Family · Prenuptial agreement
Prenuptial Agreement Requirements in Georgia
What makes a prenuptial agreement valid and enforceable in Georgia: the writing and signature, the voluntariness rule, the financial disclosure each side must give, and what gets a prenup thrown out. Cited to the statute.
What makes a prenuptial agreement valid in Georgia
The writing and signature, voluntariness, and financial disclosure a court looks for before it will enforce a prenup.
Georgia rewrote its formalities statute in 2018 to require a notary and two witnesses, reversing the old rule that allowed oral marriage articles. Georgia also lets a court weigh changed circumstances at the time of enforcement under Scherer v. Scherer. Confirm the current text of O.C.G.A. § 19-3-62 and recent decisions before relying on this.
| What makes a prenup valid | What it means |
|---|---|
| In writing | O.C.G.A. § 19-3-62 requires a writing. This has been mandatory since 1 July 2018. Before that date Georgia allowed parol marriage articles, so any older guidance that mentions oral prenups describes law that no longer exists. |
| Signed by both parties who agree to be bound | O.C.G.A. § 19-3-62 requires the signatures of both parties who agree to be bound. That is stricter than the statute of frauds at O.C.G.A. § 13-5-30, which asks only for the signature of the party to be charged, and section 19-3-62 controls for antenuptial agreements. |
| Attested by at least two witnesses | O.C.G.A. § 19-3-62 requires attestation by at least two witnesses. Two, not one, and this is a formality on the face of the statute rather than a matter of good practice. |
| One witness must be a notary public | O.C.G.A. § 19-3-62 says one of the two witnesses shall be a notary public. Georgia is unusual in requiring a notary for the prenup itself, and the notary counts as one of the two required witnesses. |
| No fraud, duress, mistake, or nondisclosure | The first criterion in Scherer v. Scherer asks whether the agreement was obtained through fraud, duress, or mistake, or through misrepresentation or nondisclosure of material facts. Quiet nondisclosure of a major asset is an independent route to non-enforcement, even without an outright lie. |
| What makes a prenup unenforceable | What it means |
|---|---|
| Changed circumstances at the time of enforcement | The third Scherer criterion asks whether the facts and circumstances have changed since the agreement was executed so as to make enforcement unfair and unreasonable. This lets a Georgia court decline to enforce an agreement that was flawless when signed but has become unfair since, judged at the divorce rather than at the signing. |
| An unconscionable agreement | The second Scherer criterion asks whether the agreement is unconscionable. Georgia enforcement is discretionary, not automatic, and a trial judge who applies the criteria and declines to enforce is reviewed only for abuse of discretion. |
| Existing creditors are protected | Under O.C.G.A. § 19-3-60(b), marriage is valuable consideration, but a spouse shall not incapacitate himself or herself from paying existing just debts. A Georgia prenup cannot be used to defeat existing creditors. |
| Recording provisions were repealed | The old recordation section, O.C.G.A. § 19-3-67, was repealed effective 1 July 2018, along with § 19-3-68. Any source telling a Georgia couple to record a marriage contract is citing law that no longer exists. |
What you can do right now
Concrete, neutral steps to sign a prenup that will hold up in Georgia. This is legal information, not legal advice.
- Sign before a notary and two witnesses
O.C.G.A. § 19-3-62 requires a writing, both signatures, and attestation by two witnesses, one a notary public. Missing the notary or the second witness is a formality failure that can void the agreement on its face.
- Disclose material assets in full
The first Scherer criterion reaches nondisclosure of material facts, not just outright lies. Exchange a complete picture of assets and debts so that no later claim of hidden property can undo the agreement.
- Keep the deal fair enough to survive changed circumstances
Because the third Scherer criterion lets a court weigh how things stand at divorce, a Georgia agreement that becomes grossly unfair over a long marriage is exposed. Build in terms that can still read as reasonable years later.
A prenuptial agreement decides property and support if a marriage ends, and a court will scrutinize how it was signed. A licensed family-law attorney can draft or review one; the state bar can refer you to one.
→ State Bar of Georgia, Lawyer Referral ServiceThis is general legal information, not legal advice. Enforceability turns on the exact statute, the case law, and how the agreement was signed, so confirm the current requirements against the statute and talk to a lawyer.
What couples in Georgia get wrong about prenups
Georgia has no Uniform Premarital Agreement Act, but unlike some states it does have a real formalities statute, and since 1 July 2018 it is strict. Under O.C.G.A. § 19-3-62, an antenuptial agreement must be in writing, signed by both parties who agree to be bound, and attested by at least two witnesses, one of whom must be a notary public. That notary requirement is new and easy to miss, because before 2018 Georgia expressly allowed oral marriage articles. The validity test itself is judicial, from the 1982 Georgia Supreme Court case Scherer v. Scherer, which overruled the older rule that prenups anticipating divorce were void and set three questions a trial judge uses to decide whether to enforce. Was the agreement obtained through fraud, duress, or mistake, or through misrepresentation or nondisclosure of material facts. Is it unconscionable. And have the facts and circumstances changed since it was executed so as to make enforcement unfair and unreasonable. That third question is what makes Georgia different, because unlike states that fix the test at signing, Georgia will look at the world as it is at the divorce. One transport note belongs here in the open: Georgia publishes no fetchable free official HTML code, so the statutory wording above was read from a disclosed Justia mirror and cross-checked against the 2018 amendment history. This is legal information, not legal advice.
Common questions
Does a Georgia prenup need a notary?
Yes. Since 1 July 2018, O.C.G.A. § 19-3-62 requires that a Georgia antenuptial agreement be attested by at least two witnesses, one of whom is a notary public. Georgia is unusual in requiring a notary for the prenup itself.
Were oral prenups ever valid in Georgia?
They were, before 1 July 2018. The older version of O.C.G.A. § 19-3-62 allowed marriage articles whether by parol or in writing. The 2018 rewrite ended that and now requires a signed, witnessed, notarized writing.
Can a Georgia court refuse to enforce a prenup that became unfair over time?
Yes. The third criterion in Scherer v. Scherer lets a court decline to enforce if the facts and circumstances have changed since signing so as to make enforcement unfair and unreasonable, judged at the divorce rather than at the signing.
What makes a Georgia prenup unenforceable?
Two layers. A failure of the O.C.G.A. § 19-3-62 formalities, such as a missing notary or second witness, or a failure under the Scherer criteria, meaning fraud or nondisclosure, unconscionability, or changed circumstances that make enforcement unfair.
Not legal advicePlainStatute provides plain-language summaries of public law for general information only. This is not legal advice. Statutes change; always confirm current requirements with the official source linked above before acting.