When done correctly, yes, they are enforceable. The fact that this question is asked so much made me look into why people have so many questions about the enforceability of prenups.

Why Is There Confusion About Prenup Enforceability?

The Evolution of Prenup Laws

The law around prenuptial agreements didn’t come into focus until around then – the Uniform Premarital Agreement Act governs prenups entered into after January 1, 1986, and gave some standardization as to the rules around prenuptial agreement enforceability. 28 states are signatories to the premarital agreement act, and even the 22 states that are not signatories have lots of similarities.

The Rare Instances When Prenups Aren’t Upheld

I think there is also a lot of confusion that comes about from the few prenups that aren’t upheld. Those exceptions to the rule get a lot of attention, but they are really rare. The bottom line is this- if you go to a reputable attorney to have your agreement drafted and are honest when disclosing your assets and debts to your spouse, your agreement is extremely likely to be enforceable.

The Risks of DIY Prenups

The biggest problem I see with prenuptial agreements being enforced is when people try to draft these agreements on their own. If you and your spouse just write down something on paper about how you want your assets treated, you’re almost certainly not going to meet the legal requirements of a prenuptial agreement for your state. Many states require very specific language to be included in the agreement so that you know what rights you may be giving up by signing the agreement. States also have different rules around whether signatures need to be notarized or witnessed. Most states require there to be financial disclosures as well, and that’s where a lot of DIY prenups fail. If you don’t practice this area of law, you may not know what you’re missing, so you don’t want to take a document that is as important as a prenup and try to draft it yourself.

Why You Should Trust Your Prenup Will Be Enforced

But provided you’ve used a reputable attorney, the agreement is probably going to be upheld. Let’s talk a little about why you should count on your agreement being enforced if you sign one.

The government needs its citizens to be able to rely on contracts. Many contracts are invisible to the layperson, but they cover every aspect of our lives. Where you live, your utilities, your phone plan, your wifi you’re using right now, your car loan, your car insurance… everything you do on a day-to-day basis can be tied back to some contract that governs it. You need to know that if you buy a car, there are certain things the seller owes to you and there are certain things you owe back, and if someone doesn’t hold up their end of the bargain, there’s a court system there to make things right. Our whole society functions on the belief we all have that everyone’s going to live up to what is written in their contracts. If those fall apart, society falls apart.

The Importance of Contracts in Our Society

The same goes for premarital agreements. These agreements can govern what happens to every penny you own both before the marriage begins and after the marriage has been going for 30 years. You may live for decades relying on what is in that document you signed before your marriage. So the court system is going to uphold that agreement unless there is something fundamentally flawed about it that makes it to where there’s something more important than upholding the contract. Those instances when a properly prepared contract isn’t upheld are going to be rare and are the topic of another video. but to answer the original question – yes, prenups are generally enforceable and should be treated like any other contract you sign.