Because postnuptial and prenuptial agreements are contracts, they are governed by the same rules of law used in determining the validity of contracts. Further, a full financial disclosure by each contracting party is a necessary requirement in the formation of postnuptial and prenuptial agreements. The theory behind the requirement is that “unlike individuals making business deals, parties to a marriage contract do not quite deal at arm’s length; each party has intimate knowledge of whether the other party is weak or infirm.” Because of the full financial disclosure requirement, challenges to the validity of prenuptial and postnuptial agreements predominantly focus on whether a full financial disclosure existed in the formation of the contract. However, if a full financial disclosure is made, because marital contracts are governed by the same rules of law used in determining the validity of contracts, absent fraud, misrepresentation, or duress, parties are generally bound by the terms of their agreements.

In the recent case of Lewis v. Lewis, 234 A.3d 706 (Pa. Super. 2020), the Pennsylvania Superior Court addressed the issue of whether a trial court erred by invalidating a postnuptial agreement on the grounds of duress. As stated by the Superior Court: “in our review of the relevant Pennsylvania case law, no spouse has ever convinced a court to void a settlement agreement on grounds of duress.” As highlighted by the Superior Court, there have been many cases where a party claimed duress, but in each case, “the courts concluded that those pressures did not constitute duress in a legal sense.” For example, a party forced to sign a prenuptial agreement on the eve of a wedding or on the church steps has been found to not be duress. In other words, “stress” is not the same as “duress.”

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