Palm Beach Gardens Postnuptial & Prenuptial Agreement Attorney

By Nadia Pazos, Family Law Attorney, Pazos Law Group · Updated August 6, 2026

Palm Beach Gardens couples often come to a marital agreement later than they expected — after a business has grown, after a second home is purchased, after an inheritance arrives, or after a first marriage taught them what they wish had been settled in writing. Pazos Law Group drafts, reviews, and enforces both prenuptial and postnuptial agreements for clients in Palm Beach Gardens and throughout Palm Beach County, in English and Spanish.

Postnuptial Agreements in Palm Beach Gardens

A postnuptial agreement is a contract between spouses who are already married that sets out how property, debt, and support will be handled if the marriage ends. In a community like Palm Beach Gardens — where a meaningful share of household wealth sits in closely held businesses, professional practices, golf and club memberships, and second or seasonal residences — postnups are frequently the practical tool, because the couple is already past the wedding.

Because § 61.079 does not reach postnuptial agreements, the governing framework comes from case law. Under Casto v. Casto, 508 So. 2d 330 (Fla. 1987), a spouse challenging a marital agreement may generally proceed on two grounds: that the agreement was procured by fraud, deceit, duress, coercion, misrepresentation, or overreaching; or that the agreement is unfair or unreasonable given the parties’ circumstances, which can shift the burden to the defending spouse to show that there was either adequate disclosure or that the challenging spouse had general knowledge of the other’s finances.

The practical consequence is straightforward: disclosure carries more weight in a postnup than most people expect. Spouses already owe each other a relationship of trust, and a postnuptial agreement signed without a genuine exchange of financial information is the most common kind to be attacked later.

Why Palm Beach Gardens couples sign a postnuptial agreement

• A business grew during the marriage. Since July 1, 2024, § 61.075(6)(a)1.f. tells a Florida court how to value the marital interest in a closely held business, and treats enterprise goodwill as a marital asset. A postnup can fix that question by agreement instead of by expert testimony.
• An inheritance or family gift arrived. Inherited property is nonmarital under § 61.075(6)(b)2., but it can lose that character through commingling or through enhancement by marital effort under § 61.075(6)(a)1.b.
• A second or seasonal home was bought. Where marital funds pay down a mortgage on nonmarital real property, § 61.075(6)(a)1.c. makes both the principal paydown and a share of passive appreciation marital, using a coverture fraction the statute spells out.
• A prior marriage produced children. Couples in second marriages frequently want certainty about what passes to children from the first.
• The prenup never got signed. Plenty of couples intended one and ran out of time before the wedding.

Florida expressly permits spouses to contract around the default rules: § 61.075(6)(b)4. recognizes assets excluded from the marital estate “by valid written agreement of the parties.”

Prenuptial agreements for engaged Palm Beach Gardens couples

If you are not yet married, the prenuptial route is generally simpler, because the statute gives you a clear checklist. Under § 61.079(3), a Florida premarital agreement must be in writing and signed by both parties, and it is enforceable without any consideration other than the marriage itself. Notarization is not required by statute. The agreement takes effect upon marriage.

Under § 61.079(4)(a), a prenup may address the rights and obligations of each party in property, the right to buy, sell, or otherwise manage property, the disposition of property on separation or divorce, and it may establish, modify, waive, or eliminate spousal support. Under § 61.079(7), enforcement can be resisted where the agreement was not executed voluntarily, or where it was the product of fraud, duress, coercion, or overreaching, or where it was unconscionable when executed and there was no fair disclosure and no valid written waiver of disclosure.

One limit applies to both instruments: parents cannot contract away a child’s right to support. Child support is set under § 61.30 and time-sharing under § 61.13, and those determinations belong to the court.

How the process works

Most Palm Beach Gardens matters follow the same arc. We start with a confidential conversation about what you actually want protected. We then prepare a financial disclosure schedule — the single most important document in the file, and the one that determines whether the agreement survives a challenge years later. We draft, your spouse or fiancé(e) reviews with their own counsel, and the agreement is revised until both sides are comfortable signing it voluntarily.

We also review agreements that someone else prepared. If a document has been put in front of you and you are unsure what you are giving up, that review is worth having before you sign, not after.

Bilingual representation

Pazos Law Group works in English and Spanish. In agreements where one spouse is more comfortable in Spanish, we make sure that person understands the document in their own language before signing — which matters both practically and, if the agreement is later challenged as involuntary, evidentially.

Our office is in Coral Gables and we represent clients throughout Palm Beach County, including Palm Beach Gardens, Jupiter, Palm Beach, and Wellington.

Are Prenuptial Agreements Enforceable in Florida?

