Postnuptial Agreement

For the chapter, waiver means a waiver by the surviving spouse of any of the rights listed in section 141(a), whether signed before or during marriage.

A waiver is enforceable under this section unless the surviving spouse proves that fair and reasonable disclosure of the decedent's property and financial obligations was not provided (absent a counseled waiver of…

The property rights of spouses prescribed by statute may be altered by a premarital agreement or other marital property agreement.

The provisions of an agreement for support of either party are deemed separate and severable from the provisions relating to property, and an order for support based on the agreement is law-imposed and made under the…

On the death of a married person or registered domestic partner, one-half of the community property belongs to the surviving spouse and one-half to the decedent, and spouses may agree in writing to divide their…

Except as stated, the support provisions of an agreement remain subject to later modification or termination by court order; amounts accrued before the filing of the motion or order to show cause cannot be modified;

Either spouse may enter transactions with the other, but in transactions between themselves spouses are subject to the fiduciary rules governing confidential relations, a duty of the highest good faith and fair dealing,…

All property acquired by a married person during the marriage while domiciled in California is COMMUNITY PROPERTY. The starting presumption that everything acquired during marriage is community.

A waiver must be in writing signed by the surviving spouse, is enforceable only if it also satisfies section 143 or 144, is subject to contract defenses except lack of consideration, and may be made by a minor intending…

Unless the waiver or settlement provides otherwise, a waiver of all rights (or equivalent language) in the property or estate of a present or prospective spouse, or a complete property settlement made in anticipation of…

Connecticut text that a spouse acquires no right to or interest in the other spouse's property by marriage, except the survivor's share under sections 45a-436 and 45a-437, and that each spouse may make contracts with…

After marriage a premarital agreement may be amended or revoked only by a written agreement signed by the parties, enforceable without consideration. Read the section before drafting an amendment clause.

THE MOST IMPORTANT DIFFERENCE IN CONNECTICUT ESTATES. The surviving spouse's elective share is a LIFE ESTATE OF ONE THIRD in value of the property passing under the will, not an outright third as in Pennsylvania or New…

The court REVIEWS a separation agreement for fairness and equity before incorporating it into the decree, and the section also covers arbitration of financial disputes.

Definitions for the Act: a premarital agreement is an agreement between prospective spouses made in contemplation of marriage, and property means any present or future, legal or equitable interest in real or personal…

Alimony on the statutory factors, which include the causes of the dissolution, and the court may order security, including LIFE INSURANCE unless the paying party proves it is unavailable or unaffordable.

The elective share and other spousal rights may be waived, which is the operative section behind a prenuptial or postnuptial agreement. Disclosure and independent representation are what make such a waiver hold.

Equitable division of MARITAL PROPERTY WITHOUT REGARD TO MARITAL MISCONDUCT, on the listed factors.

After marriage a premarital agreement may be amended or revoked only by a written agreement signed by the parties, enforceable without consideration. Read before drafting an amendment clause.

Spouses may convey real estate to one another directly, without a straw party. Relevant in estate planning and in divorce transfers.

Delaware text that a married woman's property and its income are her sole and separate property, which she may dispose of, and that she may contract jointly, including with her husband, or separately, sue and be sued…

Definitions for Delaware's premarital agreement subchapter: a premarital agreement is an agreement between prospective spouses made in contemplation of marriage and effective on marriage, and property is any present or…

Alimony goes only to a DEPENDENT PARTY, in the amount and for the time the court deems just on the statutory factors.

D.C. text setting the intestate share of a surviving spouse or domestic partner: the entire intestate estate if no descendant or parent survives;

District of Columbia text: after marriage or registration of a domestic partnership, a premarital agreement may be amended or revoked only by a written agreement signed by the parties, enforceable without consideration.

Marriage or a registered domestic partnership does not impair a person's capacity to acquire, hold and dispose of property, to accept and be bound by any covenant or agreement relating to property or debt, or to…

In the absence of a valid antenuptial or postnuptial agreement resolving all property issues, the court must assign to each party that party's separate property acquired before the marriage or by gift, bequest, devise…

Gives a surviving spouse or domestic partner the right to renounce testamentary gifts and take an intestate share instead, by filing a written renunciation in Probate Court within six months of the will's admission to…

The court may require either party to pay alimony if it seems just and proper, and the award may be indefinite or term-limited and retroactive to the date of the pleading requesting it;

The elective share, homestead rights, intestate share, family allowance and other spousal rights may be WAIVED by a written contract signed by the waiving party, with the section's disclosure rules differing before and…

Modification and enforcement of support and alimony, including on a substantial change of circumstances and on the supportive-relationship ground the section provides. The route for both enforcement and change.

