How Much Does a Postnuptial Agreement Cost in Florida?

How Much Does a Postnuptial Agreement Cost in Florida?

The firm’s flat fee for drafting a postnuptial agreement for one spouse is from $2,950. The fee was posted October 6, 2026 and is honored for 90 days from that date. Government costs such as recording are additional and passed through at cost.

The fee covers the first draft of the agreement, the financial disclosure schedules for both spouses, up to two rounds of revisions with the other spouse’s lawyer, and a signing with two witnesses and a notary. Negotiation beyond two rounds is quoted in writing before it begins.

The postnup fee is higher than the prenup fee because Florida law requires fair disclosure of each spouse’s estate when a waiver is signed after marriage. The disclosure work is heavier than what a prenup requires.

The firm represents one spouse only. One lawyer cannot represent both sides of the same agreement. The other spouse chooses their own lawyer, and the firm gives a list of names rather than a single referral.

The consultation is free and by phone. Zoom or WhatsApp is available on request. Come with a rough list of what each spouse owns and earns, and the reason the agreement is needed now.

What Can a Postnuptial Agreement Cover in Florida?

A postnuptial agreement can settle nearly every financial question between spouses. A postnuptial agreement can define separate property (everything owned before marriage, gifts, inheritances, and everything acquired in one name during the marriage) and marital property (typically jointly titled property and joint accounts). The agreement can assign growth and earnings during the marriage to one spouse or the other. The agreement can allocate debts between the spouses, with an indemnity so that if a creditor collects from the wrong spouse, the spouse who agreed to pay that debt owes the other.

The agreement can waive or set alimony. Florida recognizes bridge-the-gap alimony (up to two years), rehabilitative alimony (up to five years), and durational alimony (a percentage of the marriage length). Permanent alimony was eliminated for petitions filed on or after July 1, 2023. A postnup can waive every form by name.

At death, the agreement can waive the elective share (30 percent of the elective estate), the intestate share, the pretermitted spouse share, homestead descent and devise rights, exempt property (up to $20,000 of furnishings plus two vehicles), the family allowance (up to $18,000), and the preference to serve as personal representative.

What a postnup cannot settle is child support, parental responsibility and time-sharing. A court decides those later by the child’s best interests, not by what the parents agreed.

Is a Postnuptial Agreement Enforceable in Florida?

Florida reads a postnup harder than a prenup, and the reason is disclosure. There are two bodies of law, one for divorce and one for death, and both treat spouses more strictly after the wedding than before.

On the divorce side, Florida courts apply the two grounds from a 1987 Florida Supreme Court decision. The first ground is fraud, deceit, duress, coercion, misrepresentation or overreaching. The second is that the agreement was unfair or unreasonable at signing and the challenging spouse lacked adequate knowledge of the other’s finances. As the Court put it, “The test in this regard is the adequacy of the challenging spouse's knowledge at the time of the agreement and whether the challenging spouse is prejudiced by the lack of information.” But between spouses who are not yet in litigation, there is a fiduciary relationship. In a 2013 case, the First District Court of Appeal set aside a postnup where the husband understated his income and left about $6.5 million in receivables off his schedule, even though the wife had two lawyers who told her not to sign. The court wrote, “postnuptial agreements governing disposition of the parties’ assets are not enforceable if entered into in the absence of full and fair disclosure of the assets at issue”.

On the death side, Florida law states that each spouse shall make a fair disclosure to the other of that spouse’s estate if the agreement is executed after marriage. No disclosure is required for an agreement signed before marriage. A 1985 Florida Supreme Court decision held that “nondisclosure in any form cannot invalidate an antenuptial agreement in probate proceedings of a deceased spouse.” The same is not true after the wedding.

What Goes Into the Financial Disclosure Schedule?

