Uniform Premarital Agreement Act

How To Make Sure Your Prenup Is Legal

Prenuptial agreements are becoming more and more prevalent in today's society as couples try to take an active role in planning possible future events.

And while prenuptial agreements can be very flexible and address a variety of circumstances, there are a few deal-breakers that can cause your prenup to be set aside by the courts.

The Uniform Premarital Agreement Act is a federal document that basically sets out what parties can and can’t do in a prenup. About half of the states in the U.S. have adopted this act and of those, some states have also added additional criteria that must be met before a premarital agreement will be enforced.

The Act defines what issues may be addressed in a prenup, including life insurance policies, property division , wills and spousal support . Some states have modified the agreement to disallow the spousal support provision, so that such support cannot be waived and will be decided as a separate issue by the court.

Under this Act, a premarital agreement is not enforceable if one of the parties did not agree to the contract voluntarily or if the agreement was done without full knowledge of the other party’s estate and assets. A premarital agreement can also be declared invalid if the agreement itself is so unfair that a normally reasonable person would have never agreed to such a deal.

This Act also allows the parties to agree on which state will govern their premarital agreement and if such a provision is made, the parties will be subject to the case laws and statutes currently in effect at the time the marriage is dissolved.