Yes. Enforceability in Palm Beach Gardens turns on a single section of the Florida Statutes and on nothing in the local rules of the Fifteenth Judicial Circuit. Two subsections do the formation work. Section 61.079(3) requires that the agreement be “in writing and signed by both parties” and dispenses with consideration beyond the marriage. Section 61.079(5) provides that the agreement “becomes effective upon marriage of the parties,” which means an engagement that ends before the wedding leaves nothing to enforce.

Who Has the Burden of Proof Under § 61.079(7)(a)?

The spouse resisting the agreement carries it. Section 61.079(7)(a) provides that a premarital agreement “is not enforceable” if “the party against whom enforcement is sought proves” one of three things:

1. Involuntary execution. Section 61.079(7)(a)1. asks whether the party “did not execute the agreement voluntarily.”
2. Fraud, duress, coercion, or overreaching. Section 61.079(7)(a)2. voids an agreement that “was the product of fraud, duress, coercion, or overreaching.”
3. Unconscionability plus a disclosure failure. Section 61.079(7)(a)3. requires that the agreement “was unconscionable when it was executed” and that the challenger received no “fair and reasonable disclosure,” signed no written waiver of disclosure, and had no adequate knowledge of the other party’s property or financial obligations.

Because § 61.079(7)(a)3. requires unconscionability and a disclosure failure and no written waiver and no adequate knowledge, a complete asset schedule attached to the agreement usually ends the argument. The unconscionability question is for the judge. Section 61.079(7)(c) states that it “shall be decided by the court as a matter of law.”

Even a fully valid waiver of alimony has a floor. Section 61.079(7)(b) lets the court order support where the waiver would otherwise make a spouse eligible for a public assistance program. Under § 61.079(9), a limitations period on a claim arising from the agreement does not run during the marriage, but equitable defenses still apply.

Note the boundary drawn by § 61.079(2)(a): the Act reaches only agreements made in contemplation of marriage. After the wedding, the controlling authority is Casto v. Casto, 508 So. 2d 330 (Fla. 1987). The official text of the statute is available from the Florida Legislature at leg.state.fl.us.

Does a Florida Prenup Have to Be Notarized?

No. Section 61.079(3) requires a writing signed by both parties and nothing else — no notary, no witnesses, no recording. Many Palm Beach Gardens couples notarize anyway because a notarized signature is harder to dispute years later, but notarization is not a condition of enforceability. Amendment is stricter than execution: § 61.079(6) provides that after marriage the agreement “may be amended, revoked, or abandoned only by a written agreement signed by the parties.”

What Can a Prenup Cover Under § 61.079(4)(a)?

The menu is statutory. Section 61.079(4)(a) allows contracting over eight enumerated subjects:

• Property rights generally — each party’s rights in property “whenever and wherever acquired or located” (§ 61.079(4)(a)1.).
• Control of property — the power to buy, sell, transfer, lease, mortgage, encumber, or otherwise manage it (§ 61.079(4)(a)2.).
• What happens on separation, divorce, or death (§ 61.079(4)(a)3.).
• Spousal support — its “establishment, modification, waiver, or elimination” (§ 61.079(4)(a)4.).
• Estate documents — the making of a will or trust to carry out the agreement (§ 61.079(4)(a)5.).
• Life insurance — ownership and disposition of the death benefit (§ 61.079(4)(a)6.).
• Choice of law governing how the agreement is construed (§ 61.079(4)(a)7.).
• A catch-all for “any other matter” that does not violate public policy or a criminal law (§ 61.079(4)(a)8.).

A Palm Beach Gardens couple already married can sign a postnuptial agreement fixing the current value of a company and providing that later growth is divided by a stated formula. Those categories are broad because the defined term is broad. Section 61.079(2)(b) treats property as any interest “present or future, legal or equitable, vested or contingent,” tangible or intangible, “including income and earnings, both active and passive.”

The equitable distribution scheme in § 61.075 is what an agreement displaces. Section 61.075(6)(b) protects pre-marriage, gifted, and inherited property; § 61.075(6)(a)1.b. carves out any enhancement traceable to marital effort or marital funds; and Kaaa v. Kaaa, 58 So. 3d 867 (Fla. 2010), addresses passive appreciation on a mortgaged nonmarital asset.

A support clause is often the most valuable term. Section 61.079(4)(a)4. authorizes establishing, modifying, waiving, or eliminating spousal support, displacing the durational limits and calculations of § 61.08 as amended in 2023. For couples who want disputes resolved privately, § 61.052(5) authorizes enforcement of an antenuptial arbitration agreement under the law and tradition the parties select.

