Review of Existing Nuptial Agreements

What a Nuptial Agreement Review Involves

A nuptial agreement records how you and your spouse or civil partner want money and property dealt with if the relationship ends. In England and Wales it does not bind the court. The Supreme Court held in Radmacher v Granatino that the parties cannot, by agreement, oust the jurisdiction of the court, which must nonetheless give appropriate weight to the agreement. That weight is decided when the agreement is tested, on the circumstances prevailing then, so a carefully made agreement can lose force as the years pass, and a badly made one may never have had much.

A review looks at three things: the circumstances in which the agreement was made, the terms themselves, and how your lives have changed since. It applies to prenuptial agreements, postnuptial agreements and their civil partnership equivalents, because the Supreme Court applied the same test to agreements made before and after the marriage, and the Civil Partnership Act 2004 gives civil partners financial relief that corresponds to the provision made for married couples.

The outcome is a written opinion on the weight the agreement is likely to carry, what would weaken it in a dispute, and whether it should be left alone, varied or replaced.

The Test the Court Would Apply Today

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. That is the proposition the Supreme Court laid down in Radmacher v Granatino in 2010, for prenuptial and postnuptial agreements alike, and it remains the law.

Behind it sits section 25 of the Matrimonial Causes Act 1973. The court must have regard to all the circumstances of the case, giving first consideration to the welfare of any child of the family under 18, and in particular to each party's income, earning capacity, property and resources, their financial needs and obligations, the standard of living before the breakdown, their ages and the length of the marriage, any disability, contributions including looking after the home and family, and conduct it would be inequitable to disregard. The agreement is one of those circumstances. In the right case it can be the most compelling factor, but the court makes the order.

Three questions follow. Were there circumstances when the agreement was made that reduce its weight: duress, fraud or misrepresentation, undue pressure, or a material lack of disclosure, information or advice? Did each of you intend it to be effective? And would it be fair to hold you to it now? The Supreme Court said that needs and compensation are the strands most likely to make that unfair: an agreement is unlikely to be upheld where it would leave one of you in a predicament of real need while the other enjoys a sufficiency or more, or where one partner's devotion to the home and family left the other free to accumulate wealth. Where each of you can meet your own needs, the court is most likely to follow the agreement on the sharing of property.

The law may change. The Government's consultation A fairer end to relationships, which closed on 14 August 2026, proposes qualifying nuptial agreements that would bind the court where statutory safeguards are met, with no contracting out of needs. No outcome had been published when this page was written, so the Radmacher test applies to every agreement, old or new, unless and until Parliament changes the law.

What We Check and the Common Problems

We ask for the signed agreement, every draft, the disclosure schedules, the advice letters and anything that fixes when it was signed relative to the ceremony, plus the original and a translation where it was made abroad. The problems we find most often:

• Signature days before the wedding, or a sense that the ceremony would not go ahead without it. The Supreme Court set no minimum period, but the court may take into account a party's emotional state and the pressures they were under.
• No disclosure, or a schedule so thin that one of you did not know what the other owned. What matters is that each of you had all the information material to your decision.
• No legal advice, or advice from the same solicitor for both of you. Sound legal advice is, in the Supreme Court's words, obviously desirable.
• Terms that were unfair from the start, or that would now leave one of you unable to meet reasonable needs.
• Children born since signing. The Supreme Court said a nuptial agreement cannot be allowed to prejudice the reasonable requirements of any children of the family.
• A long marriage. The Supreme Court observed that the longer the marriage has lasted, the more likely it is that circumstances have changed in ways or to an extent the agreement did not envisage.
• Definitions of separate and shared property that no longer match how you have used the assets. In Standish v Standish, decided on 2 July 2025, the Supreme Court confirmed that property brought into the marriage, inherited or given from outside it is shared only where, over time, you have treated it as shared, although it can still be called on to meet needs.
• A review clause or sunset date that has come and gone without anyone acting on it.
• An agreement made abroad or under another country's law. Our international prenuptial and postnuptial agreements page covers the cross-border points.

Updating, Replacing or Relying on the Agreement

If the review finds the agreement still reflects your intentions and your circumstances, it can be left alone. If it does not, the usual course is a new postnuptial agreement or post-civil partnership agreement that replaces it, made with the same disclosure, separate advice and time for reflection the court looks for. Neither of you can be made to sign a new agreement; if one of you declines, the existing agreement stands and the court will weigh it as it is.

An agreement made during the marriage or civil partnership may also be a maintenance agreement under section 34 of the Matrimonial Causes Act 1973 or paragraph 67 of Schedule 5 to the Civil Partnership Act 2004. Where those provisions apply, and while the agreement subsists and you are both domiciled or resident in England and Wales, either of you may ask the court to alter it on a change of circumstances or because it makes no proper financial arrangements for a child of the family. Whether they reach every postnuptial agreement is unsettled, and the postnuptial agreements page explains the point.

If you are separating, the agreement does not end the matter by itself. Where you both still accept its terms, they can be recorded in a consent order, which GOV.UK explains a judge will approve, making it legally binding, if they think it is fair. Where one of you wants to depart from the agreement, it is weighed within financial remedy proceedings under the test above. Court fees apply to those applications and are set out on the GOV.UK court fees page.

How the Review Process Works

1. You send us the agreement and the file behind it, and we take your instructions on what has changed since it was signed and what you want to achieve.
2. We check how the agreement was made: the timing before the ceremony, the disclosure each of you received, the advice each of you had and any pressure at the time.
3. We test the terms against section 25 and the Radmacher fairness questions as the court would apply them today, including provision for children and for needs.
4. We compare the agreement with your present circumstances: children, career changes, the family home, businesses, inheritances, pensions, a move abroad and the length of the marriage or civil partnership.
5. You receive a written opinion on its likely weight, its weak points and your options: leave it, vary it, replace it, or, on separation, rely on it or challenge it.
6. Where you decide to update it, we act for one of you in preparing the replacement agreement with fresh disclosure, and the other takes their own independent advice. Where you are separating, we prepare the consent order or advise on proceedings.

When Legal Advice Is Especially Important

Advice matters most where:

• children have been born since, or one of you has stepped back from work to care for them
• the assets have changed shape: a business has grown, an inheritance has arrived, property ring-fenced in the agreement has become the family home, or pensions are now a large part of the picture
• one of you feels pressured to sign a replacement, or believes the original was signed under pressure; in immediate danger call 999, the National Domestic Abuse Helpline is 0808 2000 247, and our domestic abuse and injunctions page explains protective orders
• the marriage or civil partnership is ending and one of you intends to rely on the agreement while the other wants to depart from it
• either of you holds a visa that depends on the relationship: the immigration consequences of separation are covered on our family immigration pages, not here

How RakLAW Solicitors Can Help

RakLAW Solicitors, founded by solicitor Rakesh Prajapati, reviews nuptial agreements at 42 Shad Thames in Southwark, near Tower Bridge, whoever drafted the original and whichever of you asks. We act for one of you, and we say plainly whether the agreement is likely to hold.

RakLAW does not offer legal aid. Our charges are on the family law fees page, the first 15-minute consultation is free, and you can call 0203 345 2000 or book an appointment.