A prenuptial agreement (also known as pre-marital or ante-nuptial agreement) is an agreement signed by both parties before a marriage that establishes how property, alimony, spousal support, debt, assets and other financial issues will be resolved in the event of a divorce. These agreements should not include provisions regarding child custody and child support. As Georgia Divorce & Family Law Attorneys, we also help our clients with Premarital Agreements, Prenuptial or Ante-Nuptial Agreements.

A pre-marital agreement can also help in determining how assets will be distributed to children or other family members, in the event of a later divorce or death. However, a prenuptial agreement is only enforceable if it is willingly signed by both parties to the marriage. Both parties must have been of sound mind and not under duress when the prenuptial agreement was signed. Both parties must disclose all assets, property, and other relevant financial information to the other party for the premarital agreement to be valid.

If one or both of the parties do not disclose a specific asset or property he or she owns – and subsequently a divorce is filed, the person who failed to list or disclose those assets in the pre-marital agreement may be required to treat that property as marital property. This would have the result of exposing the property to an equitable division by the court as part of the divorce.

There are other issues that can affect the enforceability of a prenuptial agreement. If you think you may need a prenuptial agreement, you should speak to one of our attorneys well before the marriage.