Prenuptial agreements are contracts that govern which spouse gets what assets in the event of a divorce.
But because they are marriage contracts, they are considered a special type of contract and have a lot of complex requirements that are not normally part of an ordinary contract.
If prenuptial agreements are carefully drafted, they can be upheld in Florida. They must be drafted and signed with extreme attention to detail.
Often, if a couple does divorce with a prenuptial agreement, both sides will spend large amounts of money either trying to throw out the prenuptial agreement or to uphold the agreement, especially if a significant amount of money is at stake in the divorce.
Therefore, it’s extremely important for each party to hire an attorney to carefully draft the prenup in accordance with Florida law.
In some cases, if only one party has an attorney, the prenuptial agreement may not be upheld later.
In addition, it’s likely that if you try to do your own prenuptial agreement, you will save some money at the beginning of the process, but you will spend a great deal more than you saved if the prenup is every challenged.
It’s also important that each side fully disclose their assets on the prenup as they stand at the time of the agreement.
If one partner is not truthful about their assets or liabilities up front, before the agreement is signed, the prenuptial agreement may not be upheld.
Also, if one spouse expects to earn a high income, that fact should be disclosed as well.
The more complete the disclosure, the more likely the prenuptial agreement is to be upheld later.
Finally, the prenuptial agreement should be completed well before the marriage.
If one partner presents the other with a prenuptial agreement one day before the wedding, and demands that it be signed, it’s unlikely to be upheld later, since it was entered into under duress.