Colorado: Prenuptial Agreement Requirements
The short answer
Colorado's Uniform Premarital and Marital Agreements Act requires a prenup in a record signed by both parties; it needs no consideration and becomes effective on marriage. Each signer must consent voluntarily, have statutory access to independent legal representation, receive adequate financial disclosure or have adequate knowledge, and—if unrepresented—receive a conspicuous rights-waiver notice or plain-language explanation. No notary, witness, or fixed day count applies, but support and attorney-fee terms face enforcement-time unconscionability review and child, domestic-violence, dissolution, and public-policy limits remain nonwaivable.
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This is the general rule in Colorado. Ezel applies current Colorado law to your specific facts and answers with citations to the statutes.
| Governing law and framework | Colorado Uniform Premarital and Marital Agreements Act (UPMAA), C.R.S. §§ 14-2-301 to -313; applies to agreements signed on/after July 1, 2014 (§§ 14-2-301, -303) |
|---|---|
| Writing, signature, and effect | Record signed by both parties; enforceable without consideration; effective on marriage (§§ 14-2-306, -307). A record may be tangible or retrievable electronic information (§ 14-2-302(7)-(8)) |
| Execution formalities | No notary, acknowledgment, witness, attestation, oath, or general recording requirement in the UPMAA; signed record by both parties is the form rule (§§ 14-2-306, -309(8)) |
| Financial disclosure and waiver | Reasonably accurate description and good-faith value estimate of property, liabilities, and income, or adequate knowledge/reasonable basis for it. No financial-disclosure waiver; the separate conspicuous notice concerns waived marital rights (§ 14-2-309(3)-(4)) |
| Independent counsel and timing | Access to independent representation is mandatory: reasonable time to decide, locate, obtain, and consider advice, plus ability to hire or other-party payment where the other party has counsel. No fixed day count; an unrepresented signer needs conspicuous waiver notice or plain-language explanation (§ 14-2-309(1)-(3)) |
| Fairness standard and source | Statute — involuntary consent/duress, no counsel access, missing unrepresented-party notice/explanation, or inadequate disclosure defeats enforcement; no general property-term unconscionability defense, but support/fee terms are tested for unconscionability at enforcement (§ 14-2-309) |
| Spousal-support limits | May modify or waive maintenance, but the term is unenforceable to the extent unconscionable when enforced; the court decides unconscionability as law. The same limit covers attorney-fee waiver/allocation (§§ 14-2-302(4), -309(5)) |
| Child and public-policy limits | Cannot adversely affect child support, restrict domestic-violence remedies, change dissolution grounds, penalize filing, or violate public policy; custody/parenting terms do not bind the court (§ 14-2-310) |
| Amendment and revocation | Before marriage, an amendment remains a premarital agreement effective on marriage; after marriage, amendment/revocation is a marital agreement effective on both signatures. Signed record by both, no consideration, and full enforcement safeguards apply (§§ 14-2-302(1)-(2), (5), -306 to -309) |
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Requirements one by one
Colorado uses the Uniform Premarital and Marital Agreements Act
Colorado's UPMAA governs premarital and marital agreements signed on or after July 1, 2014. Earlier agreements keep the law that already governed their rights and liabilities.
The Act covers agreements that affirm, modify, or waive rights arising from marriage, including maintenance, property, liabilities, death rights, and attorney fees.
A signed record becomes effective at marriage
Under § 14-2-306, the agreement must be in a record and signed by both parties. Colorado defines a record broadly enough to include retrievable electronic information and defines signing to include an electronic symbol, sound, or process attached with present intent to authenticate or adopt the record.
No consideration is required. A premarital agreement becomes effective on marriage, not on the date the last signature is added.
Notarization and witnesses are not UPMAA form requirements
The Act requires a signed record by both parties. It does not add notarization, acknowledgment, witnessing, attestation, an oath, or general recording as a validity step.
