange, not dictation.
What the law allows you to negotiate over is mapped on what can go in a prenup.
Step 05
Drafting to Florida Law
weeks 8–12
The agreement is written to § 61.079, the probate code, and the 2023 alimony framework — not from a template built for someone else's state.
Florida-specific drafting means: no child-support or custody terms (void), no temporary-support waivers (unwaivable under Belcher), estate waivers built for § 732.702's two-witness formality, appreciation and commingling rules that actually track Florida's equitable-distribution defaults, an agreed business-valuation method, ERISA consent covenants, choice of law, severability, and a prevailing-party fee clause for challenges to the agreement itself.
The recurring failures we find in other firms' documents: the twelve drafting mistakes.
Step 06
Independent Review
6–8 weeks out
Review counsel models the outcome — year 5, year 15, year 30, at death — against Florida's defaults, then negotiates the gaps and documents the advice.
Real review is not signature-witnessing. It reads every clause against the statute, audits the other side's schedules, and shows the reviewing spouse the comparison most unrepresented signers never see: what this agreement gives you versus what Florida law would. Requested revisions get made, or the reasons they were refused go in the file. If a client signs against advice, that is documented too — protecting the client and, ironically, the agreement.
Step 07
Execution
30+ days before the wedding
Both parties, every page initialed, schedules attached, two subscribing witnesses, notary, signed acknowledgments — and duplicate originals for separate safekeeping.
Florida's floor is just a signed writing — we execute far above it, every time: the two-witness ceremony satisfies the probate code's formality for estate waivers, notarization travels to stricter states, and the acknowledgment recitals (disclosure received, counsel opportunity, no outside promises, adequate time) close the doors challenges walk through. The thirty-day cushion before the ceremony is trial-lawyer conservatism: it leaves nothing for a duress argument to grip.
The full ceremony, element by element: execution & independent counsel.
Step 08
After the Wedding
the agreement's long life begins
ERISA consents signed, estate plan aligned, originals vaulted separately — then milestone reviews so the agreement still fits in year 20.
Three follow-throughs decide whether the document works decades later. The ERISA spousal consents — finally possible now that you are spouses — get signed on plan forms and filed with the originals. Wills, trusts, and beneficiary designations are reconciled to the agreement. And the two originals live in two separate secure places, with counsel's execution file preserved. Then: deliberate check-ins at life's milestones — a business, children, a new state, a windfall — amending or reaffirming in signed, witnessed writings only.
How agreements are defended and attacked in year 20: enforcement.
Ready to start — or handed an agreement and need step 6 first?
Flat-fee drafting and 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, 732.702, Fla. Stat., Casto v. Casto, 508 So. 2d 330 (Fla. 1987), and Belcher v. Belcher, 271 So. 2d 7 (Fla. 1972) (verified July 2026).