Prenuptial Agreements

What a Prenuptial Agreement Does

A prenuptial agreement, which the courts call an ante-nuptial agreement, is made before a marriage and records how you and your partner want your finances dealt with if it ends.

On divorce, nullity or judicial separation the court makes financial orders under the Matrimonial Causes Act 1973, and section 25 requires it to have regard to all the circumstances of the case, giving first consideration to the welfare while a minor of any child of the family under 18. The factors listed in section 25 include what each of you has and needs, your ages, the length of the marriage, contributions and lost benefits such as a pension.

Your agreement is one of those circumstances. In Radmacher v Granatino the Supreme Court held that the court is not obliged to give effect to a nuptial agreement and that the parties cannot, by agreement, oust the jurisdiction of the court. What it does is change what the court considers fair, and in the right case it may be the most compelling factor.

The same principles apply whenever it is signed. If you have already married, a postnuptial agreement does the same job, and couples registering a civil partnership use a pre-civil partnership agreement.

The Legal Test the Court Applies

The test set by the Supreme Court in Radmacher v Granatino is that the court should give effect to a nuptial agreement that is freely entered into by each party with a full appreciation of its implications unless in the circumstances prevailing it would not be fair to hold the parties to their agreement.

The first question is whether the circumstances in which you signed were sound. For full weight both of you must enter into the agreement of your own free will, without undue influence or pressure, and informed of its implications. The court asks whether there was a material lack of disclosure, information or advice, and whether you both intended it to take effect.

The second is whether it is fair to hold you to it now. Fairness has three strands: needs, compensation and sharing. Needs and compensation most readily make an agreement unfair: where one of you would be left in real need while the other has a sufficiency or more, or where one looked after the family while the other accumulated wealth. Where both can meet their own needs, the court is most likely to order what the agreement says on sharing.

These agreements do most work where they deal with property one of you already owns or expects from family. White v White and Miller v Miller drew a distinction between that and matrimonial property built up during the marriage, and the Supreme Court found nothing inherently unfair in an agreement dealing with the former, weight being given out of respect for individual autonomy.

What a Prenup Can and Cannot Cover

Most prenuptial agreements deal with:

• Property, savings and investments each of you owned before the marriage
• Inheritances, family gifts and trust interests, received or expected
• A shareholding in a company, a practice or a farm; see business assets
• Pensions built up before the marriage; see pensions on divorce
• The family home, and debts either of you brings into the marriage
• Whether either of you would pay the other spousal maintenance

No agreement removes the court's power to make financial orders or stops either of you applying to court. Nor can one prejudice the reasonable requirements of any children of the family, so it cannot bind the court on child maintenance or on arrangements for the children.

An agreement is not a court order either. If you separate and both accept the terms, we ask the court to approve them as a consent order, which a judge approves only if it is fair. If one of you challenges it, the court decides its weight in financial remedy proceedings.

Disclosure, Advice and Common Problems

What happened when the agreement was signed is the commonest reason its weight is reduced. The court weighs:

• Financial disclosure on both sides, so each of you has the information material to your decision
• Independent legal advice from separate solicitors, confirmed in writing; the Supreme Court called sound legal advice obviously desirable
• Time to reflect. The case law sets no minimum period, but signing close to the wedding tells against it
• No duress, fraud, misrepresentation or undue pressure, and no exploitation of a dominant position
• Terms that provide for needs and read fairly when signed
• Your emotional state, your ages and maturity, any earlier marriage, and whether the wedding would have gone ahead without the agreement

The problems we are asked to sort out are usually these: a draft produced days before the ceremony; disclosure that leaves out a company interest or a pension; one party advised and the other not; an agreement never revisited after children. We can review an agreement you already have.

Where either of you, or your assets, are connected with another country, the agreement must work in more than one legal system: see cross-border agreements.

How the Process Works

1. Free consultation. You tell us what you want to protect, what each of you owns, and we explain what weight an agreement carries.
2. Disclosure. Both of you set out assets, income, pensions and debts, and we prepare the schedule, with valuations where needed.
3. Terms. We agree what stays separate, what is shared, how the family home is dealt with and how needs and children are met.
4. Your partner's advice. Your partner instructs their own solicitor, who may propose changes. We can act for one of you only.
5. Signing. The agreement is executed as a deed and witnessed well before the wedding, both solicitors confirm their advice in writing and each of you keeps a copy.
6. Review. After children, an inheritance or a business sale, a postnuptial agreement can replace the original.

Aim to complete at least 28 days before the ceremony. That is not law yet: the Law Commission recommended it in 2014 and the Government proposed it again in June 2026. It also makes it much harder to argue later that you signed under time pressure.

When Advice Matters Most

Early advice matters most where:

• The wedding is close and you have been handed a draft to sign
• One of you is much wealthier, or plans to stop work to care for children
• A family business, farm or trust is involved and other relatives have an interest
• Either of you has children from an earlier relationship to provide for
• Your right to remain in the UK depends on your partner, which our family immigration page covers

If you feel pressured into signing, take your own advice first. In immediate danger call 999, and the National Domestic Abuse Helpline is on 0808 2000 247. Our domestic abuse and injunctions pages explain the orders available.

If you are not marrying, a cohabitation agreement is the equivalent. If you are already separating, the agreement becomes one factor in the divorce and separation that follows, and our financial settlement pages explain how the court divides money without one.

How RakLAW Solicitors Can Help

RakLAW Solicitors is authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority, SRA number 8007405, and was founded by solicitor Rakesh Prajapati. Our office is at 42 Shad Thames in Southwark, near Tower Bridge.

We draft prenuptial agreements, advise on a draft your partner's solicitor has produced and review nuptial agreements made here or abroad. If one is ever tested we advise on its weight and represent you where it is disputed. Our mediation and out of court options pages cover the alternatives to court.

A free 15-minute consultation is a sensible place to start. Our family law fees page explains how we charge, and we do not offer legal aid. Making an agreement does not involve the court, so there is no court fee; the GOV.UK court fees page explains the fees that apply if you later ask the court to make an order.