You wrote your own prenup. A California lawyer can review it for you.

What a review of a self-written agreement looks at

The review tells you what the document actually does, what is missing, and what has to be finished before anyone signs.

An agreement from a template, an online form or an AI tool can read well and still leave things unfinished. The review checks for these:

• Whether a list of each person’s property, debts and income is attached, complete, and consistent with the terms.
• Whether each term says what you meant it to say, and what it does in California if it says something else.
• Any spousal support term, and what has to be true for it to be relied on.
• Wording carried over from another state, or from a template written for somebody else’s situation.
• Who signs, how, and on which date, and what has to happen before that date.

A premarital agreement must be in writing and signed by both parties. It does not require consideration. Fam. Code, § 1611

Your partner should have their own lawyer

If you wrote the agreement, this office acts for you. Your partner is entitled to a lawyer of their own choosing, and a spousal support term cannot be relied on against them unless they had one when they signed.

If your partner will not retain anyone, there is a separate route with requirements of its own: a written advisement to seek a lawyer, a separate signed waiver, and a written explanation of the agreement in a language your partner is proficient in. This office cannot give your partner that explanation, because it acts for you.

That is worth arranging early. A lawyer for your partner will want time with the final version too.

A term about spousal support is not enforceable against a party who was not represented by their own independent lawyer when the agreement was signed. Fam. Code, § 1612, subd. (c)

A premarital agreement is not treated as signed voluntarily unless the party against whom it is later asserted was represented by their own independent lawyer when they signed, or was advised to seek one and expressly waived that right in a separate signed writing. Fam. Code, § 1615, subd. (c)(1)

A party who signs without their own lawyer must be given a written explanation of the terms and basic effect of the agreement and of the rights and obligations they are giving up by signing it, must be proficient both in the language of that explanation and in the language the agreement is written in, and must sign a declaration saying they received that information and naming who gave it to them. Fam. Code, § 1615, subd. (c)(3)

What to send

Upload these in your portal after you sign the fee agreement and pay.

• The latest version of the agreement, in Word if you have it, so the review can point to exact wording.
• Any list of property, debts and income either of you has prepared, even if it is incomplete.
• The wedding date.
• The date your partner received the version you are sending, if they have it already.

Make your changes before the final version goes to your partner

The waiting period before signing is counted from the day the final version is received. Finish the changes the review recommends first, and give your partner the finished document once.

If your partner’s lawyer then changes the substance of the agreement, the count starts again from the changed version. A correction that changes nothing about the bargain, such as a misspelled name, is a different thing.

On an agreement signed on or after 1 January 2020, at least seven calendar days must pass between the day a party is first given the final agreement and the day that party signs it, whether or not that party has a lawyer. Fam. Code, § 1615, subd. (c)(2)(B)

If you would rather start over

Some self-written drafts are close to finished and some are better replaced. If you would rather have the agreement prepared by this office from the start, that is a separate service: $795 for a prenup, or $995 with spousal support terms.