Things you can’t put in a prenup

Signing a prenuptial agreement before you and your partner get married in New York can be very useful and help protect you in case a divorce occurs. However, some people don’t fully understand what they can and cannot put in their prenup. Here are some things that are not appropriate for you to include in a prenuptial agreement.

Child custody and child support

You cannot detail who gets custody of your children in a prenup. You cannot put anything about child support either because child custody, support, visitation and anything else having to do with your children needs to get decided by a court. The court will decide on these things based on what will be best for the child in the long run, so there’s no point in including such a thing in your prenup.

Personal preferences and requirements

When it comes to things other than finances, such as your own personal preferences, you should not include those in your prenuptial agreement. A prenup is mainly focused on financial issues, so if you add private, personal things in your agreement, the court may not take your document seriously.

This can include matters such as where you and your spouse will spend the holidays, how often you want to have sexual relations, preferences about your partner’s appearance and anything else that isn’t related to finance. Most judges will not consider these things as valid, and they could even determine that your entire prenuptial or postnuptial agreement is invalid due to these non-financial preferences.

A prenup is great for protecting your financial assets in case you and your partner decide to call it quits. You should not try to ruin the agreement by including personal issues and preferences instead of focusing on the finances.