A postnup prepared by a California attorney, for a flat fee of $895

Who prepares your agreement

Your agreement is prepared in the office of attorney Rozsa Gyene, licensed in California since 2000 (26 years of experience), State Bar of California No. 208356, from your answers. She acts for you, and she approves the final version herself before it is delivered.

The office is in Burbank, and the whole matter is handled online, anywhere in California.

This office acts for one party only. The other party is free to retain any California lawyer they choose, and this office will not advise them.

What the $895 flat fee covers

The fee is $895, quoted before any work begins and stated in the fee agreement you sign first.

• An attorney-prepared postnuptial agreement, written from your answers to the questionnaire in your portal.
• Full written disclosure of what each of you owns, owes and earns.
• A written statement for any property whose ownership changes: separate to shared, shared to separate, or one spouse’s to the other’s.
• A draft for you to read before the final version is prepared.
• Seven full days with the final version before signing: the day you receive it is day zero, and signing opens the day after the seventh.
• Signing online in your portal, with a record of every step.

This office quotes a flat fee before any work begins, and the written fee agreement states what it covers, when each part is earned, and your right to a refund of anything not earned.

On an agreement between people who are already married, this office applies the same seven calendar day period before signing that it applies to a premarital agreement. That is this office’s own practice. The Family Code does not require it between spouses.

Why a postnup asks more of both of you than a prenup

Spouses owe each other a fiduciary duty, which includes giving true and full information on request. That is why a postnup is built on full disclosure, and why, if one spouse takes an unfair advantage from it, the law may put the burden on that spouse to show it was fair.

An agreement made after the wedding is not a premarital agreement, and the Uniform Premarital Agreement Act does not govern it. Fam. Code, § 1600 et seq.; Fam. Code, § 1610, subd. (a)

Spouses owe each other a fiduciary duty in their dealings with one another, of the highest good faith and fair dealing, and neither may take unfair advantage of the other. Fam. Code, § 721, subd. (b)

That duty includes giving the other spouse access at all times to any books kept about a transaction, rendering on request true and full information about anything affecting a transaction that concerns community property, and accounting for any benefit one spouse takes from such a transaction without the other’s consent. Fam. Code, § 721, subd. (b)(1)-(3)

Where one spouse takes an unfair advantage from an agreement made during the marriage, California law may presume undue influence and put the burden on that spouse to show there was none. Fam. Code, § 721; In re Marriage of Burkle (2006) 139 Cal.App.4th 712; In re Marriage of Mathews (2005) 133 Cal.App.4th 624

Changing separate property to shared, or the reverse

Many postnups exist to change who owns something: a home bought before the marriage, an inheritance, a business. That change needs an express written declaration, and the agreement is written to include one.

If real property changes hands, the deed is a separate document, prepared at your request and quoted separately.

Spouses may change the character of property by agreement or transfer: community property into the separate property of either of them, separate property into community property, or the separate property of one into the separate property of the other. Fam. Code, § 850

A change in the character of property is not valid unless it is made in writing by an express declaration that is made, joined in, consented to, or accepted by the spouse whose interest in the property is adversely affected. The writing must itself say that the character or ownership of the property is being changed; a writing that merely deals with the property is not enough. Fam. Code, § 852, subd. (a); Estate of MacDonald (1990) 51 Cal.3d 262

How it works, step by step

Everything happens in your own private portal. There is no office visit and nothing to mail.

• Open a matter and choose the postnup.
• Read and sign the fee agreement, and pay the $895 flat fee online.
• Answer the questionnaire, and list what you own, owe and earn. Your spouse is invited to a portal of their own to do the same.
• Each of you receives the other’s disclosure.
• You receive the draft and read it.
• The final version is delivered to both of you, and the seven days begin.
• Each of you signs in your own portal once the seven days have passed.

Where each party has agreed to conduct a transaction by electronic means, an electronic record satisfies a law that requires a record to be in writing, and an electronic signature satisfies a law that requires a signature. Civ. Code, § 1633.5, subd. (b); Civ. Code, § 1633.7, subds. (c), (d)

Your spouse and their own lawyer

This office acts for you. Your spouse is invited to the portal to give their own information and to sign, and is free to have a lawyer of their own review the agreement.

If your spouse has written an agreement and you want your own lawyer to review it, that is a separate service for $395, described on the prenup review page.