Prenuptial and Postnuptial Agreement Lawyer in NYC
Drafting, negotiating, and reviewing marital agreements under New York Domestic Relations Law § 236(B)(3) — for couples planning marriage and for spouses already married.
Overview
What This Practice Covers — and Who Needs It
A prenuptial agreement — executed before marriage — and a postnuptial agreement — executed during marriage — are contracts that allow couples to define property rights, financial responsibilities, and divorce-related terms outside the default rules of New York matrimonial law. Well-drafted agreements protect premarital assets, clarify financial expectations, reduce litigation exposure if the marriage ends, and provide a framework for estate planning coordination. Poorly drafted agreements can be challenged and set aside in divorce proceedings, leaving the parties with the outcomes they were trying to avoid.
Yazdi Law drafts, negotiates, and reviews prenuptial and postnuptial agreements for NYC-area clients across a range of circumstances — professionals with premarital earnings and retirement accounts, entrepreneurs with business interests, individuals with inheritance expectations or children from prior relationships, high-earning spouses seeking to address disparity in earning capacity, and couples resolving changed circumstances after marriage through postnuptial agreements. Representation is available in English and Farsi. Prenups and postnups under New York law require careful drafting — recent case law has substantially raised the bar for enforceability, particularly for spousal maintenance waivers. Call (917) 565-7286 to schedule a consultation.
Legal Foundation
The Legal Framework
Marital agreements in New York are governed primarily by Domestic Relations Law § 236(B)(3), which sets out the execution requirements, and by decades of case law developing the standards for enforceability. The statutory framework is deceptively simple; the case law is demanding.
DRL § 236(B)(3) execution requirements
Under New York Domestic Relations Law § 236(B)(3), a prenuptial or postnuptial agreement is valid and enforceable in a matrimonial action only if three requirements are met: (1) the agreement is in writing; (2) it is subscribed by the parties; and (3) it is acknowledged or proven in the manner required to entitle a deed to be recorded — meaning notarized. An agreement missing any of these three execution requirements is vulnerable to being set aside regardless of how thoroughly its substantive terms were negotiated. Notarization is not a formality — it is a statutory prerequisite to enforceability.
Standards for enforceability
New York has a strong public policy favoring the enforcement of duly executed marital agreements. Under Matter of Greiff, 92 NY2d 341 (1998), New York courts uphold prenuptial agreements where parties have contracted freely and fairly. However, under Christian v. Christian, 42 NY2d 63 (1977), a marital agreement will not be enforced if the challenging party demonstrates fraud, duress, overreaching, or unconscionability — and courts scrutinize agreements between spouses and prospective spouses more closely than ordinary commercial contracts. The threshold for setting aside a valid-on-its-face agreement is high, but it has been met in reported decisions, including where one spouse fraudulently induced the other to sign (Cioffi-Petrakis v. Petrakis, 72 AD3d 868 (2d Dept 2010); 103 AD3d 766 (2d Dept 2013)) and where meaningful financial disclosure was absent (McKenna v. McKenna (2d Dept 2014)).
The 2025 JM v. GV development on spousal maintenance waivers
In JM v. GV, 225 NYS3d 859 (2025), a New York Supreme Court substantially clarified the requirements for an enforceable waiver of spousal maintenance in a prenuptial agreement. Under the decision, a maintenance waiver must demonstrate a genuinely ‘knowing’ relinquishment — meaning the agreement must include the actual incomes of both parties at execution, the statutory maintenance calculation under DRL § 236(B)(6) using those figures, express acknowledgment that the waiving spouse understands the statutory formula and intentionally waives the resulting entitlement, a case-specific rationale for deviating from the guideline amount, and affirmation that enforcement will not render either spouse a public charge under General Obligations Law § 5-311. Prenups drafted without this level of specificity on maintenance waivers face substantially greater enforceability risk after JM v. GV. This is a material change in drafting practice that well-prepared counsel is already reflecting in new agreements.
