Prenuptial Agreement

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.

Definitions: a premarital agreement is an agreement between prospective spouses made in contemplation of marriage and effective on marriage, and property means any present or future, legal or equitable, vested or…

Text listing what parties may contract about (property rights and management, disposition on separation, dissolution or death, wills and trusts, life insurance, choice of law, other matters not in violation of public…

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

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 California premarital agreement is unenforceable unless it was voluntary and not unconscionable, and the section imposes strict voluntariness requirements including SEVEN CALENDAR DAYS between presentation and signing…

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.

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…

Text naming the chapter the Uniform Premarital Agreement Act. Read the chapter's operative sections, 1610 to 1617, for the substantive rules.

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.

Any statute of limitations on a claim under a premarital agreement is tolled during the marriage, while equitable defenses such as laches and estoppel remain available. Read before advising on the timing of a challenge.

Savings clause: nothing in the Act affects the validity of a premarital agreement made before October 1, 1995. Read for any agreement predating the Act.

A premarital agreement becomes effective upon marriage unless the agreement provides otherwise. Read with 46b-36h on void or voidable marriages.

Enforcement rule: an agreement is not enforceable if the party resisting it proves involuntary execution, unconscionability at execution or when enforcement is sought, lack of fair and reasonable disclosure of the other…

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…

Short title for sections 46b-36a to 46b-36j, the Connecticut Premarital Agreement Act, effective October 1, 1995 and applicable to agreements executed on or after that date.

Formality rule: a premarital agreement shall be in writing and signed by both parties and is enforceable without consideration. The section states no acknowledgment or witness requirement;

List of what parties may contract about, including property rights, management and disposition of property on separation, dissolution or death, modification or elimination of spousal support, wills and trusts, life…

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.

THE SPOUSE'S ELECTIVE SHARE IS ONE THIRD OF THE ELECTIVE ESTATE, less all transfers to the spouse by the decedent, satisfiable in cash or in kind. Unlike Connecticut, this is an outright third rather than a life estate.

What the elective estate includes, which reaches beyond the probate estate to the transfers the section lists. Do the arithmetic on this definition before advising either spouse.

The spouse elects by filing a petition in the COURT OF CHANCERY and delivering it to the personal representative WITHIN SIX MONTHS after the grant of letters, extendable by the court for cause.

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.

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…

Formality rule: a premarital agreement must be in writing and signed by both parties and is enforceable without consideration. The section states no acknowledgment or witness requirement;

A premarital agreement becomes effective upon marriage. Read with § 327 on void marriages. This source alone does not establish the effective date of a particular agreement.

District of Columbia definitions for the Uniform Premarital Agreement Act as enacted, extending premarital agreement to prospective domestic partners and defining property broadly.

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…

District of Columbia formalities: a premarital agreement must be in writing and signed by both parties and is enforceable without consideration. The section states no acknowledgment or witness requirement.

District of Columbia text: a premarital agreement becomes effective on marriage or on registration of a domestic partnership under § 32-702.

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

District of Columbia text: if the marriage or domestic partnership is void, the agreement is enforceable only to the extent necessary to avoid an inequitable result, unless it expressly provides otherwise.

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;

FLORIDA'S ELECTIVE SHARE IS 30 PER CENT of the elective estate, not one third and not a life estate.

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…

Florida enactment of the Uniform Premarital Agreement Act: definitions, the requirement of a writing signed by both parties, the permitted content including rights in property, disposition on dissolution or death and…

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.

What the elective estate includes, which reaches well beyond the probate estate to revocable trusts, pay-on-death accounts, joint tenancies and certain transfers within a year of death.

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

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

Definitions for Maryland's elective share subtitle, including augmented estate, court, estate subject to election and the other terms used through §§ 3-401 to 3-413.

Maryland text: an individual is not liable for a spouse's premarital debts or claims, the debtor spouse and that spouse's property remain liable as if unmarried, and the section goes on to address separate torts.

