Financial Disclosure
Also known as: Full Disclosure, Fair Disclosure
The requirement that each spouse provides a complete and specific accounting of their finances — assets, debts, and income — before signing a prenup.
Disclosure is the most-cited reason prenups get struck down. Courts require that each spouse have a "fair and reasonable" understanding of the other's finances before agreeing to terms that waive rights to those finances. Lists of asset categories ("various accounts," "real estate") are not enough — specific values, recent statements, and tax returns are the standard.
Under the UPAA, disclosure can be waived in writing if the waiver is voluntary and the spouse has adequate independent knowledge of the other's finances. The waiver path is uncommon and risky.
Related terms
- Voluntariness — The requirement that both spouses signed the prenup of their own free will, without fraud, duress, coercion, or undue influence.
- Unconscionability — A judicial doctrine that allows courts to refuse to enforce contracts that are shockingly unfair. The second pillar (with voluntariness) of prenup invalidation.
- Fiduciary Duty — A legal duty of utmost good faith and full disclosure owed by one party to another. Spouses owe each other a fiduciary duty; engaged couples generally do not.
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