The disclosure schedule is the document that makes the postnup hold. Each spouse lists income (salary, draws, distributions, interest, rents), assets (real estate, accounts, business interests, retirement plans, vehicles, jewelry, receivables), debts (mortgages, loans, credit lines, guarantees), and any estate interests such as trust beneficiary rights or expected inheritances. Values are good-faith approximations as of a stated date.

The schedule does not require appraisals of every asset, but it must give the other spouse enough information to understand the bargain. A Florida appellate court noted in 2004 that an interest in an insurance agency listed as “Exact value unknown” with a note of its gross commissions was enough. The court wrote, “We do not read into Del Vecchio or Casto a requirement imposing a duty on Husband to hire an expert to determine a valuation of his interest in the agency before the parties could marry.”

What fails is leaving things out. The 2013 case where the postnup was set aside involved a husband who told his wife a postnup was needed for a recapitalization, understated his income, and left about $6.5 million in receivables off his schedule. Both of her lawyers told her not to sign. The wife signed anyway, and the court still set the agreement aside.

The lesson is that the schedule matters more than the lawyer count. Separate counsel protects against duress, but it does not cure a gap in the numbers.

Why Do Married Couples Sign a Postnuptial Agreement?

Every postnup has a reason, and that reason becomes the agreement’s recital. The firm asks at the first consultation why now, not to judge, but because the reason shapes what the agreement needs to do.

A business about to be started or sold is one of the common reasons. One spouse is taking a risk or receiving a payout, and both want to know what belongs to whom before the money arrives or leaves.

A spouse leaving work to raise children is another. The spouse who stops earning wants to know that the years at home will not leave them with nothing if the marriage ends.

An inheritance or a parent’s home is a third. A parent may be about to transfer property, and the child wants to keep it separate, or the couple wants to agree on how it will be treated.

A second marriage with children on either side is a fourth. Each spouse may want to preserve assets for children from an earlier relationship while still providing for the new spouse.

A prenup the couple ran out of time to sign is a fifth. The wedding happened, and the agreement did not, and now the couple wants to finish what they started.

A reconciliation is a sixth. The couple separated, decided to stay together, and wants to put ground rules in place before moving forward.

What Should the Stay-at-Home Spouse Ask for in a Postnup?

The spouse who is thinking about leaving work to raise children should ask what happens if they do. Years out of the workforce are years without income, without retirement contributions in their own name, and without the resume that gets them back. The postnup is where to put a safety net.

A share of growth during the marriage is one thing to ask for. The working spouse’s income and investments may increase while the stay-at-home spouse’s do not.

An alimony schedule is another. Florida allows durational alimony for up to 75 percent of a long-term marriage. The postnup can set a number or a formula, or it can waive modification so the amount stays fixed.

Life insurance is a third. The stay-at-home spouse can ask to be named as beneficiary on a policy large enough to replace years of support.

Retirement contributions in their own name is a fourth. The working spouse can agree to fund an IRA or to keep a share of their employer plan in the other spouse’s name.

Keeping death-side rights rather than waiving them is a fifth. The elective share is 30 percent of the elective estate. The stay-at-home spouse may want to keep that rather than give it up.

The Florida Supreme Court stated in 1987 that “If an agreement that is unreasonable is freely entered into, it is enforceable.” That rule cuts both ways. The spouse who is asked to sign a postnup that gives up everything should remember that the spouse who asks for too little may be stuck with what they asked for.

What If Your Spouse Gives You One Week to Sign or Else?

A deadline backed by a threat is a warning sign. A spouse handed one week to choose between a postnup and a divorce should pay attention to what that kind of pressure means.

Duress and coercion are the first of the two grounds Florida courts use to set a postnup aside. The Florida Supreme Court in Casto held that a spouse may set aside an agreement by proving it was the product of fraud, duress, coercion, misrepresentation, or overreaching. A Fourth District Court of Appeal case in 1990 added that when both spouses do not have separate counsel, the couple stays in a fiduciary relationship, and each has a responsibility to the other. The court wrote, “Unless both spouses have separate counsel at the time of preparation and execution of the agreement, the marital relationship remains in a non-adversarial stance, and each party has fiduciary-like responsibility to the other.”

