Recently in our blog, we discussed the benefits of drafting a postnuptial agreement to address any marital problems New York couples may have. We decided to continue talking about marital agreements by letting our readers know that not all prenuptial agreements are valid.
Family law attorneys often notice glaring mistakes a couple may make in a prenuptial agreement. These mistakes often occur because the couple created the document without legal guidance. As a result, many do-it-yourself prenuptial agreements are invalid. We have provided several examples below.
- Oral agreement: For a prenup to be legally binding it must be in writing and it must include each party’s signature.
- Grossly unfair: Family law courts may rule that your prenuptial agreement is invalid if it is extremely unbalanced in terms of asset division.
- Improper personal information: If a prenuptial agreement contains false information or does not contain complete information, it may be invalidated.
- Coercion: If one party pressured the other party into signing the prenup, it is likely not a valid document.
While family law courts give couples a lot of flexibility in creating prenuptial agreements, they must also make certain the document is fair to all parties. This means that in order for the agreement to be binding, you must be cautious about the language of the document and the provisions it includes. For this reason, it is wise to seek a legal opinion when drafting the agreement and before adding your signature.
To those who would like to learn more about prenuptial or postnuptial agreements in our state, we invite you to keep exploring our website and blog posts.