Florida text giving the surviving spouse of a person domiciled in Florida the right to an elective share of the elective estate as provided in part II of chapter 732.

Florida begins from a PREMISE THAT THE DISTRIBUTION SHOULD BE EQUAL, and unequal division must be justified on the statutory factors.

The surviving spouse's or children's right to exempt property, including household furnishings to the statutory value and two motor vehicles, taken in addition to the elective share and homestead.

FLORIDA ALIMONY IS A TYPED SYSTEM: temporary, BRIDGE-THE-GAP, rehabilitative and DURATIONAL. Permanent alimony was abolished in the 2023 reform.

Where the homestead cannot be devised, it descends under this section: a life estate in the surviving spouse with a vested remainder in the descendants, or, if the spouse timely elects, an undivided one-half interest as…

THE SINGLE BIGGEST TRAP IN FLORIDA ESTATE PLANNING. The constitutional homestead MAY NOT BE DEVISED AT ALL if the owner is survived by a spouse or by a minor child, except that it may be devised to the SPOUSE where…

A family allowance for the surviving spouse and lineal heirs the decedent was supporting, to the statutory cap. Relevant to a family worried about cash flow before distribution.

Spouses may make a valid and enforceable deed or agreement relating to alimony, support, property rights or personal rights, and may make a valid and enforceable settlement of those subjects.

Maryland text: a deed or agreement between spouses does not bar an action for absolute or limited divorce, whether executed while the parties were living together or apart, or before, after or while a ground for divorce…

Maryland definitions for the marital property subtitle, including child, family home, family use personal property and marital property, the last of which the parties may exclude by valid agreement as the definition…

Provisions merged into the divorce decree are enforceable by the power of contempt;

The right of election may be waived before or after marriage by a written contract, agreement or waiver signed by the party waiving it, and a waiver of all rights, or equivalent language, in a present or prospective…

Maryland text: the court may award alimony to either party, but if a final disposition as to alimony has been made in an agreement between the parties the court is bound by that agreement as it relates to alimony.

The court determines the amount and the period of alimony, may award it from the filing of the pleading requesting it, and no further alimony accrues at the end of the period;

The court may always modify provisions about the care, custody, education or support of a minor child if modification is in the child's best interests.

Massachusetts text that property owned at marriage remains the separate property of each spouse, who may hold, manage, sell and convey it as if unmarried, with the tenancy-by-the-entirety and creditor provisions.

The spouse's intestate share: the ENTIRE estate where no descendant or parent survives, or where all the decedent's descendants are also the spouse's and the spouse has no other descendant;

MASSACHUSETTS DID NOT ADOPT THE UPC ELECTIVE SHARE. The surviving spouse's right is here in chapter 191: the spouse may file a signed waiver of the will's provisions IN THE REGISTRY OF PROBATE WITHIN SIX MONTHS AFTER…

Massachusetts text that a provision for a nonprobate transfer on death in listed instruments, including a conveyance, deed of gift, marital property agreement or other written instrument effective as a contract, gift,…

Massachusetts is an all-property state: in addition to or in lieu of alimony, the court may assign to either spouse ALL OR ANY PART OF THE ESTATE OF THE OTHER.

Massachusetts text that transfers of real and personal property between spouses are valid as if they were unmarried. Supports the property-transfer and gift provisions a prenuptial agreement contemplates.

Massachusetts text that a married woman may contract as if unmarried, including with her husband. The statutory capacity for agreements between spouses, cited with c.

After the marriage or civil union the agreement may be amended or revoked only by a written agreement signed by the parties, and the amendment or revocation is enforceable without consideration.