What the spouse receiving the draft should do before signing anything is hire your own lawyer, request a full financial disclosure from the other side, take time to read and negotiate, and never sign on a deadline someone else sets. If the other side already drafted the agreement, the firm reviews it for a flat fee from $750. The fee covers a full analysis measured against Florida’s default rules and a call to explain what you would be giving up.

Does a Postnup Change What Happens When You Die?

A postnup can waive every surviving-spouse right Florida law provides, and those waivers take effect immediately. The estate documents need to match the agreement the day it is signed, not later.

A Fourth District Court of Appeal case in 2011 shows the risk. A husband signed a will in 2002 leaving gifts to his wife. In 2007 the couple signed a postnuptial agreement waiving “all rights.” They never separated. When he died, the court held the postnup erased the wife’s gifts under the earlier will. The court wrote that because the 2002 will was signed before the 2007 agreement, the postnup “waived any benefits that would have passed to Andrea under the 2002 will.”

The erasure of gifts in an earlier will follows the statute. Once an all-rights waiver is signed, a will drafted before it no longer governs what the waiving spouse receives.

Another Fourth District case made a related point about a prenup. One spouse signed a trust after the couple’s prenuptial agreement, trying to loosen the earlier waiver. The court held that under the premarital agreement act, a prenup can be changed only by a writing signed by both spouses. The firm applies the same rule to a postnup by contract and practice. One spouse acting alone cannot undo the bargain.

Federal law adds a step for workplace retirement plans. A 401(k) or pension requires a spousal consent on the plan’s own form, signed after the wedding. The firm coordinates the will, the trust, the deed, the beneficiary forms, and the retirement consent so they all say the same thing, and has them signed the day the postnup is signed.

Can You Fix a Bad Prenup With a Postnup?

A postnup can stand in for a prenup that was never signed, or ratify one that was signed under pressure. A postnup must pass the same Casto test on its own.

A Second District case in 2007 involved a dentist worth about $800,000 and a hygienist worth about $12,000 who signed a prenup within 24 hours of the wedding after a sign-or-no-marriage ultimatum. The prenup was held voidable. A postnup signed after the wedding, with full disclosure and independent counsel, could have replaced it. The later agreement would be judged by the Casto grounds, not by the defects in the earlier prenup.

The opposite path also appears in the cases. A Fourth District case in 1992 involved a postnup signed without fair disclosure. The postnup failed, and the court held the couple’s earlier prenup revived. When a postnup falls, the agreement it was meant to replace can spring back.

The practical version of this is the couple who ran out of time. The couple talked about a prenup, drafted one, argued over a clause, and married without signing. A postnup lets them close the deal after the wedding, so long as both now have lawyers and both provide fair disclosure. The higher standard on disclosure is the price of signing late. Couples in this spot often wish they had signed six months before the wedding instead.

How Do You Change or Revoke a Marital Agreement Later?

A marital agreement signed after the wedding can be amended or revoked, but only by a writing signed by both spouses. No amount of conduct, joint accounts, or shared expenses changes the agreement without a signed document.

When the amendment or revocation touches rights at death, it needs the same formalities as the original waiver. Two subscribing witnesses must sign, and the firm adds a notary. The notary is not required by statute, but it settles any later question about the signatures.

A pending Miami lawsuit illustrates what happens when those steps are skipped. According to the widow’s complaint, a couple signed a prenuptial agreement in September 2018 with the wife waiving her elective share. The husband later wanted to revoke it. The complaint alleges the revocation was signed three times. The first time it was notarized but had no witnesses. The second time it was witnessed by the wife’s own lawyer and her father with a notary watching over a FaceTime call who was not a registered Florida online notary. The third time, the complaint alleges, two witnesses and a notary were present, but the lawyer watched from the pool area about ten feet away while the husband, masked because of the pandemic, signed inside the house. The complaint alleges the husband’s own lawyer was never told. And several weeks earlier, according to the complaint, the same firm had drafted an amendment that said the prenuptial agreement “shall remain in full force and effect and are hereby ratified and affirmed.”