Financial disclosure cannot simply be waived
Adequate disclosure means either a reasonably accurate description and good-faith estimate of the other party's property, liabilities, and income, or adequate knowledge or a reasonable basis for adequate knowledge of that information.
The conspicuous “notice of waiver of rights” in § 14-2-309(3) is not a waiver of financial disclosure. It warns an unrepresented signer about marital rights the agreement may surrender; the separate disclosure-or-knowledge requirement still applies.
Access to counsel is mandatory even when representation is declined
A signer needs a reasonable time before signing to decide whether to retain a lawyer, locate one, obtain advice, and consider it. Where the other party has a lawyer, the signer also must have the financial ability to retain one or the other party must agree to pay reasonable fees and expenses.
Colorado sets no fixed number of review days. An unrepresented signer must also receive either the Act's conspicuously displayed waiver notice or a plain-language explanation of the marital rights and obligations being changed or waived.
The statute separates formation defects from limited unconscionability
The challenger may defeat enforcement by proving involuntary consent or duress, lack of access to independent representation, omission of the required unrepresented-party notice or explanation, or inadequate financial disclosure. Unlike some premarital-agreement acts, Colorado's § 14-2-309 does not state a general unconscionability defense for property terms.
Unconscionability appears in a narrower place: maintenance and attorney-fee terms are unenforceable to the extent they are unconscionable when enforcement is sought. The court decides that issue as a matter of law.
Maintenance and attorney-fee terms receive a second-stage review
The agreement may determine, modify, limit, or eliminate spousal maintenance and may waive or allocate attorney fees. Even when the rest of the agreement passes the formation rules, § 14-2-309(5) preserves an enforcement-time unconscionability review for those terms only.
Child, domestic-violence, filing, and public-policy limits remain
A term cannot adversely affect a child's support right, restrict a domestic-violence victim's legal remedies, modify Colorado's grounds for separation or dissolution, penalize a party for starting such a proceeding, or violate public policy.
Custody, parenting time, and other custodial-responsibility provisions do not bind the court.
Amendment timing determines the agreement lane
An amendment includes modification or revocation. If signed before marriage, it remains part of the premarital agreement and takes effect on marriage. If signed after marriage, it is a marital agreement and becomes effective when both spouses sign.
In either lane, the change needs a record signed by both parties, requires no consideration, and remains subject to the Act's counsel-access, notice, disclosure, voluntariness, and subject-matter rules.
What trips people up
A counsel waiver checkbox is not enough. The statute requires access to independent representation and, for an unrepresented signer, a conspicuous waiver notice or plain-language rights explanation.
The rights notice does not waive financial disclosure. Disclosure or adequate knowledge remains a separate enforceability requirement.
General property unfairness and support unconscionability are not the same test. Section 14-2-309(5)'s enforcement-time unconscionability review is expressly limited to maintenance and attorney-fee terms.
Common questions
Does a Colorado prenup need notarization or witnesses?
Not under the UPMAA form rule. The agreement must be in a record and signed by both parties.
Must each person actually hire a lawyer?
The Act requires access to independent legal representation, not actual retention in every case. But an unrepresented signer also must receive the statutory conspicuous notice or a plain-language explanation of the rights being changed or waived.
Can financial disclosure be waived in writing?
The Act does not create that route. It requires a reasonably accurate description and good-faith estimate of property, liabilities, and income, or adequate knowledge or a reasonable basis for that knowledge.
Can the prenup set custody and parenting time?
The parties may write down expectations, but those terms do not bind the court under § 14-2-310(3).
Statutes and sources
- C.R.S. §§ 14-2-301 to -310. Current official UPMAA text covering scope, definitions, signed-record formation, effective date, enforcement, counsel access, notice, disclosure, support and fee review, and nonwaivable terms. Official 2025 Title 14 printout (accessed July 28, 2026).
Source links
Every statute quoted above, linked, with the date we checked it.
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