What Is an Illinois Prenuptial Agreement?
An Illinois prenuptial agreement is a legal contract you and your partner create before getting married. It outlines how you’ll handle money, property, and debts during your marriage—and what happens if you divorce.
Under 750 ILCS 10/2, a prenup takes effect when you get married and must be made in contemplation of marriage. Its main purpose is to clearly define each person’s financial rights and responsibilities.
Unlike community property states that automatically split everything 50/50, Illinois uses equitable distribution, as per 750 ILCS 5/503. That means a court divides assets based on fairness, not strict equality. A prenup lets you and your partner make those decisions ahead of time, on your own terms.
How to Write a Prenuptial Agreement in Illinois
You can easily create your prenup using our guided Illinois form builder. It walks you through every key detail, including:
- Your and your partner’s names and locations
- Background info like previous marriages or children
- What property is considered separate or shared
- How you divide assets and debts if you divorce
- Who’s responsible for expenses during the marriage
- How you’ll file taxes (jointly or separately)
- What happens to the marital home
- Spousal support terms (if any)
- What happens in case of disability or death
- How disputes will be resolved
You can modify the prenuptial agreement terms during your marriage. Our Illinois postnuptial agreement form makes this easy.
Sample Illinois Prenuptial Agreement
Below you can view a sample Illinois prenuptial agreement. You can customize this template using our document editor and then download it in PDF or Word format.
Legal Requirements for an Illinois Prenuptial Agreement
To be valid and enforceable, your prenup must follow the rules set by Illinois law under the Uniform Premarital Agreement Act (750 ILCS 10). If you skip a step or include something the law doesn’t allow, a court could throw out part, or all, of your agreement during a divorce.
Signing and Enforceability
Both you and your future spouse must sign the agreement voluntarily. A verbal agreement will not hold up. The agreement must be in writing. If a court finds that one of you was pressured, misled, or didn’t fully understand what you were signing, it may invalidate the prenup.
To strengthen the agreement:
- Sign and date the document before the wedding
- Have it notarized using an Illinois notary acknowledgment form
This helps show the court that both parties entered the agreement knowingly and willingly.
Financial Disclosure
Before signing, you and your partner must give each other a fair and reasonable disclosure of your finances—unless you both agree to waive that right.
Under 750 ILCS 10/7, this means sharing:
- Assets and income
- Debts and financial obligations
- Business interests or investments
If this disclosure isn’t made, or is inaccurate and the other spouse did not have the ability to discover the information, the agreement could be considered unfair and unenforceable.
To make this easy, attach a list of assets and debts to the prenup form. It could protect you later if the agreement is challenged.
Excluded Terms
You can’t include anything in your prenup that:
- Breaks the law or public policy
- Limits a child’s right to financial support
- Imposes a criminal penalty
These restrictions are laid out under 750 ILCS 10/4(8).
Spousal Support Waivers
You and your partner can agree to waive or limit spousal support (alimony) in your prenup. Courts generally uphold this, but there’s an exception.
If enforcing that waiver would cause undue hardship at the time of divorce due to unforeseen circumstances, the court may still order one spouse to provide support. This rule appears in 750 ILCS 10/7(b).
When finalizing divorce terms, a divorce settlement agreement can help clarify spousal support and other arrangements.
