A prenuptial agreement is only worth what it is worth in court. Nevada law sets out exactly what makes one enforceable — and three specific grounds that will undo it. Most failed prenups fail for reasons that were entirely avoidable at the drafting stage.
Nevada has adopted the Uniform Premarital Agreement Act, at NRS Chapter 123A. The formal requirements are refreshingly short: under NRS 123A.040 a premarital agreement must be in writing and signed by both parties, and it is enforceable without consideration — the marriage itself supplies that.
The agreement takes effect on marriage. If the wedding does not happen, the agreement never becomes operative. After marriage, it can be amended or revoked only by another written agreement signed by both parties — again, no consideration required.
Under NRS 123A.080, the agreement is not enforceable if the person resisting it proves any one of the following:
Pressure, threats, or presenting the document days before the wedding with no realistic opportunity to review it all point this direction. Timing is evidence. An agreement produced the night before the ceremony invites exactly this challenge.
Judged as of the moment of signing, not with hindsight. Nevada makes unconscionability a question for the court to decide as a matter of law — not a jury question, and not simply a matter of whether the deal turned out badly for one side.
The most common failure. The agreement can be set aside where the challenging party was not given fair and reasonable disclosure of the other’s property and financial obligations, did not expressly waive that disclosure in writing, and could not reasonably have known the other’s financial position anyway.
A well-drafted Nevada premarital agreement can characterise property as separate rather than community, set out what happens to a business or professional practice, protect an inheritance or children from a previous relationship, allocate responsibility for debts, and address spousal support.
What it cannot do is bargain away a child’s rights. Child support belongs to the child, not the parents, and a court is not bound by an agreement that purports to limit it. Custody and parenting time are likewise decided on the best interests of the child at the time the issue arises — not by a document signed years earlier.
Signing well before the wedding removes the strongest voluntariness argument. Weeks, not days.
Not strictly required by statute, but independent representation on both sides substantially strengthens an agreement against later challenge — and one attorney cannot ethically represent both of you.
Attach schedules of assets, debts and income. The schedules are often what saves the agreement a decade later.
A postnuptial agreement covers similar ground after the wedding. It sits on different legal footing than a premarital agreement because the parties already owe each other duties as spouses, so the drafting and disclosure need to be handled with even more care.
The value of a premarital agreement is decided at the moment someone challenges it, which may be a decade later. That is an argument for getting the disclosure, the timing and the drafting right the first time. Donn W. Prokopius has drafted and litigated Nevada premarital agreements since 2000, at a flat fee quoted up front.
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