GLASTONBURY, CONNECTICUT · FAMILY LAW + FAMILY-VIOLENCE DEFENSE
Most people think of a prenuptial agreement as planning for failure. A better way to see it: Connecticut has an unusually broad rule about what a divorce court can divide, and an agreement is the one reliable way to decide in advance what happens to specific assets.
That rule is worth stating plainly, because it surprises people. A Connecticut court can assign property either spouse owns — including what you brought into the marriage, what you inherited, and what was gifted to you alone. There is no protected category. Whether those assets actually get divided depends on the judge.
An agreement replaces that discretion with terms you chose.
Attorney Daniel M. Morton drafts and reviews marital agreements from an office in Glastonbury.
Prenuptial agreements are not only for large estates. The situations where they do the most work:
Connecticut’s Premarital Agreement Act, C.G.S. §§46b-36a through 46b-36j, governs agreements signed on or after October 1, 1995. Agreements signed before that date are governed by the prior common-law framework that §46b-36j preserves. The agreement takes effect on marriage.
The statute frames enforceability as a set of defenses. An agreement is not enforceable if the person resisting it proves any of the following:
Read together, these describe how to do it properly: start early, disclose fully in writing, ensure both people have their own lawyer, and draft terms that will still look defensible years from now.
The most common causes of failure are the avoidable ones — signing too close to the wedding, and incomplete financial disclosure.
Agreements can address property, debt, and spousal support. They cannot bind the court on matters concerning children.
A child’s right to support cannot be adversely affected by a premarital agreement, and any provision about care, custody, visitation, or otherwise affecting a child remains subject to the court’s review and modification. A clause purporting to waive child support or lock in a custody arrangement will not hold. Agreements containing such terms are not necessarily void in their entirety, but those provisions will not be enforced as written.
Terms that are punitive, or that attempt to regulate conduct during the marriage, also tend to create problems rather than solve them.
Couples who are already married can enter an agreement too — but it is judged differently.
Connecticut recognizes postnuptial agreements under case law rather than the premarital statute, and the standard is stricter. A postnuptial agreement must comply with ordinary contract principles and be both fair and equitable when signed and not unconscionable at the time of dissolution. Fairness at signing means the agreement was voluntary and free of undue influence, fraud, coercion, or duress, and that each spouse received full, fair, and reasonable disclosure of the other’s property, obligations, and income. Whether each spouse had access to independent counsel is part of that picture.
One structural difference worth knowing: a premarital agreement is enforceable without consideration because the statute says so. A postnuptial agreement is an ordinary contract and needs adequate consideration.
The reason for the heightened scrutiny is the relationship itself. Spouses owe each other duties that engaged people do not, and one spouse may have considerably more leverage than a prospective spouse would.
Postnuptial agreements come up most often when a business is being started or sold, when an inheritance is received, when a couple is reconciling and wants to address what happens if it does not last, or when a prenup was intended and the wedding arrived first.
This is the most common reason people call about an agreement, and Connecticut’s property rule is why it matters more here than in most states.
Without an agreement, a business or an inheritance is within the court’s reach. Keeping the asset separate — never commingling it, never using marital funds to support it, documenting its source — helps, and a judge may well leave it where it started. But that is a prediction about discretion, not a rule.
An agreement can fix the treatment of a specific asset, define how growth during the marriage is handled, and remove the need for a valuation fight if the marriage ends.
When a marriage ends with an agreement in place, the agreement itself sometimes becomes the dispute. A party seeking to avoid it will point to the statutory defenses — involuntariness, unconscionability, inadequate disclosure, or the absence of a real opportunity for independent counsel.
Connecticut’s rules — Practice Book §25-2A — also require a party to raise the agreement early rather than saving it. A party seeking to enforce an agreement must specifically demand enforcement and identify the agreement by date within the claim for relief, generally within 60 days of the return date. A party seeking to avoid it must file a reply specifically demanding avoidance and stating the grounds, within 60 days of the claim seeking enforcement.
This firm handles both sides: drafting agreements intended to hold up, and litigating them when they are challenged.
Living together in Connecticut does not create a marriage, regardless of how long. There is no length of cohabitation that converts a relationship into a marriage, and an unmarried partner has no claim to alimony or to property division when the relationship ends.
Connecticut will generally recognize a common-law marriage validly formed under the law of another state that allows one (C.G.S. §46b-28a) — but the person claiming it must prove every element of that state’s law was met there. Rhode Island still permits common-law marriage, which makes this a live question for couples who moved from there.
Unmarried couples who want to address property — a jointly purchased home, shared contributions, what happens if one person dies — can do it by written agreement. That agreement is a contract, not a family-law claim, and having one is the difference between a plan and a dispute.
What makes a Connecticut prenuptial agreement enforceable, what it cannot do, and the two mistakes that cause most of them to fail.
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Connecticut recognizes postnuptial agreements under case law, on a stricter standard than prenups. What Bedrick v. Bedrick requires.
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Connecticut courts can reach a business or an inheritance in a divorce. What actually protects them, and what only helps.
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When a Connecticut prenup or postnup can be set aside, what the challenging party has to prove, and the pleading deadlines that apply.
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Connecticut does not recognize common-law marriage. What that means for unmarried couples, and what a cohabitation agreement can do.
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Daniel M. Morton has been admitted in Connecticut since 2017, with roughly a decade of litigation experience including complex financial matters. Having litigated agreements that were poorly drafted informs how he drafts them.
Fee structure is discussed at the consultation.
Yes, under the Connecticut Premarital Agreement Act, if entered voluntarily with fair and reasonable financial disclosure and a real opportunity for independent counsel, and if not unconscionable.
It can be challenged on limited grounds: involuntariness, unconscionability when signed or when enforcement is sought, inadequate financial disclosure, or no reasonable opportunity to consult counsel.
Yes. Connecticut recognizes postnuptial agreements, but they are judged under a stricter standard than prenuptial agreements — fair and equitable when signed, and not unconscionable at dissolution.
No. Those matters are decided by the court based on the child’s best interests and the support guidelines, whatever an agreement says.
It is the most reliable way to. Without one, Connecticut permits the court to assign any property either spouse owns, including inherited assets.
No common-law marriage can be formed in Connecticut, regardless of how long a couple lives together. Connecticut will generally recognize one validly formed under the law of a state that allows it, but proving it requires establishing every element of that state’s law.
Every case starts with a conversation about what you’re facing and what it would take to handle it.