A surviving spouse, civil union partner or domestic partner of a New Jersey domiciliary may elect one-third of the augmented estate, unless either spouse had filed an undismissed complaint for divorce, dissolution,…

Without a will the surviving spouse, civil union partner or domestic partner takes the entire estate when no descendant or parent survives, or when all surviving descendants are also the spouse's and the spouse has no…

The right of election and the surviving spouse's or domestic partner's rights may be waived wholly or partially, before or after marriage, by a written contract, agreement or waiver signed by the waiving party after…

New Jersey text giving every married individual, during life, a right of joint possession with the other spouse of real property they occupy jointly as their principal matrimonial residence where neither dower nor…

Pending or after a matrimonial judgment the court may order alimony, maintenance and child support as the circumstances render fit, reasonable and just, require security including trusts for reasonably foreseeable…

In making an equitable distribution the court must consider the duration of the marriage or civil union, the parties' age and physical and emotional health, the income or property each brought to the marriage, the…

DRL 240 includes custody and the Child Support Standards Act. Subdivision (1-b)(h) prescribes nonwaivable advisement and presumptively-correct-obligation recitals for the covered agreements or stipulations presented for…

Section 236 contains Parts A and B with distinct applicability. Part B covers automatic orders, agreements and equitable distribution;

Child Support Standards Act text in the Family Court Act: parents of a child under twenty-one are chargeable with support, the court applies the basic child support obligation and the stated percentages, and paragraph…

Spouses may convey or transfer real or personal property directly to each other without a third person, and may partition or divide real property they hold as tenants in common, joint tenants or tenants by the entirety;

Except as Domestic Relations Law § 236 provides, spouses cannot contract to alter or dissolve the marriage or to relieve either of the liability to support the other in such a manner that he or she will become incapable…

List of officers before whom an acknowledgment or proof of a conveyance may be made within New York: anywhere in the state before a supreme court justice, official examiner of title, official referee or notary public;

This section supplies the exact form of certificate of acknowledgment for an individual within New York, the form that the power of attorney's acknowledgment must follow because GOL 5-1501B requires the principal's…

The counterpart form where the acknowledgment is taken outside New York, including the requirement that the certificate name the jurisdiction.

Property owned by a woman at marriage or acquired afterward as the chapter prescribes, and its rents, issues and profits, continues to be her sole and separate property as if unmarried, not subject to her husband's…

A surviving spouse of a decedent dying on or after September 1, 1992 may elect against the will and take the greater of fifty thousand dollars (or the net estate if smaller) or one third of the net estate, computed by…

Ohio text stating that an agreement altering legal relations between spouses under section 3103.05(A)(1) or 3103.06(A)(1) or (2) is valid and enforceable, with or without consideration, if it is in writing and signed by…

OHIO DIVIDES MARITAL PROPERTY AND PRESUMES AN EQUAL DIVISION, with unequal division allowed only where equal would be inequitable and supported by written findings.

A surviving spouse elects to take under the will or under section 2105.06. A spouse electing under 2105.06 takes the intestate share but SHALL TAKE NOT TO EXCEED ONE-HALF OF THE NET ESTATE, OR ONE-THIRD IF TWO OR MORE…

Ohio calls it SPOUSAL SUPPORT, not alimony, and there is NO FORMULA and no durational schedule: the court weighs the fourteen statutory factors including income, earning ability, ages, duration of the marriage and the…

Ohio's intestacy scheme. The spouse's share depends on whether the surviving children are also the spouse's: the whole estate where they are, and a first-dollar amount plus a fraction where one or more are not, on the…

Ohio text providing that an antenuptial, postnuptial or separation agreement to which a decedent was a party is valid unless an action to set it aside is commenced, or its validity otherwise attacked, within four months…

Ohio text, as amended in 2023, allowing a husband and wife to enter into a postnuptial agreement altering their legal relations, to modify or terminate an antenuptial or postnuptial agreement, and to agree to an…

Ohio text stating that a married person may take, hold, and dispose of property, real or personal, the same as if unmarried.

Ohio text providing that a spouse who has not relinquished or been barred from dower is endowed of a life estate in one third of the real property of which the other spouse was seized as an estate of inheritance during…

Ohio text allowing a husband or wife to enter into any agreement with the other spouse, subject to the general rules that control persons occupying confidential relations with each other, and with any other person as if…

A party to an agreement on matters within the court's jurisdiction under the Domestic Relations Code's divorce part, whether or not merged or incorporated into the decree, may use the part's remedies and sanctions to…

Electing the share disclaims the spouse's other beneficial interests in the listed property, and property already received is charged against the share.