What can and cannot be addressed
A prenuptial or postnuptial agreement can address virtually any financial or property matter the parties wish to structure — equitable distribution opt-outs or designations of specific property as separate, spousal maintenance waivers or specific maintenance formulas, treatment of premarital assets and postmarital appreciation, business ownership and valuation, inheritance and gift treatment, retirement accounts, real estate, and coordination with estate planning. However, certain matters cannot be resolved by agreement. Child support and child custody cannot be waived or predetermined by prenup or postnup — these are matters the court determines at the time of dissolution based on the best interests of the child, and any provision attempting to contract around these protections is unenforceable.
Infidelity and lifestyle clauses
Some couples consider ‘infidelity clauses’ or other lifestyle provisions imposing financial consequences for specific marital conduct. Under New York’s no-fault divorce framework (DRL § 170(7)), enforcement of these clauses is uncertain. Courts have rejected clauses that function as punitive or that leave one spouse destitute, while some well-drafted provisions have been enforced where they are reasonable, non-punitive, and do not render the penalized spouse a public charge. These clauses require careful drafting and realistic discussion about enforceability; we raise the issue explicitly during the negotiation stage when clients express interest.
How It Works
The Process, Step by Step
A prenup or postnup at Yazdi Law typically proceeds through the stages below. We do not rush agreements — New York courts view prenups signed under time pressure near the wedding date with heightened scrutiny, and rushed agreements produce enforceability problems.
Initial consultation
The first consultation is a candid discussion about what each client wants to accomplish and whether a prenup or postnup is the right tool. We discuss the timeline — prenups should ideally be completed well before the wedding, not in the final days before — the scope of protection sought, and whether each client has independent counsel (which is strongly recommended for enforceability). For postnups, the conversation includes what has changed in the marriage that motivates the agreement. Consultations are confidential regardless of whether the engagement proceeds.
Financial disclosure
Full and fair financial disclosure is the foundation of an enforceable prenup or postnup. Both parties must disclose their assets, income, debts, and other financial circumstances in detail, with supporting documentation where appropriate (tax returns, account statements, business valuations, real estate appraisals). Incomplete or misleading disclosure is one of the most common reasons prenups are later set aside. Our engagement includes coordinating and documenting the disclosure process so there is a clear record of what each party knew and disclosed at execution.
Substantive negotiation
With disclosure complete, we work through the substantive terms: what property remains separate, how property acquired during the marriage will be treated, whether and how spousal maintenance rights are modified, how business interests are valued and protected, how inheritance is treated, and how the agreement coordinates with estate planning documents. Negotiation is often iterative — drafts exchanged between counsel for each party with revisions reflecting the parties’ priorities. This stage typically takes several weeks and should not be rushed.
Drafting with JM v. GV specificity
For agreements addressing spousal maintenance waivers, we draft with the specificity JM v. GV now requires: actual income figures for both parties, the DRL § 236(B)(6) statutory calculation applied to those figures, express acknowledgment of the waiving spouse’s understanding, a case-specific rationale for deviating from the guideline amount, and affirmation of no public-charge outcome under GOL § 5-311. This level of detail adds length to the agreement but substantially improves enforceability.
Independent counsel review
Each party should have independent counsel review the agreement before execution. Both parties represented by counsel is a substantial enforceability factor — a party signing without counsel is in a much stronger position to later argue overreaching or failure to understand. When only one side of a prospective couple has engaged us, we encourage the other party to obtain independent counsel and we will coordinate directly with that counsel during negotiation. Where we represent only one party, we do not provide advice to the other party, regardless of friendly intent.
Execution and acknowledgment
Execution follows the DRL § 236(B)(3) requirements strictly — signatures by both parties and notarized acknowledgment meeting the standard for recording a deed. We coordinate execution, retain original executed copies, and provide conformed copies to both parties. For prenups, execution should occur with meaningful time before the wedding — not in the final days, which courts view with heightened scrutiny. For postnups, execution timing should avoid periods of apparent marital crisis, which similarly attracts scrutiny.
Later modification or review
Prenups and postnups can and often should be reviewed after significant life events — the birth of children, material changes in career or income, business formation or sale, inheritance, or significant periods of marriage that shift the equitable backdrop. Amendments follow the same DRL § 236(B)(3) execution requirements. Some clients return periodically for structured review of their existing agreement; others update only when circumstances substantially change.
