Postnuptial Agreements in Alberta
A postnuptial agreement in Alberta is an agreement about property that a married couple makes during the marriage rather than before it, under the Family Property Act (Alberta).
The Difference Between a Postnuptial and a Prenuptial Agreement
A postnuptial agreement is made after marriage; a prenuptial agreement is made before it. The timing matters to the condition for an agreement made before marriage to continue applying afterwards.
Both are property agreements under the Family Property Act. Their formal acknowledgement requirements and the circumstances of negotiation are separate questions.
An agreement made before the marriage carries one condition that a postnuptial agreement does not. An agreement entered into before the marriage is unenforceable after the marriage unless it is clear in the agreement that the parties intended it to apply, or to keep applying, after they married. An agreement made during the marriage is not subject to that condition.
The Act describes agreements about the status, ownership and division of property, including property the parties own at or after the agreement is made. Ask which terms fit your circumstances.
What a prenuptial agreement can cover is set out under prenuptial agreements in Alberta.
When Couples Consider One
- 1
A change in what one of you owns. An inheritance, a gift or a business interest that arrives after the wedding.
- 2
A change in what the two of you do. One of you leaving paid work, or putting money into the other’s business or property.
- 3
Terms discussed before the wedding but never signed. Couples sometimes run out of time before the date and come back to it afterwards.
- 4
A wish to record what has already been agreed. Where the two of you have settled something between yourselves and want it written down.
The Formal Requirements
The agreement has to be in writing.
Each person makes a written acknowledgement, apart from the other, that they are aware of the nature and the effect of the agreement, that they are aware of the possible future claims to property they may have under the Act and intend to give them up to the extent the agreement requires, and that they are entering into it freely and voluntarily without compulsion by the other.
Each acknowledgement is made before a lawyer who is not the other person's.
Those requirements are what the Act sets out. How an agreement was made is a separate question from them, and it is one to put to your own lawyer.
independent legal advice for family agreements›
Postnuptial agreements sit alongside the other family agreements Alberta couples make.
If you already hold an agreement about the status, ownership, valuation or division of property that you entered into before January 1, 2020, it remains enforceable after that date to the same extent, if any, that it was enforceable immediately before.
Why THEBIL Law
Nne Christiana Udo is the family lawyer at THEBIL Law and a member of the Law Society of Alberta. She advises clients on Alberta family law.
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Talk to a Calgary Family Lawyer
Contact THEBIL Law to discuss a family agreement and the questions you want to address.
Send a consultation request at any time, or call 403-457-3128 during office hours. After you send the form, the office contacts you to arrange a meeting.