Pembroke Pines Prenuptial Agreement Attorney

By Nadia Pazos, Family Law Attorney, Pazos Law Group · Updated July 2026

Pembroke Pines is one of Broward's largest family-oriented suburbs, home to dual-income households, homeowners and small-business owners. A prenuptial agreement gives these couples a clear, shared understanding as they build a life together.

Prenuptial Agreements for Pembroke Pines Couples

A prenuptial agreement is a contract made before marriage that describes how a couple will handle property, income and debts if the marriage ends. Florida law governs these agreements through Fla. Stat. § 61.079, which sets out what makes a premarital contract enforceable.

In Pembroke Pines, prenups commonly address the family home, retirement and college savings, student or business debt, and income earned by two working spouses. Clear terms help a busy household avoid confusion down the road.

Why Pembroke Pines Couples Use Prenuptial Agreements

When both partners work and share a mortgage, questions of what is joint and what is separate can become complicated. A prenuptial agreement lets a Pembroke Pines couple agree in advance on how income, savings and debts will be handled.

Knowing how Florida treats marital versus separate property makes those conversations easier. Our marital asset division calculator provides a general overview, and your own terms should be tailored with an attorney.

Read the Detailed Florida Prenup Requirements

Are Prenuptial Agreements Enforceable in Florida?

Yes, and the governing text is short. Fla. Stat. § 61.079 runs to ten subsections and can be read start to finish in about ten minutes. Section 61.079(3) sets the bar: a writing, signed by both parties, enforceable “without consideration other than the marriage itself.” Section 61.079(5) adds that the agreement “becomes effective upon marriage of the parties.” Section 61.079(1) limits the statute to proceedings under the Florida Family Law Rules of Procedure.

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

It falls on the challenger, not on the spouse relying on the document. Under § 61.079(7)(a) an agreement is unenforceable only where “the party against whom enforcement is sought proves” one of the following:

1. Under § 61.079(7)(a)1., that the challenger “did not execute the agreement voluntarily” — the ground most often argued when a document is signed on the eve of the wedding.
2. Under § 61.079(7)(a)2., that the agreement “was the product of fraud, duress, coercion, or overreaching.”
3. Under § 61.079(7)(a)3., that the agreement “was unconscionable when it was executed,” combined with all three disclosure failures listed at subparagraphs a., b., and c.: no “fair and reasonable disclosure of the property or financial obligations of the other party,” no written waiver of that disclosure, and no adequate knowledge of it.

A complete asset schedule can address the disclosure component of § 61.079(7)(a)3., but it does not resolve separate claims involving voluntariness, fraud, duress, coercion, or overreaching. Under § 61.079(7)(c), unconscionability “shall be decided by the court as a matter of law,” so a Seventeenth Judicial Circuit judge rules on it directly.

There is a public-assistance floor. Under § 61.079(7)(b), a court may order support notwithstanding the agreement if the waiver would leave a spouse “eligible for support under a program of public assistance” at separation or dissolution. Time limits are suspended while the marriage lasts: § 61.079(9) tolls any applicable statute of limitations, though laches and estoppel remain available.

Timing decides which body of law applies. Because § 61.079(2)(a) covers only agreements “made in contemplation of marriage,” a document signed after the ceremony is judged under Casto v. Casto, 508 So. 2d 330 (Fla. 1987), rather than under the statute. Section 61.079 can be read in full on the Florida Legislature’s site at leg.state.fl.us.

Does a Florida Prenup Have to Be Notarized?

No. Florida imposes no notary or witness requirement; § 61.079(3) asks for a writing signed by both parties. A Pembroke Pines couple may notarize as a practical safeguard. Note also § 61.079(6): once the couple is married, the agreement can be amended, revoked, or abandoned “only by a written agreement signed by the parties,” and that amendment too is enforceable without consideration.

What a Pembroke Pines Prenup Can and Cannot Cover

A Florida prenuptial agreement can define property rights, debt responsibility and spousal support, but it cannot decide child support or custody ahead of time. Under Fla. Stat. § 61.13, those matters are always resolved based on the best interests of the child.

What it cannot do is fix a child’s support or a parenting schedule in advance. Those issues remain with the court under the best-interests standard in Fla. Stat. § 61.13.

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

Florida does not leave the scope to guesswork. Section 61.079(4)(a) sets out eight subjects a Pembroke Pines couple may address:

• the rights and obligations of each party in property “whenever and wherever acquired or located” (§ 61.079(4)(a)1.);
• the right to buy, sell, lease, encumber, dispose of, or otherwise manage and control property (§ 61.079(4)(a)2.);
• the disposition of property on separation, dissolution, or death (§ 61.079(4)(a)3.);
• “the establishment, modification, waiver, or elimination of spousal support” (§ 61.079(4)(a)4.);
• the making of a will, trust, or other arrangement to carry out the agreement (§ 61.079(4)(a)5.);
• ownership and disposition of life insurance death benefits (§ 61.079(4)(a)6.);
• the choice of law governing construction of the agreement (§ 61.079(4)(a)7.); and
• “any other matter” not violating public policy or a criminal statute (§ 61.079(4)(a)8.).