What to Watch For
Common Pitfalls and How We Avoid Them
Most of the prenups that are successfully challenged in New York divorce proceedings share a small number of recurring defects. The following pitfalls come up repeatedly.
Signing too close to the wedding
Prenups executed days or weeks before a wedding — particularly where one party has invested significantly in wedding preparations or travel — face heightened scrutiny for duress and overreaching. The Cioffi-Petrakis case involved a prenup presented four days before a wedding for which the bride’s father had already paid $40,000; the agreement was later set aside for fraudulent inducement. We begin prenup engagements months before the wedding, not weeks, and build in time for negotiation, review by independent counsel, and reflection.
Inadequate financial disclosure
Missing or incomplete disclosure of assets, income, and debts is among the most common reasons prenups are challenged successfully. McKenna v. McKenna (2d Dept 2014) and a line of other cases have held that absence of meaningful disclosure undermines the validity of the agreement. Our process includes thorough documented disclosure for both parties, creating a record that forecloses later argument about what was known at execution.
Maintenance waivers without JM v. GV specificity
After JM v. GV, maintenance waivers drafted in generic waiver language — ‘the parties waive all rights to spousal maintenance’ — without the specific income figures, statutory calculation, and acknowledgment of understanding are significantly more vulnerable to challenge. Agreements drafted before the JM v. GV decision that contain such generic waivers may benefit from postnuptial amendment to shore up enforceability. We raise this with clients whose existing prenups predate 2025.
No independent counsel for the other party
Agreements where one party is represented by counsel and the other signs without counsel face heightened scrutiny. Even when the unrepresented party is sophisticated or trusts their spouse, the record of independent representation is a substantial enforceability factor. We strongly recommend — and in some circumstances require — that the other party have independent counsel before executing, and we coordinate the engagement accordingly.
Provisions attempting to waive child support or predetermine custody
Provisions attempting to waive child support, predetermine custody, or contract around the best interests of any future child are unenforceable as against public policy. Some prenups attempt to include these provisions, producing agreements that are partially unenforceable (raising broader questions about the enforceability of the remainder). We draft agreements that address adult financial matters only, leaving child-related determinations to the court at the time of divorce.
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Costs and What's Included
Prenups and postnups at Yazdi Law are handled on a flat fee structure set at the initial consultation and detailed in a written retainer agreement before any work begins. Specific fees depend on complexity — a straightforward prenup between parties with modest premarital assets is priced differently from a high-net-worth prenup involving business interests, trusts, inheritance planning, and extensive property. Postnups are typically priced similarly to prenups of comparable complexity.
Our fees cover initial consultation and scope discussion, coordination of financial disclosure, preparation of the initial draft reflecting the client’s priorities, negotiation and revision rounds with counsel for the other party, incorporation of JM v. GV-level specificity on maintenance waivers where applicable, coordination of estate planning referrals if needed for integrated planning, and execution logistics (notarization, retention of originals, distribution of conformed copies). We do not represent both parties in the same prenup or postnup — each client has their own counsel, which is essential for enforceability.
There are no filing fees associated with a prenup or postnup because these are private contracts between the parties, not court filings. Initial consultations are free and confidential.
FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions
When should we start the prenup process before our wedding?
What can a prenup actually protect?
Can we create a postnup after we are already married?
My spouse already has a lawyer for the prenup. Do I need my own?
Schedule a Consultation
If you are planning a marriage and considering a prenuptial agreement, are already married and considering a postnuptial agreement, or need review of an existing marital agreement, call Yazdi Law at (917) 565-7286 or request a consultation online. Our Midtown Manhattan office is at 261 Madison Avenue, Suite 1035, two blocks from Grand Central Terminal. Initial consultations are free and confidential. Representation is available in English and Farsi. Prenup engagements benefit substantially from early start — beginning months before the wedding produces better agreements and materially improved enforceability compared to last-minute drafting.
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Disclaimer: The information on this page is for general informational purposes and does not constitute legal advice. New York matrimonial law evolves through case law and statutory amendment; the enforceability principles discussed reflect the state of the law as of the date of publication. Every agreement is unique; prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome; and outcomes depend on specific facts and circumstances. Contacting Yazdi Law does not create an attorney-client relationship. Attorney Advertising.