Marriage contracts in Canada are subject to provincial legislation. Every province and territory in Canada recognizes marriage contracts. For example, in Ontario, marriage contracts are called prenutial agreements and recognized by section 52 of the Family Law Act. [18] Marriage contracts are recognised in Australia by the Family Law Act 1975 (Commonwealth). [55] In Australia, a marriage contract is called a binding financial agreement (BFA). [56] An expiry provision may be inserted into a marriage contract, which states that the contract expires after a certain period of time. In Maine, for marriage contracts entered into before October 1, 1993, the contract automatically expires after the birth of a child, unless the parties renew them. [44] In other states, a certain number of years of marriage results in the expiration of a marriage contract. In states that have passed the Uniform Premarital Agreement Act (UPAA), there is no sunset provision by law, but one can be under private contract. Note that states have different versions of the UPAA. A marriage contract is a type of contract that is concluded by two people before the marriage is concluded. This contract could describe the responsibilities and property rights of each party for the duration of the marriage.

Most often, marriage contracts describe the conditions associated with the division of financial assets and responsibilities when the marriage is dissolved. Unlike all other contract laws, no consideration is required, although a minority of courts indicate the marriage itself in return. Through a prenup, a spouse can completely renounce property rights, alimony or inheritance rights and the elective share and get nothing in return. The choice of applicable law is crucial in the prenaps. The contracting parties may choose that the law of the State in which they are married regulates both the interpretation of the agreement and the division of property at the time of divorce. In the absence of a choice of law clause, the law of the place where the parties divorce does not determine the law of the State in which they married. Marriage contracts are a matter of civil law, so Catholic canon law does not exclude them in principle (e.g. B to determine how property would be distributed among the children of a previous marriage after the death of one of the spouses). The reasons for making these agreements vary, although wealthiest spouses usually initiate prenutial agreements to protect property. In addition, older couples may each want such an agreement because they may have assets or retirement income to maintain and protect them, and may want children from previous marriages to receive a portion of their estate.

A marriage contract is different from the matrimonial regime, which did not mainly concern the effects of divorce, but the establishment and maintenance of dynastic families or a divorce agreement concluded by the parties in the context of the dissolution of their marriage. Whether a prenup makes divorce easier or faster is an open question. If a spouse asks the court to invalidate the prenup, this can lead to a long and costly dispute. On the other hand, an undisputed prenup means less discovery about the elements listed in the agreement and therefore less bitterness all around. This means that the court and lawyers have less to do. Prenaptial mediation is another way to create a marriage contract. In this process, a mediator allows for an open discussion between the couple on all kinds of marriage issues, such as work expectations after the birth of the children and saving and spending styles, as well as traditional pre-marriage discussions about asset sharing and the couple`s alimony at the end of the marriage. The engaged couple, with the help of the mediator, makes all decisions about what would happen in the event of separation or divorce. They then draft either a memo or a prenaptial agreement and have it reviewed by their respective lawyers. .