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…

A surviving spouse may elect one third of the estate subject to election if there is surviving issue, or one half if there is none, in each case reduced by the value of all spousal benefits.

Statement of purpose for Maryland's elective share subtitle: to ensure a surviving spouse is reasonably provided for during the spouse's remaining lifetime and, subject to that, to give a testator flexibility.

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;

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.

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

In an annulment or absolute divorce with a dispute over whether property is marital, the court decides which property is marital when it grants the divorce, or within 90 days after if it expressly reserved that power in…

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…

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.

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…

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;

A spouse the testator married after executing the will takes at least an intestate share, but ONLY OUT OF THE PORTION NOT DEVISED to the testator's child born before the marriage who is not the spouse's child, or to…

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.

A schedule of the property affected, described clearly enough for a creditor to distinguish it, must be annexed to the contract, and the contract and schedule must be recorded in the registry of deeds for the stated…

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.

Applies to the specified estates, leases for more than seven years from their making, and rent/profit assignments.

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.

Massachusetts antenuptial contract statute: before marriage the parties may make a written contract providing that property or rights of action of either party remain or become the property of the husband or wife…

A premarital or pre-civil union agreement may not adversely affect the right of a child to support. Read this with 37:2-34 before including any term touching children.

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.

The burden of proof to set aside the agreement is on the party alleging unenforceability, who must prove by clear and convincing evidence that the party executed it involuntarily or that it was unconscionable when…

Text listing what the parties may contract about: rights in the property of either or both whenever acquired, the power to manage and dispose of property, disposition on separation, dissolution, death or another event,…

A premarital or pre-civil union agreement becomes effective upon the marriage of the parties or upon the parties establishing a civil union. Read 37:2-39 for agreements where the marriage is later determined void.

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,…

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…

Definitions: a premarital or pre-civil union agreement is an agreement between prospective spouses or civil union partners made in contemplation of marriage or a civil union and effective on it, and "property" covers…

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…

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.

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…

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;

Requires the officer taking an acknowledgment or proof to endorse or attach a certificate, and specifies what it must state. A New York deed's acknowledgment block must comply or the recording officer will refuse it.

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…

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

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 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…

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 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…

Each married person must support themselves, their spouse and their minor children out of their property or labour. The statutory duty behind an Ohio spousal and child support claim.

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…

The judgment dissolving the marriage, and the treatment of a SEPARATION AGREEMENT including provisions for children. Say expressly whether the agreement merges into the decree or survives it;

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.

The burden to set aside a premarital agreement is on the party alleging unenforceability, who must prove by clear and convincing evidence that the party did not execute it voluntarily or that, before execution, the…

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.

The election is a signed writing filed with the clerk of the orphans' court in the county of domicile, with notice to the personal representative, and it must be filed before SIX MONTHS after the decedent's death or the…

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.

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 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.

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,…

SEPARATE PROPERTY is what a spouse owned before marriage, acquired during marriage by GIFT, DEVISE OR DESCENT, and personal injury recoveries other than lost earning capacity.

Community property is everything acquired by either spouse during marriage other than separate property. The definition that decides what is divisible at all.

All property possessed by either spouse at dissolution is PRESUMED COMMUNITY, and separate character must be proved by CLEAR AND CONVINCING EVIDENCE. The burden is the practical battleground;

Texas text stating that after marriage a premarital agreement may be amended or revoked only by a written agreement signed by the parties, enforceable without consideration. Read it before drafting an amendment clause.

Texas text stating that if a marriage is determined to be void, an agreement that would otherwise have been a premarital agreement is enforceable only to the extent necessary to avoid an inequitable result.

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…

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…

The elective share is 50 percent of the marital-property portion of the augmented estate, not half the estate.

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

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,…

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…

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…

The augmented estate is the probate estate plus non-probate transfers to others, transfers to the spouse and the spouse's own property, multiplied by a marriage-duration percentage that runs from 3 percent under one…

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…