A Pembroke Pines couple can state that each spouse's income remains that spouse's separate property, an arrangement the statute allows because property expressly includes income and earnings. Section 61.079(2)(b) is the sleeper provision: property includes interests that are “present or future, legal or equitable, vested or contingent” and expressly includes “income and earnings, both active and passive.” A Pembroke Pines agreement can therefore reach things the couple does not yet own.

The alternative to contracting is litigating under § 61.075. That section makes the court classify each asset first: § 61.075(6)(b) keeps pre-marriage assets and gifts or inheritances on the nonmarital side, but § 61.075(6)(a)1.b. moves any enhancement produced by marital effort or marital money into the marital estate. Kaaa v. Kaaa, 58 So. 3d 867 (Fla. 2010), governs passive appreciation where marital funds serviced the debt.

Alimony can be fixed or waived outright: § 61.079(4)(a)4. covers “the establishment, modification, waiver, or elimination of spousal support,” which takes the 2023 version of § 61.08 out of the picture except for the § 61.079(7)(b) floor. 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.” Support is formulaic rather than negotiable. Section 61.30 supplies the guidelines schedule, and the inputs — each parent’s net income and the number of overnights — are found by the court, not fixed by contract.

Parenting decisions stay with the court. Section 61.13(2)(c), as amended effective 1 July 2023, presumes equal time-sharing is in the child’s best interests; a contract signed years earlier does not displace it.

There is one further limit on the adult terms. Section 61.079(7)(b) allows a court to order support notwithstanding a waiver where the waiver would leave a spouse eligible for public assistance, and § 61.079(4)(a)8. bars any term that violates “the public policy of this state or a law imposing a criminal penalty.”

How Much Does a Prenup Cost in Pembroke Pines, Florida?

A prenuptial agreement carries no filing fee, no recording fee, and no court cost. Those appear only if the agreement is contested in a dissolution case years later. Where the finances are simple the agreement is short; where a business, an inheritance, deferred compensation, or foreign holdings are involved the drafting is substantially more involved. Separate counsel for each spouse is the norm in Broward County. Scope is set during the consultation, once the assets are known.

Three things drive the work: the length of the disclosure schedule needed to satisfy § 61.079(7)(a)3.a., whether any asset requires a valuation, and how many rounds of negotiation the parties take. Agreements that separate ongoing income need careful drafting around household expenses, which is where the added time goes.

Pazos Law Group determines the scope after learning what the agreement must address and confirms the fee before work begins. Starting early gives both parties more time for disclosure, independent review, and negotiation. Florida law sets no fixed waiting period, but the timing and circumstances of signing may be relevant to whether execution was voluntary under § 61.079(7)(a)1.

Florida Prenup Rules at a Glance

Everything above, compressed into the statutory pinpoints that decide a Broward County case:

• Governing statute: Fla. Stat. § 61.079, which § 61.079(1) names the Uniform Premarital Agreement Act.
• Form: a writing signed by both parties, enforceable without consideration beyond the marriage (§ 61.079(3)).
• Notary or witnesses: not required anywhere in § 61.079(3).
• Effective date: the agreement takes effect on the marriage itself (§ 61.079(5)).
• Grounds to void: only the three listed in § 61.079(7)(a), proved by the party resisting enforcement.
• Cannot be waived: a child’s right to support (§ 61.079(4)(b)); support is set under § 61.30 and time-sharing under § 61.13(2)(c).
• Default without an agreement: equitable distribution under § 61.075 and alimony under § 61.08.
• Changing it later: only by a written agreement signed by both parties (§ 61.079(6)).
• Where it is filed: nowhere. A dissolution, by contrast, is filed with the Broward County Clerk in the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit.

Drafting an Agreement vs. Reviewing One

There is a real difference between writing the agreement and being handed one. Writing it means controlling the schedule of assets, the choice-of-law clause under § 61.079(4)(a)7., and how appreciation is allocated. Being handed one means checking, before signing, whether the disclosure satisfies § 61.079(7)(a)3.a. and whether the terms would survive the unconscionability analysis in § 61.079(7)(c).

How Pazos Law Group Helps Pembroke Pines Couples

Nadia Pazos holds an AV Preeminent rating and brings roughly twenty years of Broward and South Florida family law experience.

Frequently Asked Questions

Second Marriages and the Waiver of Spousal Estate Rights

Pembroke Pines is Broward’s second-largest city (U.S. Census Bureau, 2025 population estimates), and it includes Century Village, a 55-and-over condominium community. Where a marriage is a second or third one, the couple often arrives with grown children, an established estate plan, and a home each acquired long before they met.

For these couples the pressing question is usually not divorce. It is what happens at death, and Florida gives a surviving spouse rights that override a will. The elective share under Fla. Stat. § 732.2065 is thirty percent of the elective estate, and it is claimed regardless of what the will says. A spouse also has rights to exempt property, a family allowance and an intestate or pretermitted share.

