Prenuptial Agreement
A prenuptial agreement decides in advance what happens to property, debt and income if a marriage ends. It is uncomfortable to raise and considerably less uncomfortable than deciding the same questions during a divorce, when neither side is inclined to be generous.
Prenups fail on process, not on content
When a prenuptial agreement is set aside, the reason is rarely that its terms were unfair on their face. It is that one party did not disclose what they owned, or the agreement was signed days before the wedding under evident pressure, or one side had counsel and the other did not. The terms may be perfectly reasonable and still unenforceable because of how they came to be signed. Which means the timeline and the disclosure matter as much as the drafting.
What the template covers
Full financial disclosure, attached
Assets, debts, income and business interests, listed by both parties and attached as schedules. Incomplete disclosure is the most common ground for setting a prenup aside.
Separate versus marital property
What each person brings in, what stays separate, and how property acquired during the marriage is treated — including the appreciation of a business one spouse owned before.
Debt
Student loans, business obligations, credit cards. Deciding who carries pre-marital debt, and whether marital income services it, prevents the most common surprise.
Spousal support
Whether it is waived, limited or calculated. Many states permit agreement on support, but some will not enforce a waiver that would leave a spouse dependent on public assistance.
The framework and its limits
Most states have adopted the Uniform Premarital Agreement Act, which sets out when a premarital agreement is enforceable and when it may be set aside — generally where it was not executed voluntarily, or was unconscionable when signed and the challenging party lacked adequate disclosure and did not waive it. California codifies related rules at Family Code § 1600 and following, including a seven-day period between when a party is first presented with the agreement and when it is signed. One boundary is firm across states: child support and child custody cannot be bindingly determined in advance, because those are decided on the child's best interests at the time. Note also that the ESIGN Act excludes family law matters at 15 U.S.C. § 7003, so an electronic signature on a prenuptial agreement should be confirmed against state requirements — several states require a signed writing and some require acknowledgment.
Signed the night before
A couple agreed in principle months ahead but the document was produced by one side's attorney and presented the evening before the ceremony, with guests already arrived. The terms were not extreme. The circumstances were, and the timing alone gave the other spouse a credible argument that it was not signed voluntarily. The agreement was contested years later and much of what it decided was reopened. The same document signed two months earlier would very likely have held.
Questions people ask about this
When should a prenup be signed?
Weeks or months before the wedding, never in the final days. California requires at least seven days between presentation and signing, and courts elsewhere treat last-minute execution as evidence of pressure regardless of any statutory period.
Do both parties need their own lawyer?
It is not universally required, but independent counsel for each party is the single strongest protection against a later claim of unfairness or duress — and some states scrutinise waivers of counsel closely.
Can a prenup decide child custody or support?
No. Those are determined by the court in the child's best interests at the relevant time, and a prenuptial provision purporting to fix them is not binding.
Is a prenup only for wealthy couples?
No. It is at least as useful for allocating debt, protecting a small business or a family property, and clarifying what happens to income earned during the marriage.