A premarital agreement is something you create before you marry. It outlines what would happen with the property if you divorce. These agreements may include other details about your marriage or a potential divorce.
The idea is to make it easier on both of you when you divorce since the premarital agreement can serve as your divorce settlement guide. It also provides protection for the property you bring into the marriage, ensuring you can retain it after a divorce. However, the Indiana General Assembly explains there are some steps you may take that could make your premarital agreement unenforceable.
Spousal support
While you can include provisions pertaining to spousal support in a premarital agreement, you must be careful. You cannot eliminate support if it would create hardship for one of you. The court can override this portion of the agreement and institute support anyway. It is also possible that the court could invalidate the whole agreement because of this type of provision.
Voluntarily
For a prenuptial agreement to be valid, both people must enter into it voluntarily. If one of you can prove the other forced or coerced you into signing it, the court can throw it out. This is why it is essential to ensure you both have your own legal advisor who reviews and explains the agreement to you.
Reasonableness
The court can also dismiss an agreement if the court finds it unreasonable. This is a subjective concept, but in general, it means that an agreement should be as fair as possible. Even if one party comes into the marriage with a financial advantage, the agreement should not make things worse or fail to observe the contributions the other spouse may make during the marriage.
The court has the final say in determining if a prenuptial agreement is valid. It is up to the judge to decide is provisions violate the law or whether objections to the agreement are valid.
