Massachusetts prenuptial Agreements are

enforceable but they come with some

limitations compared to other states

we see other states that follow kind of

a contract concept when it comes to

prenuptial agreements in other words

whatever the prenuptial agreement says

that is going to be what’s followed in

Massachusetts courts take a careful look

at whether the prenuptial agreement was

fair and reasonable at the time it was

entered and whether it’s still fair and

reasonable at the time of a divorce

how does that play out well in

Massachusetts prenuptial Agreements are

very effective when it comes to

protecting pre-marital assets from

division and in divorce prenuptial

agreements in Massachusetts are also

quite effective at protecting inherited

assets or family gifts that are received

during the marriage and Massachusetts

courts have enforced alimony waivers and

prenuptial agreements such that neither

party May pay alimony at the time of the

divorce however it’s important to note

that that two-look test where they look

first whether it was fair and reasonable

at the time it was made and again

whether it’s still fair and reasonable

at the time of the divorce

can cause a court to invalidate a

provision of a prenuptial agreement for

example an alimony waiver may be deemed

to be unfair if it causes one party to

have few or substantially no assets and

uh the other party to have most of the

assets or greater wealth following the

divorce some of the pitfalls with

prenuptial agreements involve whether or

not there was full disclosure of all of

the income and assets at the time the

agreement was made

so it’s important for parties to say

exactly what they have prior to being

married in order for that agreement to

be enforceable at the time of a future

divorce

in Massachusetts we also have a somewhat

unique situation in which prenuptial

agreements that are too one-sided may be

vulnerable or invalidated by a court at

the time of the divorce

that stands in contrast to other states

where an extremely one-sided prenuptial

agreement might be deemed enforceable

with few questions from a judge