Marital agreements (prenups and postnups) in estate planning
Prenups and postnups aren’t just for divorce. Used well, they’re core estate-planning tools — preserving inheritances, protecting a business, and making sure what you built passes to your children rather than to a new spouse.
These are the questions that matter most when marriage and estate planning meet.
How are these estate-planning tools?
Alabama’s default rules can quietly override your estate plan. A surviving spouse has an “elective share” right to a portion of your estate no matter what your will says, and inherited or business assets can be pulled into a divorce if they’ve been mixed together. A marital agreement defines what’s separate and what passes at death — so your plan actually works the way you intended.
A prenup
Before the marriage
Signed before the wedding, it preserves premarital wealth, a business, and expected inheritances as separate property.
A postnup
During the marriage
Signed after the wedding, it captures the same protections when circumstances change, or when a prenup was never done.
What makes one hold up in Alabama?
A marital agreement is only as good as its enforceability. Alabama courts look for a handful of things — and getting them right at the start is what keeps the agreement from being challenged later.
What Alabama looks for
- Full and fair financial disclosure — both spouses lay out all assets, debts, and income before signing.
- Voluntary signing — no duress, and not sprung on someone the morning of the wedding.
- Terms that aren’t unconscionable — some one-sidedness is fine, extreme unfairness may not survive.
- Separate attorneys — each spouse ideally has their own counsel.
- A written, signed agreement, with real time to review it.
What does it look like in practice?
In a second marriage with a business and children from before, the default rules and your wishes can pull in opposite directions.
Without an agreement
Default rules override the plan
If Bob Caldwell later marries Diane without an agreement, Alabama’s elective-share rule could pull a chunk of what he built away from James, Claire, and Hannah — and business value could be exposed in a divorce. The plan he wanted is partly overridden by rules he never chose.
With a marital agreement
His wishes control
A properly drafted agreement with Diane defines what’s separate, provides for her fairly, and keeps the business and the bulk of the estate on the path to his children. Diane is taken care of; his kids still receive what he built.
Bob, Diane, and the Caldwell family are a composite example used to show how the planning works — not a real client.
Do we need a marital agreement?
Five short choices. Brent reads your answer back to you at the end.
A 30-second guided quiz. Get a personal read on whether a marital agreement fits.
How Brent helps you
- Looks at whether a prenup or postnup actually strengthens your estate plan
- Drafts it to protect inheritances, a business, and children from a prior relationship
- Builds in the disclosure, timing, and separate counsel that make it enforceable
- Coordinates the agreement with your trusts and overall plan
