What Is a Pennsylvania Postnuptial Agreement?
A Pennsylvania postnuptial agreement outlines rights and responsibilities regarding finances and property. It highlights the arrangement while married and what happens if the marriage ends. You and your spouse can write one at any point in your marriage. This characteristic makes it unlike a prenuptial agreement, which couples sign before marriage.
A postnup is not meant as a sign that you’re planning to divorce. Couples who create postnups intend to stay married but might want to protect inherited property. They may also want to address concerns about debts. If the marriage ends, spouses can enforce the postnup’s terms through a written divorce agreement.
Without a postnup, courts apply principles of equitable distribution under 23 PA Cons Stat § 3502. They’ll consider various factors to reach a fair outcome rather than an automatic equal split.
How to Write a Postnuptial Agreement in Pennsylvania
Use Legal Templates’ Pennsylvania postnuptial agreement form to create your own. This way, you’ll create an effective, personalized contract with all the essential elements.
- Identifying and background information. Include the spouses’ names and where they live. Specify if they have children together or from former relationships.
- Property details. List all property owned before and during the marriage. State whether it belongs to one spouse or both. Explain how you’ll divide shared property if you get divorced. This includes any growth in a business that was started or bought during the marriage.
- Debts and taxes. Explain how you’ll split any debts, whether they were taken on before or during the marriage. Also, say if you plan to file taxes together or separately while married.
- Housing details. Decide who will pay for household expenses during the marriage. If you own a home, choose what will happen if you divorce. You may sell it and split the money, or one of you will keep it.
- Pets. If you share pets, decide on your preferred custody or visitation rights.
- Spousal support. Outline how you’ll handle the responsibility for payment of spousal support in the event of a divorce. If you don’t specify, Pennsylvania courts will follow default spousal support laws under 23 PA Cons Stat § 3701.
- Other considerations. Decide what each spouse’s financial rights and responsibilities will be if one of you dies or becomes disabled. You can also choose how you’ll settle disagreements about the postnup.
Sample Pennsylvania Postnuptial Agreement
View a free Pennsylvania postnuptial agreement template to understand its format. Then, create your own via our document editor and download it in PDF or Word format.
Legal Requirements and Considerations for Pennsylvania Postnups
Pennsylvania doesn’t have a special law just for postnups. Instead, postnups must follow the state’s general rules for contracts. This means the agreement must be in writing, signed by both spouses willingly, and include honest financial details (or a waiver of this information). Knowing these rules can help you create a postnup that will hold up in court.
Signing Requirements
To make your postnup official, both spouses must sign and date it to confirm they understand and agree to the terms. The agreement cannot be signed under duress as established in Lugg v. Lugg (2013).
You can also have a Pennsylvania notary public complete an acknowledgment form to verify the legitimacy of each spouse’s signature. While getting your signatures notarized isn’t required, it can add more assurance.
Financial Disclosure
Both spouses must be honest about what they own and owe. This means sharing a full list of money, property, and debts. You can include this list in a section attached to the Pennsylvania postnup. It should name each item and say how much it’s worth.
If one spouse leaves out or misrepresents information, it could give the other spouse a reason to challenge the agreement’s enforceability (Simeone v. Simeone, 525 PA 392 (1990)). They could argue that they signed it involuntarily through coercive or fraudulent practices.
Excluded Terms
Courts generally won’t enforce contract terms that break the law or go against public policy. This includes certain parts of a Pennsylvania postnuptial agreement. For example, you can’t include clauses about child support, custody, or visitation because the Pennsylvania court system has the exclusive authority to decide these issues. They’ll make decisions based on the best interest of the child and the parents’ incomes, as laid out in 23 PA Cons Stat § 5323.
Attorney Representation
Pennsylvania doesn’t require you to hire a lawyer to create a postnup. Still, having independent legal counsel can help ensure that both spouses fully understand their rights and obligations under the agreement and that it’s fair and voluntary for both of you.
Validity & Enforceability
Spouses can use a postnup to specify which assets are considered non-marital property, which Pennsylvania defines under 23 PA Cons Stat § 3501. When done properly, this means those assets won’t be subject to an equitable division by the court if you divorce.
Pennsylvania courts will generally enforce the terms as long as the agreement was signed voluntarily and honestly, unless a spouse can prove they signed it under duress, misrepresentation, or fraud (Lugg v. Lugg (2013)).
Revisions
You can revise the terms of your postnup to reflect any changes in your relationship’s circumstances. Spouses can amend or modify the terms of their prior agreement by creating a new Pennsylvania postnuptial agreement form and revoking their old agreement.
