This marital settlement agreement Virginia form is a written document. In it, a couple records how they will divide property and debts and handle support, custody and child care when the marriage ends. It is also called a separation agreement. A court may affirm, ratify and incorporate a valid one into its divorce decree.[2] Fill out the free template below online, or download the PDF.
Last Updated: October 2026. This guide is reviewed and updated regularly to reflect current Virginia law. If you notice an error or outdated information, please contact us.
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Each couple decides what goes into its own agreement. The FormsPal template, titled Virginia Marital Separation Agreement, runs eight pages and settles the main issues of a separation. It has 18 numbered sections, a signature page for each person, and a notary acknowledgment page. Each section is a blank to fill in.
Complete every section for a full agreement, or keep the terms you agree on and leave out the rest. Both people should understand every term and sign of their own free will. Many couples also have a lawyer read the finished document before they sign, especially when children, custody, a family home, a large debt or retirement accounts are involved.
Parents should take extra care with the child sections (3 and 4). Write the custody schedule, the visitation plan and each parent's child support share in clear numbers and dates. Written agreements work best when each term is specific, because vague agreements leave room for disputes later.
Your circumstances matter. A short marriage with no children needs fewer sections than a long one with shared property. If you and your spouse cannot agree on a term, a mediator, a person trained in conflict resolution, can help. If one person plans to go back to a former name, couples often write that wish into the contract. Couples who agree on every term often call their case uncontested.
Do not confuse this document with a Virginia prenuptial agreement, which couples sign before the marriage. If you move, other states have their own marital settlement agreement templates.
Read section 1.3 of the template before you sign. Under its own wording, the document takes effect on the date of signature, but only if the marriage actually ends. If the dissolution does not take place, it is null and void.
State law has two main rules for this document, and both sit in Title 20 (Domestic Relations), Chapter 6 of the Code of Virginia. Section 20-109.1 lets a court affirm, ratify and incorporate a valid agreement between the parties into its decree.[2] Section 20-107.3 explains how both parties are treated as having interests in marital property when a court decides on a monetary award.[1]
The rule on marital property is in Section 20-107.3 of the Va. Code Ann. It says:
For the purposes of this section only, both parties shall be deemed to have rights and interests in the marital property. however, such interests and rights shall not attach to the legal title of such property and are only to be used as a consideration in determining a monetary award, if any, as provided in this section.
In plain words, for the purposes of that section both parties are deemed to have rights and interests in the marital property. Those interests and rights do not attach to the legal title of the property. They are only a consideration in determining a monetary award, if any.[1]
When a couple writes its own property division terms, it usually talks through issues like these. The list is a checklist for your talks, not a statement of what a court will weigh:
When the court divides jointly owned marital property, makes a monetary award or apportions marital debts, it decides the amounts and the method of payment after considering the factors listed in Section 20-107.3. The first three are each party's monetary and nonmonetary contributions to the well-being of the family, each party's contributions to acquiring, caring for and maintaining the marital property, and the duration of the marriage.[1]
The key rule is Section 20-109.1 of the Va. Code Ann. It states:
Any court may affirm, ratify and incorporate by reference in its decree dissolving a marriage or decree of divorce whether from the bond of matrimony or from bed and board, or by a separate decree prior to or subsequent to such decree, or in a decree entered in a suit for annulment or separate maintenance, and in a proceeding arising under subsection A 3 or L of § 16.1-241 , any valid agreement between the parties, or provisions thereof, concerning the conditions of the maintenance of the parties, or either of them and the care, custody and maintenance of their minor children, or establishing or imposing any other condition or consideration, monetary or nonmonetary.
In plain words, a court may take a valid agreement between the parties and make it part of its decree. The decree can be a divorce decree, a separate decree before or after it, or a decree in an annulment or separate maintenance case. Agreements can cover support, the care and custody of minor children, and any other condition or consideration, monetary or nonmonetary.[2]
Once a court affirms, ratifies and incorporates the agreement by reference in its decree, it is deemed for all purposes to be a term of the decree. It is enforceable in the same manner as any provision of the decree.[2]
The same section covers a party who lives in another state. The court may have jurisdiction over a nonresident defendant by order of publication or by acceptance of service. Then any properly acknowledged and otherwise valid agreement between the parties may be affirmed, ratified and incorporated into the decree.[2]
Section 20-109.1 also speaks to child support and spousal support. Provisions in an agreement for the modification of child support are valid and enforceable. Unless the agreement or the decree incorporating it provides otherwise, future modifications do not require a subsequent court decree.[2]
Upon the death or remarriage of the spouse receiving support, spousal support terminates unless otherwise provided by stipulation or contract.[2] Because an agreement can provide otherwise, many couples write down whether support continues after a remarriage and how a change will be made. If your circumstances change later, a clear process saves trouble. Child support and custody affect a family for years, so many couples also set these terms out in detail.
When the court decides custody, it considers and may award joint legal, joint physical or sole custody, and there is no presumption in favor of any form of custody (Section 20-124.2 of the Code of Virginia).[3]
Popular Local Marital Settlement Agreement Forms
It is advisable to outline the conditions of a divorce prior to the courtroom hearing by writing a divorce settlement agreement that handles many different issues. Below are some of the most frequently searched templates for marital settlement by state.
A signed document is only one piece of a Virginia divorce case. A court that receives a valid agreement may incorporate it into its decree.[2] The list below shows a common order of steps. It describes practice, not deadlines or court rules, so ask the court clerk or an attorney about the exact forms and steps for your circumstances.
Divorce cases go to the circuit court, which has jurisdiction over suits for divorce and annulment and over claims for separate maintenance (Section 20-96 of the Code of Virginia).[4]
A defendant can accept or waive service of process by signing a notarized writing that states an intent to accept or waive the particular process, or by filing an answer in the suit. Unless the defendant has filed an answer, the court may enter any order or decree without further notice (Section 20-99.1:1 of the Code of Virginia).[6]
Either spouse may ask for a divorce once the spouses have lived separate and apart without any cohabitation and without interruption for one year. If the spouses have a separation agreement and no minor children, that separation period is six months (Section 20-91 of the Code of Virginia).[5]
Virginia law also provides for a divorce from bed and board. It may be decreed for cruelty, reasonable apprehension of bodily hurt, willful desertion, abandonment, or on the application of either spouse when the spouses live separate and apart and at least one of them intends the separation to be permanent (Section 20-95 of the Code of Virginia).[7] In granting it, the court may decree that the spouses be perpetually separated and protected in their persons and property. The decree affects property acquired afterward and the spouses' personal rights and legal capacities as a divorce from the bond of matrimony would, except that neither spouse may marry again while the other is alive (Section 20-116 of the Code of Virginia).[8]
Questions about settlement agreements come up again and again. The answers below come from the statutes cited at the end of this page, and they cover what the law says. They do not predict what one judge may decide in your circumstances.
Two sections of the Va. Code Ann. matter most:
Section 20-107.3 of the Va. Code Ann. is the rule. For the purposes of that section only, both parties are deemed to have rights and interests in the marital property, and those interests do not attach to the legal title.[1]
Couples can also set the terms in written agreements. A court may then incorporate it into its divorce decree.[2]
Other Marital Settlement Agreement Forms by State
General information, not legal or tax advice.
Unless noted otherwise, the sources below are from the Va. Code Ann..
