as far as requirements go there’s a

family code section on point but in

general terms if the parties are

eventually going to get divorced what a

judge is going to look for as as far as

finding a valid prenup is if the parties

were on relatively equal footing and

negotiating that prenuptial agreement

because taking it back what a prenuptial

agreement is is basically an agreement

by two people who are going to be

married to deviate from the property

laws and the spousal support laws if

they want to of the state of california

and how they treat property and support

upon divorce it’s basically just

re-raiding the laws based on their own

contract there are certain limitations

that

you can’t contract to such as changing

child support laws or dictating custody

if you have future children or if

they’re existing children so it’s

limited to property and support so

bringing it back to that there are

disclosures that they would have to

exchange prior to entering into that

prenup and in sufficient time before

negotiating and entering it so they have

a knowledge of what exists what each

party’s income is what each party’s

assets are

their tax returns for the last few years

things of that nature so a judge when it

looks retroactively back at it they know

that each party had a sufficient

understanding to enter into this

contract now as far as the contract

terms with enforceability i touched on

this a little earlier but basically just

ensuring that none of the provisions

would violate public policy and you know

california is a no fault state so for

example you know if a person wanted to

write in if there’s any infidelity of

the marriage i will get x amount in

child support or spousal support upon

our divorce the court isn’t going to

enforce any provision of that because

you cannot contract two against

child support in an agreement it’s a

no-fault state so the court doesn’t care

if there’s any fidelity involved

including if you contract to that in a

prenup it’s just going to be thrown out

with respect to spousal support

specifically the court looks at that a

little bit more sternly in a prenuptial

agreement versus property so that gets

what’s called a second look provision

where the court’s not only going to look

at the circumstances at the time

the individuals contracted the prenup

but also what are the circumstances at

the time of divorce so even if you did

everything right buttoned it up gave all

the disclosures contracted to fair terms

at the time if circumstances drastically

change during the marriage the court may

still not enforce specifically the

spousal support provisions they may

still enforce the property provisions if

whatever change changed so drastically

to make the agreement unfair when looked

at the prism of what’s going on at the

time of divorce