Practice area
A prenuptial agreement is clarity, not pessimism.
Both partners decide the financial rules of their marriage while everything is easy. California law imposes strict requirements — full financial disclosure, independent review, and a mandatory waiting period before signing — and an agreement done casually is an agreement done twice. The firm represents one party, coordinates with your fiancé(e)’s counsel, and delivers an enforceable agreement quoted as a flat fee in writing.
Full disclosure
Each side’s assets and debts on the table, in writing.
Independent review
Each party with their own counsel, or the terms are at risk.
A waiting period
California requires time between the final draft and the signature.
Flat fee
Quoted in writing before drafting begins.
What California requires
A premarital agreement must be in writing and signed by both parties, and it must rest on a full and fair disclosure of each party’s property and obligations. An agreement signed without that disclosure is the one most likely to be set aside years later, when nobody involved can remember what was said.
California also requires at least seven calendar days between the moment a party is first presented with the final agreement and advised to seek independent counsel and the moment they sign it. Independent representation matters especially for spousal support terms, which a California court will not enforce against a party who was not represented by their own lawyer. This is why an agreement produced in the last week before a wedding is worth so much less than one produced in the months before it.
What it can and cannot decide
It can characterize what is separate property and what becomes community property, address income earned during the marriage, allocate debts, handle a business interest or a professional practice, protect an inheritance or a family property, and set out what happens to a home each side brings in. For a couple with children from an earlier relationship, it can keep an estate plan and a marriage from working against each other.
It cannot decide child support or custody. Those belong to the court and are determined by the child’s interests at the time, not by an agreement signed before the child existed.
How the engagement works
The firm represents one party — not the couple — and coordinates with your fiancé(e)’s counsel through disclosure, drafting, and revision. Both of you end up with an agreement you understand, which is also the version most likely to survive a challenge.
The fee is quoted as a flat fee in writing before drafting begins. Start months ahead of the wedding rather than weeks: the statutory waiting period is a floor, not a schedule, and rushing is the single most common reason these agreements fail.
Common questions
Prenuptial agreements
Do we each need our own attorney?
Effectively, yes. The firm represents one of you. In California, spousal support provisions are not enforceable against a party who was not represented by independent counsel, and independent review strengthens the rest of the agreement as well.
How early should we start?
Months, not weeks. California requires at least seven calendar days between the final agreement and signing, and honest disclosure and negotiation take considerably longer than that.
Is this only for wealthy couples?
No. It matters most where there is a business, real property, significant debt, or children from a previous relationship — and where two people would simply rather decide the terms themselves than leave them to a default rule.
Related
Other areas of the practice
Talk it through with an attorney.
A one-hour consultation by video — $300, credited in full toward your flat fee if you move forward. You leave knowing what you need and what it costs.