Nothing in that case has been decided on the merits. The lesson is that a revocation is itself a marital agreement and should be executed with the same care as the document it undoes.

What Is the Process for Getting a Postnuptial Agreement in Florida?

The firm’s process runs in six steps.

1. The consultation. By phone, free. The first questions are why now (that reason becomes the agreement’s recital), whether there are children from earlier relationships on either side, what each spouse roughly owns and earns, whether the other spouse knows, and whether the marriage is intact or failing.
2. The disclosure schedules. Each spouse lists income, assets, debts, and estate interests with good-faith values. The firm helps one spouse build their schedule; the other spouse’s lawyer does the same.
3. The first draft. The firm sends the draft agreement to the other spouse’s lawyer for review. The other spouse is never without counsel.
4. Revisions. Up to two rounds of negotiation with the other lawyer are included in the flat fee. Negotiation beyond two rounds is quoted in writing before it begins.
5. The signing. Both spouses sign before two subscribing witnesses and a notary. If one spouse is out of state or prefers to sign from home, Florida online notarization is available. Under Florida’s remote witnessing rules, a document that waives spousal rights at death requires the signer to answer screening questions before the witnesses may appear remotely.
6. The estate documents. The firm coordinates the will, trust, deed and beneficiary forms so they say what the agreement says, and has them signed the same day the postnup is signed. The retirement plan spousal consent is signed on the plan’s own form.

When Is a Postnup the Wrong Tool?

A postnup is not the right fit for every married couple.

When the marriage is already failing, the agreement is closer to a settlement than a planning document. A couple who has separated or filed for divorce is no longer in an intact marriage, and a different set of rules applies after a judgment. The firm can still help, but the engagement looks different and is quoted separately.

When both spouses want to keep everything marital, no agreement is needed. Florida already treats assets acquired during the marriage as marital property for divorce purposes and gives the surviving spouse a share at death. An agreement changes the default; if the default is what you want, skip it.

When one spouse is challenging an existing agreement, that is litigation. The firm quotes litigation per matter, not at a flat fee. A challenge involves discovery, depositions, and a trial on whether the agreement was the product of fraud, duress, coercion, or overreaching, or whether disclosure was adequate.

The free consultation sorts this out. The first call identifies what you actually need and whether this firm can provide it. If a postnup is the right tool, the fee is a flat fee from $2,950. If it is not, you will know before you spend anything.

Frequently Asked Questions

Common Situations

A woman whose husband was about to sell a technology company he had started before their marriage asked for a postnup. The husband wanted everything from the sale treated as separate property. Before signing, each spouse completed a disclosure schedule listing income, assets, debts and the husband’s estimated interest in the company. The postnup defined the sale proceeds as separate property, gave the wife a share of what had been saved during the marriage, and kept her rights at death. The signing happened two weeks before the sale closed.

A second-marriage couple, each with adult children from earlier marriages, wanted to keep what they brought into the marriage separate and leave it to their own children. The couple signed a postnup that waived the elective share, the intestate share and homestead rights on both sides. The same afternoon the firm prepared new wills for each of them, naming their own children as beneficiaries, and updated the beneficiary forms on their retirement accounts. The couple walked out with a signed agreement and two new estate plans.

