A Maine prenuptial agreement is a written contract that two people sign before they marry. It fixes their rights in property, debts and spousal support if the marriage ends in divorce or in death. Maine law calls it a premarital agreement and defines it as an agreement between prospective spouses made in contemplation of marriage and to be effective upon marriage.[1.1]
The contract starts to bind only when the couple marries.[1.4] It is enforceable without consideration, so neither person has to pay or promise the other anything in exchange for signing.[1.2] A prenup can settle property, inheritance, life insurance and spousal support. It cannot reduce a child's right to receive support.[1.3]
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It is a contract between two people who plan to marry, made in contemplation of marriage and effective upon marriage.[1.1] It records what each spouse owns, what each owes, and what each may claim if the marriage ends by divorce or by death. Maine keeps its rules for prenuptial agreements in Title 19-A, chapter 21 of the Maine Revised Statutes.
The statute reads property broadly: an interest, present or future, legal or equitable, vested or contingent, in real or personal property, including income and earnings.[1.1] A prenup can therefore reach a future bonus or a stake in a business, not only the house and the bank accounts.
Chapter 21 of the 19-A M.R.S. governs every stage of Maine prenuptial agreements. It defines the document and the property it can reach.[1.1] It sets one signing formality and no more.[1.2] It lists the subjects the parties may settle.[1.3]
It fixes the moment the contract starts to bind.[1.4] Finally, it names the grounds on which a Maine court may refuse to enforce what the couple signed.[1.7]
A Maine premarital agreement must be in writing and signed by both parties.[1.2] Nothing else is needed to form it. It is enforceable without consideration, which means neither spouse has to give the other anything of value in return for the promise.[1.2]
A premarital agreement must be in writing and signed by both parties. It is enforceable without consideration.
A common mistake is treating notarization as a Maine requirement. Section 603 of the 19-A M.R.S. does not ask for a notary or a witness.[1.2] Many couples still sign in front of a notary, because a notarized signature is easier to prove years later. That is a practical safeguard, not a condition of validity.
A premarital agreement becomes effective upon the marriage of the parties.[1.4] Signing it early changes nothing until the wedding happens. Three later events change where the prenup stands:
After marriage, a premarital agreement may be amended or revoked only by a written agreement signed by the parties.[1.6] A spoken understanding will not do it. The amendment or the revocation is itself enforceable without consideration.[1.6] If you want new terms after the wedding, our postnuptial agreement template covers the same ground for married couples.
Chapter 21 uses one broad definition of property rather than a list of asset classes. It covers an interest, present or future, legal or equitable, vested or contingent, in real or personal property, including income and earnings.[1.1] That reaches a future bonus, a stake in a business, an inheritance you have not received yet, and the earnings each of you brings home.
Name the assets you care about in the document itself. A court applying the contract can only work with the categories you wrote into it.
Section 604 of the 19-A M.R.S. sets out the subjects the parties may settle in advance. The range is wide, and a catch-all clause lets the couple add other matters as long as they stay inside public policy. The section permits agreement on all of the following.[1.3]
The list expects follow-through. If the prenup says a will or a trust will carry out its terms, the parties still have to make that will or trust. Couples often use that clause to protect an inheritance for children from an earlier marriage.[1.3]
Two limits sit inside Section 604 itself. The right of a child to receive support may not be adversely affected by a premarital agreement.[1.3] No clause may violate public policy or a law imposing a criminal penalty.[1.3] A third limit comes from Section 608 and applies to spousal support.
A spousal support waiver can also be overridden. Suppose the waiver would leave one spouse eligible for public assistance at separation or marital dissolution. A Maine court may then order the other spouse to provide support anyway.[1.7] The clause is not struck out. The court requires only enough support to remove that eligibility.
Keep these out of the document:
Section 608 of the 19-A M.R.S. gives two grounds. The first is that the party did not execute the agreement voluntarily.[1.7] The second is unconscionability paired with a failure of financial disclosure. Whether an agreement is unconscionable must be decided by the court as a matter of law.[1.7]
The second ground has four parts, and every one of them has to be true before the agreement fails on it.[1.7]
Disclosure is the cheapest insurance on that list. Attach a schedule of assets, debts and income for each of you to the signed prenup. Once fair and reasonable disclosure is on the record, the second ground cannot be made out.[1.7]
Maine does not require a lawyer, a notary or a waiting period before the wedding. What the statute polices is narrow: the writing and signatures in Section 603, and the voluntariness and disclosure grounds in Section 608. The sequence below works through both, in the order most couples meet them.
No. Maine is an equitable distribution state, which means a court splits marital property in the way it finds fair on the facts rather than straight down the middle. A prenuptial agreement replaces that judicial discretion with terms of your own. Section 604 lets the parties fix the disposition of property on separation or marital dissolution in advance.[1.3]
Without a prenup, property division is argued case by case in the divorce, and the couple finds out what fair means only after the judge rules.
Maine law does not require either partner to have a lawyer, so one drafter can prepare the document for a couple. Independent review for each side is still the safer route. It answers a later claim that a partner did not execute the agreement voluntarily, which is the first ground for refusal under Section 608.[1.7]
Last Updated: September 2026. This guide is reviewed and updated regularly to reflect current Maine law. If you notice an error or outdated information, please contact us.