These rights can be waived, and § 732.702 is the provision that does it — before or after marriage, wholly or partly. Two features of that section matter enormously in practice and are routinely missed. First, the execution formality is stricter than an ordinary prenuptial agreement: the waiver must be signed by the waiving party in the presence of two subscribing witnesses, where § 61.079(3) asks only for a signed writing. A prenuptial agreement executed to the looser standard may be perfectly good as to property and still fail as a waiver of estate rights. Second, § 732.702(2) requires fair disclosure of the estate only where the waiver is signed after marriage; no disclosure is required for one signed before it. The premarital timing is the advantage, and it is lost the day of the wedding.

The Condominium, the Children, and Florida Homestead

The single most common intention we hear from remarrying Pembroke Pines homeowners is simple: the unit should go to my children. Florida homestead law does not permit that intention to be carried out by a will alone.

Article X, section 4(c) of the Florida Constitution restricts the devise of homestead property where the owner is survived by a spouse or a minor child. Where the restriction applies and the property is devised anyway, § 732.401 supplies the result instead of the will: the surviving spouse takes a life estate with the remainder to the owner’s descendants, or may elect within the statutory period to take an undivided one-half interest as a tenant in common. Either way, the children do not receive the unit outright, and the two sides end up owning the same property together — frequently the worst outcome for everybody.

A properly drafted premarital waiver of homestead rights is the mechanism that lets the intention hold, and it has to be executed with the § 732.702 formalities to work. This is also the point at which a prenuptial agreement and an estate plan have to be written to agree with one another, because a waiver that is never reflected in the deed or the will leaves the family to sort out the mismatch.

Retirement Benefits, Survivor Elections and Beneficiary Forms

Pembroke Pines is also a substantial public employer in its own right, operating a municipal charter school system alongside city government, so a good many local households hold public retirement benefits — often combined with private plans from an earlier career elsewhere.

Retirement benefits behave differently from other assets in one respect that catches couples out. A prenuptial agreement can allocate the value of a plan between the parties, but it does not itself change who the plan pays. The plan administrator follows the beneficiary designation and the survivor annuity election on file, and those elections are frequently irrevocable once retirement begins. An agreement saying the pension belongs to one spouse, sitting alongside a decades-old form naming somebody else, produces litigation rather than clarity.

There is a further wrinkle for private plans. Federal law governing many of them generally will not recognise a spousal waiver signed before the wedding, on the straightforward ground that the person signing was not yet a spouse. The reliable approach is for the premarital agreement to record the couple’s intention and to commit both parties to execute the plan’s own consent and designation forms after the marriage — and then for somebody to confirm those forms were actually filed. Disputes about Pembroke Pines agreements are heard in the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit.

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A Clear Start for Pembroke Pines Families

A prenuptial agreement lets two partners talk openly about money and expectations before the wedding, which can strengthen a marriage rather than strain it. We help Pembroke Pines couples reach agreements that are balanced, transparent and sound under Florida law.

Postnuptial Agreements in Pembroke Pines

A large share of Pembroke Pines inquiries about prenuptial agreements come from couples who already married. The instrument for that situation is a postnuptial agreement — the same financial planning, signed after the wedding rather than before.

One distinction is worth stating plainly, because most online forms get it wrong: Fla. Stat. § 61.079 does not govern postnuptial agreements. Section 61.079(2)(a) defines the covered instrument as one “made in contemplation of marriage,” so an agreement signed after the wedding falls outside it. A Pembroke Pines postnuptial agreement is enforced under Florida common law and Casto v. Casto, 508 So. 2d 330 (Fla. 1987), which permits a court to set an agreement aside for fraud, duress, coercion, or overreaching, or where the agreement is unfair and full financial disclosure was not made.

A Pembroke Pines postnuptial agreement can classify separate and marital property, allocate debt, address a business, and define or waive spousal support that would otherwise fall under § 61.08. What it cannot do is affect a child’s right to support — that right belongs to the child and is calculated under § 61.30 regardless of what the spouses agree.

Florida postnuptial agreements: the full guide →

Prenuptial Agreements in Nearby Communities

The same § 61.079 analysis applies across South Florida. Nearby communities:

• Davie Prenuptial Agreement Attorney
• Fort Lauderdale Prenuptial Agreement Attorney
• Hollywood Prenuptial Agreement Attorney
• Las Olas Prenuptial Agreement Attorney
• Miramar Prenuptial Agreement Attorney
• Plantation Prenuptial Agreement Attorney
• All Florida Prenuptial Agreement Services

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More on Marital Agreements

• marital agreements in Weston — prenuptial and postnuptial contracts under § 61.079.
• our Florida prenup FAQ — the questions engaged couples ask most often.
• protecting founder equity in a prenup — how to address unvested shares and future financings.

This page explains Fla. Stat. § 61.079 in general terms and is not legal advice for any particular situation. Enforceability depends on facts a court weighs under § 61.079(7)(a), including whether a fair and reasonable disclosure was provided or validly waived. Reading this page creates no attorney-client relationship, and Florida law changes, so confirm the current statute before acting.