No matter how many years of marital bliss you have experienced, a divorce can happen at any time. If you are splitting up with your partner late in life, it is natural to feel uneasy if your spouse was the primary breadwinner. To compound matters, you might be realizing that the prenuptial agreement you signed may leave you with a small percentage of the joint assets.
While many states require contracts to meet the set standards of The Uniform Prenuptial Agreement Act, Georgia does not follow this procedure. This fact, along with other factors, might put your agreement on shaky ground.
Age of agreement
A prenuptial agreement does not become null and void simply because it is old, but the age does have some implications. If it has been 30 years or so since you signed the contract, many things about your financial situation have likely changed. An agreement that seemed reasonable at the time may make no sense in the present, and a judge may agree.
In fact, agreements that are blatantly unfair, regardless of when they came to be, often become invalid during divorce proceedings. The terms should not be illogical or contain any outrageous conditions.
Circumstances of agreement
Another aspect that may hurt the validity of a prenuptial agreement is the circumstances surrounding it. Did you sign the contract hours before the wedding? Were you given falsified information? Was your spouse hiding assets from you?
As an interested party, you should have had all the details necessary to make an informed decision. You also should not have felt rushed to make the agreement official. There should also have been witnesses present at the time you signed the document. Situations that involve any of these characteristics are a red flag when it comes time to evaluate the contract during a divorce.
If you have concerns over how your prenuptial agreement might affect your divorce settlement, it may be worth exploring if it is still valid. It could make the difference as you plan for your future beyond the end of this marriage.
