Prenuptial Agreements, Plainly Explained

A prenuptial agreement is less about divorce than people fear. It is a written record, made while you are both happy and clear-headed, of how you intend to treat money in your marriage: what stays separate, what becomes shared, who is responsible for which debts, and what happens if the marriage ends. For many couples, the most useful part is not the document but the conversation it forces.

It is also no longer unusual. A 2022 Harris Poll conducted for The New Yorker found that 15 percent of married Americans had signed a prenup, up from 3 percent in 2010. A 2023 Harris Poll for Axios found that among engaged or married respondents, 41 percent of Gen Z and 47 percent of millennials said they had one.

This article is general information, not legal advice. Prenup law is state law, and the rules differ in important ways from state to state. Before you sign anything, each of you should speak to a family-law attorney licensed where you live.

What a prenup can cover

Much of American prenup law traces back to the Uniform Premarital Agreement Act, a model law drafted by the Uniform Law Commission in 1983. It has been adopted, often with changes, by roughly half the states and the District of Columbia; other states, New York among them, have their own statutes and case law. Under the model act, a couple may agree on:

• Property: what each of you owns now, what counts as separate, and how property acquired during the marriage will be treated.
• Debts: who is responsible for student loans, credit cards or business borrowing brought into the marriage.
• Division on divorce, separation or death, including what happens to a home, a business or a family inheritance.
• Spousal support, which can be modified or waived in many states, with important limits (below).
• Wills, trusts and life insurance needed to carry out the agreement.
• Which state’s law governs the agreement.

Typical reasons to have one include a family business or farm, an expected inheritance, children from a previous marriage, a large difference in income or debt, or a career that one of you may pause.

What it can’t do

It cannot set child support or custody. The model act says a child’s right to support cannot be adversely affected by a premarital agreement, and courts decide custody on the child’s best interests at the time, whatever the parents signed years earlier.

It usually can’t regulate personal life. Clauses about chores, weight, holidays with in-laws or social media rarely hold up in court, and some lawyers think they can make the rest of the document look less serious. If you want to agree on those things, write each other a letter.

It may not waive everything. Some states limit spousal support waivers. California, for example, will not enforce a waiver of spousal support unless the person giving it up had an independent lawyer when signing, and a court can still set aside a waiver that has become unconscionable by the time of enforcement.

Retirement plans need their own step. Under federal law, a spouse’s survivor rights in many workplace retirement plans can generally be waived only by a spouse, on the plan’s own form. Because you are not yet spouses when you sign a prenup, lawyers usually have the waiver signed again after the wedding. Ask yours about it.

What makes one hold up

The details vary by state, but courts look at the same broad questions. Under the 1983 act, an agreement generally will not be enforced if one person did not sign it voluntarily, or if it was unconscionable when signed and that person did not receive, and did not waive, fair disclosure of the other’s finances.

Put it in writing, signed by both of you. An oral promise about money before marriage is not a prenup.

Disclose everything. Attach a schedule of each person’s assets, debts and income, with reasonable estimates of value. Incomplete disclosure is one of the most common grounds for challenging an agreement later.

Make it fair when signed. One-sided is not automatically unenforceable, but an agreement that leaves one person with nothing while the other keeps everything will face hard questions.

Why each of you needs your own lawyer

One lawyer cannot represent both of you, because your interests in this document are opposed, however loving you are. Each person should have independent counsel who reads the whole agreement and explains what they are giving up.

Some states build this into the law. The Uniform Law Commission’s 2012 successor act, the Uniform Premarital and Marital Agreements Act, which also covers postnups and has been adopted in Colorado and North Dakota, requires that each party have access to independent legal representation, with time and money to use it, and sets out a plain-language waiver notice for anyone who signs without a lawyer. California requires at least seven calendar days between the time a party is first given the final agreement and the time they sign it.

It is common, and fine, for the wealthier partner to pay for both lawyers. What matters is that each lawyer works only for their own client.

When to sign

Start early: three to six months before the wedding is a comfortable window. Drafting, disclosure and a couple of rounds of revisions take time, especially if there is a business or trust to value.

Sign well before the wedding, ideally at least a month ahead. An agreement presented the week of the wedding, with deposits paid and guests booked, is the classic basis for a claim of pressure. A deadline in the 12-month planning checklist helps keep it from sliding.

What it costs

Fees depend on where you live, how complicated your finances are and how much negotiating the two lawyers do. A straightforward agreement may cost a few thousand dollars in total; one involving a business, trusts or significant property costs more. A 2024 survey of family-law attorneys by the online prenup service HelloPrenup, reported by SmartAsset in 2026, put the average at about $8,000 per couple. Online services charge much less for a draft, but each of you should still have it reviewed by your own lawyer. Keep the fees in the wedding budget; it is a wedding cost like any other.

Postnuptial agreements

A postnup does the same work after the wedding. Couples sign them when they ran out of time before the wedding, when one starts a business or receives an inheritance, or as part of rebuilding trust after a hard period. Most states enforce them, but courts often scrutinize them more closely, because spouses owe each other duties that engaged couples don’t. The same rules apply with more force: separate lawyers, full disclosure, no pressure.

How to raise it

Bring it up early, and not as an ultimatum. The first months of an engagement, before the venue deposit, are the right time. Our guide to the first month of engagement puts the money conversation near the top of the list.

Talk about money first, documents second. Share what you each earn, owe and own, and what you each worry about. The prenup then becomes a way to write down what you have already agreed.

Explain your reasons plainly. “My parents want the farm to stay in the family” or “I don’t want you liable for my business loans” lands far better than a draft sent without warning.

Treat it as mutual. A good agreement protects both people, including the one who may earn less, pause a career or move for the other’s job.

Consider a review date. Some couples agree to revisit the terms after ten years or the birth of a child, or include a clause that lets the agreement lapse after a set time.

For more on the practical side of marrying, including changing your name and what a wedding costs, see our planning guides.