Equitable distribution WITHOUT REGARD TO MARITAL MISCONDUCT, on the listed factors: length of marriage, prior marriages, age and health and income and employability, contribution to the other's earning power,…

The elective share can be waived in whole or part, before or after marriage and before or after death. This is the operative section behind a prenuptial or postnuptial waiver.

What counts as MARITAL PROPERTY: everything acquired by either party during the marriage, plus the increase in value of non-marital property, minus the listed exclusions such as property acquired before marriage, gifts…

A surviving spouse of a Pennsylvania domiciliary may elect ONE THIRD of the listed property, which reaches beyond the probate estate to certain lifetime transfers where the decedent kept an interest or control.

Alimony only if NECESSARY, on the seventeen listed factors including relative earnings, ages and health, duration of the marriage, contribution to the other's education, standard of living, assets, and marital…

Identifies who may perform a notarial act in Pennsylvania, including notaries public, judges and specified court and recording officers.

A notarial act must have a contemporaneous certificate signed and dated by the officer, identifying the county, state and office. A notary's certificate also states commission expiration;

Provides sufficient short forms for individual and representative acknowledgments, an attorney's acknowledgment, verification on oath or affirmation, signature witnessing and copy certifications, if completed with the…

Texas text allowing spouses, at any time, to agree that the income or property arising from separate property then owned by one of them, or later acquired, will be the separate property of the owner.

Texas text providing that a provision of a partition or exchange agreement is void as to a preexisting creditor whose rights it is intended to defraud, and that the agreement may be recorded in the deed records of the…

Texas text requiring an agreement converting separate property to community property to be in writing, signed by the spouses, identify the property and specify that it is being converted, and stating that a mere…

Texas text allowing spouses, at any time, to agree between themselves that all or part of their community property, existing or later acquired, becomes the property of the surviving spouse on the death of a spouse.

Texas text allowing spouses at any time to partition or exchange all or part of their community property, existing or to be acquired, so that it becomes the receiving spouse's separate property, including future income…

Texas text stating that a partition or exchange agreement is not enforceable if the resisting party proves involuntary signing or unconscionability combined with the lack of disclosure, waiver and knowledge the section…

Texas text allowing spouses at any time to agree that all or part of the separate property of either or both is converted to community property. Read it with sections 4.203 and 4.205 before drafting a conversion term.

Texas text stating that a conversion agreement is not enforceable if the resisting spouse proves involuntary execution or the absence of a fair and reasonable disclosure of the legal effect of converting the property,…

Texas text providing that a community property survivorship agreement may be revoked as its terms provide or, if it states no method, by a written instrument signed by both spouses or signed by one spouse and delivered…

Texas text defining a premarital agreement as an agreement between prospective spouses made in contemplation of marriage and effective on marriage, and defining property broadly to include income and earnings.

On petition the court may increase, decrease, or terminate the amount or duration of spousal support thereafter accruing, and it must terminate support on clear and convincing evidence that the payee has habitually…

A court may affirm, ratify, and incorporate by reference any valid agreement between the parties, or provisions of one, in a decree dissolving the marriage, a divorce from the bond of matrimony or from bed and board, a…

Virginia text: after marriage a premarital agreement may be amended or revoked only by a written agreement signed by the parties, enforceable without consideration.

Virginia text allowing the surviving spouse's right of election, homestead allowance, exempt property and family allowance to be waived wholly or partially, before or after marriage, by a signed written contract,…

Married persons may contract with each other to settle their rights and obligations to the same extent and subject to the same conditions as the Premarital Agreement Act, §§ 20-147 through 20-154, except that a marital…

Virginia formalities: a premarital agreement must be in writing and signed by both parties, is enforceable without consideration and becomes effective on marriage.

Virginia grounds for unenforceability: the challenging party proves involuntary execution, or unconscionability at execution combined with no fair and reasonable disclosure and no voluntary express written waiver of…

Virginia definitions: a premarital agreement is one between prospective spouses made in contemplation of marriage and effective on marriage, and property includes any present or future, legal or equitable, vested or…

Virginia list of permitted subjects: property rights, management and disposition of property on separation, dissolution or death, spousal support, wills and trusts, life-insurance death benefits, choice of law and any…

Virginia text tolling any statute of limitations on a claim under a premarital agreement during the marriage, while preserving equitable defenses such as laches and estoppel.