You and your fiancée may have decided to create a prenuptial agreement before you get married, especially as these legal agreements become more mainstream. According to a recent survey done by the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers, more than half of the lawyers surveyed reported they had seen an increase in millennials coming to them for prenuptial agreements.
Your prenuptial agreement will put certain terms in place in case you decide to end your marriage. But there are certain limitations regarding what you can include in one of these agreements. Here are three things you cannot include:
1. Decisions about child support or custody
The court will decide what the best interests of your children are during the divorce process, so you cannot include stipulations about child support or custody in your prenuptial agreement. If you do include guidelines on these topics, the court may not uphold your requests.
2. Incentives for divorce
If your prenuptial agreement includes a provision that encourages divorce, the court may not uphold it. For example, if you decide to add a stipulation that gives your spouse the family home in exchange for an uncontested divorce, this may not work out in your favor.
3. Guidelines about personal matters
Your prenuptial agreement should be free of personal preferences about what your marriage should look like. For example, you cannot include details about which spouse will do certain chores around the house, where you will spend holidays or guidelines on how to raise your children. In general, you should only include financially based issues in your prenuptial agreement.
