When you use a prenuptial agreement, you are hoping to guarantee that you get to keep certain assets. For instance, perhaps you are a business owner. You are worried that you are going to have to split the value of the business with your spouse in the event of a divorce, but you want to ensure that you retain 100 percent of the value that your company brings in. A prenuptial agreement can be used to make these decisions in advance.
But as a parent, what if you want to guarantee that you have a right to see your child? Maybe you are worried about physical and legal custody rights, referring both to where the child lives and making key decisions on their behalf. Can you use your prenup to help guarantee that you have these rights after a divorce?
You cannot include child custody clauses
Quite simply, the answer is no. You can use many different clauses in a prenuptial agreement, but none of them can address child custody issues or child support issues.
Part of the issue here is that the court wants to make a ruling that is in line with the child’s best interests. If the court believes it would be in the child’s best interest to have a relationship with both parents after a divorce, it will not uphold a prenuptial agreement that sets up a different type of custody arrangement. Doing so could be seen as a way of harming the child by cutting one parent out of their life. Even if the parent has agreed to it and waived their custody rights in the prenup, the court focuses on the child and will not uphold that document.
It is important to understand exactly how you can use prenups, so be sure you know what legal steps to take.