Sources of Law

• Waiver of spousal rights at death: Fla. Stat. §732.702 (2026) (a written waiver signed before two subscribing witnesses; fair disclosure required only when the waiver is signed after marriage; "all rights" language waives the elective share, intestate share, pretermitted share, homestead, exempt property, family allowance and preference as personal representative).
• Postnuptial agreements are judged under Casto, not under §61.079, which reaches only agreements signed in contemplation of marriage; the death-side waiver in a postnup needs fair disclosure under §732.702(2).
• Elective share: Fla. Stat. §732.201, §732.2065 (30 percent of the elective estate) and §732.2135 (2026) (the election is filed within 6 months after service of the notice of administration and within 2 years after death; an extension must be requested before the time expires); §733.212(8) (a waiver of service of the notice of administration counts as service on the date the waiver is filed).
• Homestead: Fla. Const. art. X, §4(c); Fla. Stat. §732.401 and §732.4015 (2026) (descent of homestead and the devise restriction when a spouse or minor child survives); §732.7025 (the deed waiver).
• Divorce side: Fla. Stat. §61.075 (2026) (equitable distribution; marital and nonmarital assets, enhancement of nonmarital assets by marital labor or funds) and §61.08 (alimony).
• The pending Miami-Dade lawsuit over a lapsed elective share is described from the complaint filed October 23, 2026 and the probate order of August 12, 2026 as allegations only; no party, lawyer or judge is named on this site and nothing has been decided on the merits.
• Cases, each read in full from the opinion files under reference/caselaw/: Casto v. Casto, 508 So. 2d 330 (Fla. 1987); Waton v. Waton, 887 So. 2d 419 (Fla. 4th DCA 2004); Tenneboe v. Tenneboe, 558 So. 2d 470 (Fla. 4th DCA 1990); Kearney v. Kearney, 129 So. 3d 381 (Fla. 1st DCA 2013); Steffens v. Evans, 70 So. 3d 758 (Fla. 4th DCA 2011); Bakos v. Bakos, 950 So. 2d 1257 (Fla. 2d DCA 2007); Stregack v. Moldofsky, 474 So. 2d 206 (Fla. 1985).
• Fees: the firm's posted fee schedule, posted October 6, 2026 and honored 90 days from posting; government costs are additional and passed through at cost. Secure Will Estate Plan and lady bird deed fees on the pricing page.
Statute text compared with the 2026 Florida Statutes on 2026-11-11.

Related Guides

Florida Postnuptial Agreement: What It Settles, Prenup vs Postnup: Which One Do You Need?, Can You Get a Prenup After Marriage? The Postnup Option, My Spouse Wants a Postnup: What to Know First, Florida Postmarital Agreement, Florida Prenup Financial Disclosure: What Is Required, Does a Prenup Apply at Death in Florida? Yes, Elective Share: 30% a Spouse Can Claim, Florida Attorney.

What I Have Learned About Postnuptial Agreements

In 14 years of law practice, I have seen postnuptial agreements fail more often for missing disclosures than for missing lawyers. I also litigate these agreements after they fail, which enhances the practice of drafting them.

I have a few take-home points.

The first is the disclosure schedule. A 2013 First District Court of Appeal case involved a husband who told his wife the postnup was needed for a recapitalization. He understated his income and left about $6.5 million in receivables off his schedule. Two lawyers told the wife not to sign. She signed anyway. The court set the agreement aside. The court wrote, “postnuptial agreements governing disposition of the parties’ assets are not enforceable if entered into in the absence of full and fair disclosure of the assets at issue.” The schedule is what held, not the lawyer count.

The second is the estate documents. A postnup can erase gifts in a will you signed before it. The firm redoes the will, trust, deed and beneficiary forms the same day the postnup is signed so that everything says the same thing.

Avoid signing without your own lawyer, without seeing the other side’s disclosure, or on a deadline someone else set.

One honest limit is that a postnup cannot settle child support, parental responsibility or time-sharing. A court decides those later by the child’s best interests.

Kevin D. Klagge, Esq., admitted in Florida since 2012. General information rather than advice on your situation.

Updated on November 12, 2026. Reviewed by Kevin D. Klagge, Esq., Fla. Bar No. 99502.

General information about Florida law, not legal advice, and no attorney-client relationship is created. Do not send confidential information until we have agreed to represent you.