Florida Prenup With a Portuguese Spouse or Property in Portugal: Convenção Antenupcial, Comunhão de Adquiridos and Disclosure (2026)

By Nadia Pazos, Family Law Attorney, Pazos Law Group · Updated October 14, 2026

A fiancé(e) from Lisbon or Porto, an apartment in Portugal, a family business there, or a couple who married in Portugal and now lives in Miami: each raises the question of how Portugal’s marital-property rules and Florida law fit together. Pazos Law Group, a family law firm in Coral Gables serving Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties, drafts and reviews Florida prenups and postnups for couples with ties to Portugal, in English or Spanish: (305) 482-1262.

Two Systems, Two Formalities

• Florida: a premarital agreement “must be in writing and signed by both parties,” and “becomes effective upon marriage of the parties.” § 61.079(3), (5)
• Portugal: “Os esposos podem fixar livremente, em convenção antenupcial, o regime de bens do casamento, quer escolhendo um dos regimes previstos neste código, quer estipulando o que a esse respeito lhes aprouver, dentro dos limites da lei” (art. 1698.º). “As convenções antenupciais são válidas se forem celebradas por declaração prestada perante funcionário do registo civil ou por escritura pública” (art. 1710.º).
• Registration in Portugal: “As convenções antenupciais só produzem efeitos em relação a terceiros depois de registadas” (art. 1711.º(1)).
• Limits in Portugal: a convention cannot regulate the spouses’ inheritance (except as the Code allows), change the spouses’ rights or duties, or change the rules on administering the couple’s property (art. 1699.º(1)). If a spouse already has children, “não poderá ser convencionado o regime da comunhão geral” (art. 1699.º(2)).

Watch a short answer: Can a Florida prenup cover assets in another country?

Timing: Portugal Says Before the Wedding

This is the biggest difference from Florida. In Portugal, “fora dos casos previstos na lei, não é permitido alterar, depois da celebração do casamento, nem as convenções antenupciais nem os regimes de bens legalmente fixados” (art. 1714.º(1)); the exceptions are listed in art. 1715.º. Before the wedding, the convention “é livremente revogável ou modificável até à celebração do casamento” with the consent of everyone who signed it (art. 1712.º(1)), and it lapses “se o casamento não for celebrado dentro de um ano” (art. 1716.º).

Florida, by contrast, also allows an agreement after the wedding: a postnuptial agreement. See Florida postnuptial agreements. Whether Portugal would give effect to a Florida postnup for property in Portugal is a question for a lawyer in Portugal.

Which Law Governs the Property Regime?

Portugal is one of the Member States in the enhanced cooperation behind EU Regulation 2016/1103 (recital 11). For spouses who marry, or choose a law, after 29 January 2019 (art. 69(3)), the Regulation lets them choose the law of a State where either of them is habitually resident, or of either one’s nationality (art. 22(1)), in a writing “dated and signed by both spouses” (art. 23(1)); without a choice, the law is that of the spouses’ first common habitual residence after the marriage (art. 26(1)(a)). For earlier marriages, Portugal’s Civil Code looks first to “a lei nacional dos nubentes ao tempo da celebração do casamento” (art. 53.º(1)). A Florida prenup can include its own choice-of-law clause (§ 61.079(4)(a)7.); whether a Portuguese registry or court will give effect to it is a question for a lawyer in Portugal.

The Default: Comunhão de Adquiridos

“Na falta de convenção antenupcial, ou no caso de caducidade, invalidade ou ineficácia da convenção, o casamento considera-se celebrado sob o regime da comunhão de adquiridos” (art. 1717.º). Under it, each spouse keeps as their own “os bens que cada um deles tiver ao tempo da celebração do casamento” and property received later “por sucessão ou doação” (art. 1722.º(1)), while the community includes “o produto do trabalho dos cônjuges” and property acquired during the marriage that the law does not exclude (art. 1724.º).

Inheritance can be part of it. A Portuguese convention may include the spouses’ “renúncia recíproca à condição de herdeiro legitimário do outro cônjuge” (art. 1700.º(1)(c)), but only if the regime is separation of property (art. 1700.º(3)). Florida has its own rules for waiving a surviving spouse’s rights (Fla. Stat. § 732.702); see a Florida prenup and your will.

A Convenção Antenupcial in a Florida Divorce

• Florida is not a community-property state. § 61.075(8) states that the section does not “establish community property in this state”; Florida divides marital assets by equitable distribution.
• A written agreement controls classification. Assets “excluded from marital assets and liabilities by valid written agreement of the parties” are nonmarital (§ 61.075(6)(b)4.). A registered convenção antenupcial is a written agreement; the comunhão de adquiridos that applies by default under art. 1717.º is not one.
• Comity and public policy. Florida courts enforce foreign law “only to the extent called for under principles of comity,” and do not recognize it where it “would frustrate an established public policy of this state” (Gustafson v. Jensen, 515 So. 2d 1298, 1300 (Fla. 3d DCA 1987)).
• What to bring. A certified copy of the convention and its registration, and a certified English translation. More detail: enforcing a prenup or postnup in a Florida divorce.

Disclosing Assets in Portugal

Florida’s unconscionability defense turns on whether the challenging party received “a fair and reasonable disclosure of the property or financial obligations of the other party,” waived further disclosure in writing, or had adequate knowledge (§ 61.079(7)(a)3.). For Portuguese assets, the schedules should give each property’s location and approximate value in dollars, any mortgage, company shareholdings, Portuguese bank and pension accounts, and income from them, with translations where a party does not read Portuguese.

Pazos Law Group advises on Florida law and does not give opinions on Portuguese law. Where property is in Portugal or the couple married or will marry there, we coordinate with the client’s lawyer in Portugal so the Florida agreement and any convenção antenupcial do not contradict each other.

Consultations in person or by video, in English or Spanish. Meet Nadia at our Coral Gables office or by video from Portugal.

Frequently Asked Questions

Official Sources & Related Reading

• Código Civil (Portugal), arts. 53.º, 1698.º–1700.º, 1710.º–1717.º, 1722.º, 1724.º — Procuradoria-Geral Distrital de Lisboa, Ministério Público (official consolidated text)
• Regulation (EU) 2016/1103, recital 11 and arts. 22, 23, 26, 69 — EUR-Lex (official)
• Fla. Stat. § 61.079, Premarital agreements — Florida Senate
• Fla. Stat. § 61.075, Equitable distribution — Florida Senate
• Enforcing a Prenup or Postnup in a Florida Divorce
• International Prenups in Florida
• Is a Foreign or Out-of-State Prenup Valid in Florida?
• Florida Prenup With Brazilian Ties
• Esta página en español

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