A New Hampshire prenuptial agreement is a written contract signed before the wedding that sets out how property, debt, and spousal support will be handled if the marriage ends. State law calls it an antenuptial agreement and places it in Section 460:2-a of the New Hampshire Revised Statutes.[1]
The agreement can divide the assets each of you owns now, what you earn during the marriage, and who carries which debt. It cannot take away the statutory or common law rights of minor children of the planned marriage.[1] New Hampshire has not adopted the Uniform Premarital Agreement Act, so the legal rules come from Chapter 460 and from state court decisions.
Build Your Document
Answer a few simple questions to make your document in minutes
Save and Print
Save progress and finish on any device, download and print anytime
Sign and Use
Your valid, lawyer-approved document is ready
Last Updated: September 2026. This guide is reviewed against the New Hampshire Revised Statutes and updated when the law changes. If you spot an error, please contact us.
New Hampshire statutes call this document an antenuptial agreement. You will also see it called a premarital agreement, or simply a prenup. All three names describe the same contract under Section 460:2-a.
New Hampshire prenup law lives in Chapter 460 of the Revised Statutes. The state has not adopted the Uniform Premarital Agreement Act, so the legal rules come from the statutes and from court decisions. Section 460:2-a lets two people in contemplation of marriage enter a written interspousal contract. Nothing in that contract may take away the rights of minor children of the planned marriage.[1]
Two people in contemplation of marriage may enter into a written interspousal contract and the courts of this state shall give the same effect to such contracts entered in other jurisdictions as would the courts of that other jurisdiction. However, no contract otherwise enforceable under this section may contain any term which attempts to abrogate the statutory or common law rights of minor children of the contemplated marriage.
Section 460:2-a asks for one thing. The prenuptial agreement has to be in writing.[1] Everything else that people assume is a legal requirement for prenuptial agreements is not.
A notary is not required in New Hampshire. Section 460:2-a asks only that the contract be written.[1] Signing in front of a notary is still common, because a notarized signature is harder to dispute years later.
You can change a New Hampshire prenup after the wedding, but not on a handshake. Put the change in a separate written amendment and have both parties sign it. Canceling the agreement outright works the same way.
Two older sections of Chapter 460 still shape who owns what. Section 460:1 says a married woman keeps property she earned, inherited, or was given, free of the control of her husband, unless it was paid for with his money.[4] Section 460:3 says marriage alone does not make a husband liable for debts his wife ran up before the wedding.[5]
Sections 460:12 and 460:17 are narrower than they first look. They apply only where one spouse is an alien or lives in another state. The spouse living in New Hampshire may then convey the real estate and personal assets held here as if unmarried, after six months of continuous residence apart.[6][7]
A prenuptial agreement is a property contract, so what it covers is assets, debt and spousal support. It can name the separate assets each of you brings in, the marital property you build together, and the alimony one of you may pay if the marriage ends. Most prenuptial agreements in this state cover the same short list.
That last point carries real legal weight. Section 460:2-a reaches across state lines, so a prenuptial agreement signed elsewhere is given the same effect in New Hampshire that the courts of that other jurisdiction would give it.[1]
Some terms in prenuptial agreements will not hold up no matter how carefully both parties sign. Anything that touches a child of the marriage belongs to the court, not to your contract. Section 460:2-a bars any term that attempts to abrogate the statutory or common law rights of minor children of the contemplated marriage.[1]
Yes. New Hampshire courts treat valid antenuptial agreements as presumptively valid, and the spouse who wants out carries the burden of proving a reason to set one aside. A written prenuptial agreement made in contemplation of marriage is enforceable under Section 460:2-a, and one signed in another state is judged by the rules of that state.[1]
Binding does not mean untouchable. A judge looks at the agreement when it is enforced, not only at the moment the parties signed. Section 458:16-a lets the court weigh the value of property allocated by a valid prenuptial contract made in good faith when it divides marital property in a divorce.[2]
A New Hampshire court can set aside an antenuptial agreement when the spouse challenging it proves something went wrong. The presumption of validity is rebuttable. Courts look at how the agreement was obtained, what financial information each spouse disclosed, how one-sided the terms are, and what has changed since the signing.
The burden sits on the spouse who wants out of the deal. Without evidence, the prenuptial agreement stands.
There is no filing step and no court approval in New Hampshire. The work is in the preparation, which means listing the assets and liabilities each of you holds, and giving the other party time to read the draft. You then put the terms in writing before the wedding, and both of you sign.[1]
The free template at the top of this page gives you the New Hampshire wording in PDF, Word, and OpenDocument. If you are already married, the same terms belong in a postnuptial agreement instead.
Not exactly. New Hampshire divides marital property equitably, which is not the same as splitting every asset down the middle. The court starts from a presumption that an equal division is an equitable distribution, then weighs whether that presumption should be set aside.[2]
Section 458:16-a lists fifteen factors a judge may weigh, and one of them is the value of property allocated by a valid prenuptial contract made in good faith.[2] That factor is the practical reason to sign one. Without an agreement, a judge weighs the length of the marriage, the health and earning power of each spouse, and the contribution each spouse made to the home.[2]
It can, in two different ways. New Hampshire still recognizes fault grounds for divorce, and it lets fault affect how marital property is divided. Adultery is one of the fault grounds listed in Section 458:7.[3]
Section 458:16-a then lets a judge consider that fault when dividing marital property. That only applies where the fault caused the marriage to break down and led to substantial pain and suffering or substantial economic loss.[2]
Section 460:2-a is about property between spouses, not about whether a court grants a divorce.[1] When New Hampshire couples ask for an infidelity clause, what a prenuptial agreement can deliver is a property term or a spousal support term.
