Home › Guides › Marital Settlement Agreement in Florida

Marital Settlement Agreement in Florida: 12.902(f) Explained

Reviewed by the Amicably document team · Updated August 11, 2026

Form 12.902(f) is Florida's Marital Settlement Agreement, the written contract where you and your spouse record exactly how you have agreed to divide property and debts. It is not one form: Florida publishes three versions, and the one you need depends on whether you have children together, have property to divide, or are filing a simplified dissolution.

This guide walks through the three versions side by side, what each one actually asks you to spell out, the order you need to sign things in, and the mistakes that send an otherwise agreed case back to the drawing board.

What the form is, and why Florida requires it

An uncontested Florida divorce is built on agreement, and the Marital Settlement Agreement is where that agreement becomes a legal document. It is a sworn, signed contract stating exactly who receives which asset, who pays which debt, and, where children or alimony are part of the case, how support and the parenting arrangement work. Once the court adopts it, the terms in the agreement become part of the final judgment.

Because Florida treats a case with children very differently from a case without them, and a simplified dissolution differently again from a regular uncontested one, the state does not publish one universal settlement agreement. It publishes three, each built for a specific route through the court, and Amicably prepares whichever one matches your case.

The three versions, and which one is yours

All three forms share the same job: they lock in an agreed division of property and debts, sworn and notarized. Where they differ is who is filing and what else the case needs to address.

Route-scoping matters here, because the differences are not cosmetic. If you filed the uncontested petition for a case with property or debts but no property at all to divide and alimony already waived, some couples skip a written settlement agreement altogether since there is nothing left to allocate. If your case has any minor or dependent children in common, or the wife is pregnant, 12.902(f)(1) applies, not the property-only version, even if the couple has already sorted out the finances between themselves.

What's actually inside the agreement

Every version starts the same way: a full accounting of assets (real estate, vehicles, accounts, retirement funds) and who receives each one, followed by a full accounting of debts and who pays each one. From there, the versions branch.

One asset the agreement itself cannot move is real property title. If a house or other titled asset is changing hands, the settlement agreement records the intent, but transferring the title still takes a separate deed or a provision in the final judgment.

Getting the signing order right

The sequence you sign documents in is not a formality here; it is what makes the rest of the packet valid. Two rules drive it. First, if you and your spouse are keeping your financial affidavits private with a joint waiver, the affidavits must be completed and exchanged between you before the waiver is signed, and the waiver before the settlement agreement. Second, once a cooperating spouse signs the Answer and Waiver admitting the case, they are agreeing to the petition and settlement agreement exactly as written, so that document is always signed last, after everything else is final.

1. Step 1Exchange financial information: either file financial affidavits, or exchange them privately and sign the joint waiver notice, in that order.
2. Step 2Finalize the terms: agree on every asset, every debt, and, where it applies, alimony and the parenting plan.
3. Step 3Both spouses sign the settlement agreement before a notary, once the terms above will not change.
4. Step 4The cooperating spouse signs the Answer and Waiver last, since it accepts the settlement agreement as final.
5. Step 5File the completed packet with the clerk in the county where the petition was filed.

Completing and filing it

1. Confirm which version applies. Match your petition type and family situation to 12.902(f)(1), (2), or (3) using the table above.
2. Itemize assets and debts. List each one individually rather than lumping them together; a vague description invites questions from the clerk or the judge.
3. Add the route-specific sections. Alimony election, parenting plan reference, or the built-in waiver, depending on your version.
4. Check the figures against your financial affidavits. The two documents are read together, and a mismatch reads as an incomplete disclosure.
5. Sign before a notary public or deputy clerk. Both spouses' signatures are required, on their own pages.
6. File the original with the clerk in the county where the petition was filed, and keep a copy for your own records.

Mistakes that stall or unravel the agreement

Using the wrong version. Filing the no-children version when a child was born to the wife during the marriage, or the simplified version when the case is not actually going through the simplified process, gets a case sent back.

Leaving a debt or account off the schedule. If an account surfaces later that was never mentioned, it raises questions about whether the disclosure was complete, on a document you signed under oath.

Signing the Answer and Waiver too early. If the cooperating spouse signs before the settlement agreement is truly final, any later change to the agreement can put the earlier signature out of sync with what was actually admitted.

Numbers that do not match the financial affidavits. An asset or debt that appears in one document and not the other is exactly the kind of inconsistency that turns a straightforward filing into a slower one.

Skipping notarization. Unlike some of the other forms in a Florida divorce packet, all three settlement agreement versions still require a notarized signature from both spouses; a video notarization session covers this without an in-person visit.

This is also where a document preparation service earns its fee: matching the right version to your route, keeping every figure consistent across the whole packet, and sequencing the signatures so nothing has to be redone.

Frequently asked questions