What a Prenup Cannot Waive (§ 61.079(4)(b))

Section 61.079(4)(b) is one sentence long and it is absolute: “The right of a child to support may not be adversely affected by a premarital agreement.” A clause purporting to cap or waive child support has no effect. The number comes from the § 61.30 guidelines and is recalculated on the facts in front of the court.

Nor can the agreement fix time-sharing. The 2023 amendment to § 61.13(2)(c) created a rebuttable presumption of equal time-sharing, and that presumption is applied by the court in the dissolution case itself.

Two outer boundaries apply to the rest of the document: the public-assistance override in § 61.079(7)(b), and the limit in § 61.079(4)(a)8. against terms contrary to public policy or to a criminal statute.

How Much Does a Prenup Cost in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida?

Unlike a dissolution, a prenuptial agreement is never docketed, so a Palm Beach Gardens couple pays no court costs to put one in place. Most Palm Beach Gardens prenups are handled on a flat fee that varies by complexity. Simple two-person agreements with salary income and a home tend to sit at the low end of a four-figure range; agreements that have to describe a company, a trust, or assets held abroad move into the upper four figures or beyond. Because each spouse should be separately represented, budget for two fees rather than one, and expect any quote to follow a review of the assets.

The cost drivers are consistent — the size of the disclosure schedule that § 61.079(7)(a)3.a. effectively requires, the need for a valuation, and the number of drafts exchanged. A postnuptial agreement usually costs more than a prenup of the same scope, because the marital estate already exists and has to be valued as of the signing date.

Starting early is both cheaper and safer. A document signed days before the ceremony invites the voluntariness argument in § 61.079(7)(a)1. and usually costs more because everything is compressed. For comparison, a contested dissolution begins with the filing fee set by the Palm Beach County Clerk and grows with each contested valuation, deposition, and hearing. The agreement is almost always the less expensive path.

How Long Does a Divorce Take in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida?

Two things must be true at filing. Section 61.021 requires six months of Florida residence by one spouse before the petition is filed, in the statute’s words that “one of the parties to the marriage must reside 6 months in the state,” and § 61.052(1)(a) requires that the marriage be irretrievably broken.

There is no statutory cooling-off period. Under § 61.052(2)(a), an uncontested case with no minor child ends when the court finds the marriage irretrievably broken. If there is a minor child, or the ground is denied, § 61.052(2)(b) permits the court to order counseling or to continue the case “for a reasonable length of time not to exceed 3 months.”

Expect a mediation before any final hearing. Section 61.183 permits referral of contested issues, § 44.102 addresses court-ordered mediation, and § 44.405 keeps the discussions confidential and privileged. Palm Beach Gardens is in northern Palm Beach County; family cases are heard in the Fifteenth Judicial Circuit.

The timeline effect of an agreement is direct: equitable distribution under § 61.075 and alimony under § 61.08 drop out, and the case narrows to the child-related issues § 61.079(4)(b) preserves. Florida’s court system publishes family-court information and approved forms at flcourts.gov.

Florida Prenup Rules at a Glance

A short reference for Palm Beach Gardens couples, each line tied to the subsection that supplies it:

• What controls: Fla. Stat. § 61.079, adopted as the Uniform Premarital Agreement Act.
• What is required: a signed writing, and nothing else (§ 61.079(3)).
• When it starts: at the marriage (§ 61.079(5)); an agreement never followed by a wedding is inoperative.
• Who must prove what: the party resisting enforcement, under § 61.079(7)(a).
• Support floor: a waiver yields where it would leave a spouse on public assistance (§ 61.079(7)(b)).
• Children: support cannot be adversely affected (§ 61.079(4)(b)); the guidelines are in § 61.30 and time-sharing in § 61.13(2)(c).
• The alternative: litigating classification under § 61.075 and alimony under § 61.08 in the Fifteenth Judicial Circuit.
• Later changes: a signed writing is required (§ 61.079(6)).
• Postnuptial agreements: outside § 61.079 and governed by Casto v. Casto, 508 So. 2d 330 (Fla. 1987).

Frequently Asked Questions

Related Pages

• Florida Postnuptial Agreement Attorney
• Florida Prenuptial Agreement Attorney
• Jupiter Prenup & Postnuptial Agreement Attorney
• Palm Beach Prenup & Postnuptial Agreement Attorney
• Wellington Prenup & Postnuptial Agreement Attorney
• Florida Prenup FAQ

This page is general information about Florida prenuptial agreements under Fla. Stat. § 61.079 and is not legal advice. Whether a particular agreement is enforceable depends on the facts, the disclosures exchanged, and the circumstances of signing, all of which a court evaluates under § 61.079(7)(a). Reading this page does not create an attorney-client relationship. Statutes change; confirm the current text at leg.state.fl.us and consult a licensed Florida attorney about your situation.