Prenuptial Agreement - Washington

WASHINGTON PREMARITAL AGREEMENT

This agreement is intended to become effective only if the parties marry each
other. It is not a community property agreement under RCW 26.16.120, which
addresses written agreements made by spouses or domestic partners concerning
community property and taking effect at death. Estate-planning waivers require
separate, specific review.

1. EXECUTION SAFEGUARDS

Washington decisions apply the two-part fairness analysis stated in In re
Marriage of Bernard and In re Marriage of Matson. The party seeking
enforcement must establish a fair and reasonable provision for the other party
or, if the agreement is substantively unfair, procedural fairness. Procedural
fairness examines full disclosure of the amount, character, and value of the
property involved and whether the agreement was freely entered on independent
advice with full knowledge of each party's rights.

This draft requires safeguards aimed at both forms of fairness:

• ☐ Each party has a different Washington attorney.

• ☐ Each attorney received the final draft and every schedule with enough time
  to advise the client and negotiate changes before the planned wedding.

• ☐ No wedding, travel, housing, immigration, pregnancy, financial, or family
  pressure is being used to compel a signature.

• ☐ Schedules A and B disclose each party's assets, liabilities, income,
  ownership interests, contingent interests, and material financial rights.

• ☐ Values and valuation dates are stated; unknown or disputed values are
  conspicuously identified rather than omitted.

• ☐ Each party has received an explanation of Washington's default property and
  maintenance rules and of the rights changed by this agreement.

• ☐ Schedule C compares the reasonably anticipated economic effect on each
  party and records counsel's substantive-fairness review.

• ☐ Neither party relies on a generic waiver of disclosure.

Planned marriage date: [__/__/____]

Date final draft delivered to Party A and counsel: [__/__/____]

Date final draft delivered to Party B and counsel: [__/__/____]

2. PARTIES AND COUNSEL

This Washington Premarital Agreement is made between:

The parties intend to marry each other in [COUNTY AND STATE] on or about
[__/__/____]. Their contemplated marriage and mutual promises in this agreement
are the consideration for this agreement.

3. PURPOSE AND BASELINE LAW

RCW 26.16.010 generally treats property owned before marriage and property later
acquired by gift, bequest, devise, descent, or inheritance, together with its
rents, issues, and profits, as separate property. RCW 26.16.030 generally treats
other property acquired after marriage as community property and imposes stated
management and joinder rules.

The parties intend to alter those default rules only to the extent this agreement
expressly says so. Silence, an unchecked option, or an incomplete schedule does
not create a waiver.

4. DEFINITIONS

Community Property means property characterized as community property under
Washington law or expressly designated as community property by this agreement.

Disclosed Property means an asset, liability, income source, business,
beneficial interest, expectancy, or other material financial item described in
Schedules A or B with its stated value or valuation status.

Marriage Date means the date the parties legally marry each other.

Separate Property means property characterized as separate under Washington
law or expressly designated as separate by this agreement.

5. PROPERTY CHARACTERIZATION

5.1 Disclosed Premarital Property

The property listed in Schedule A is Party A's Separate Property. The property
listed in Schedule B is Party B's Separate Property, subject to any item-specific
designation or agreed transfer written in the applicable schedule.

5.2 Gifts and Inheritances

Property acquired by one party during marriage by gift, bequest, devise,
descent, or inheritance, and traceable proceeds of that property, will remain
that party's Separate Property unless both parties later sign a specific written
recharacterization after separate legal advice.

5.3 Earnings During Marriage — Select One for Each Party

An unchecked row has no effect.

“Earnings and compensation” includes wages, salary, bonuses, commissions,
deferred compensation, and compensation for personal services. Counsel must add
item-specific language for equity compensation, carried interests, pensions,
retirement plans, intellectual property, professional practices, or closely held
businesses; this general clause does not override third-party plan documents or
rights.

5.4 Income, Appreciation, and Personal Effort

Rents, issues, profits, proceeds, replacements, and passive appreciation of a
party's Separate Property remain that party's Separate Property to the extent
they remain traceable. Compensation for a party's personal services follows the
election in Section 5.3.

For every business or asset to which a party will contribute substantial labor
during marriage, Schedule D must state the agreed compensation, accounting, and
characterization method. If Schedule D does not address the item, this agreement
does not predetermine any reimbursement, equitable, or characterization claim
arising from personal effort or community contributions.

5.5 Jointly Titled or Expressly Recharacterized Property

Property acquired in both parties' names remains subject to its acquisition
facts and applicable law unless both parties expressly designate its character
in a later signed writing. Depositing funds into a joint account does not by
itself amend this agreement, but the party asserting separate character must
maintain records sufficient to trace the funds.

5.6 Management

Each party may manage and dispose of that party's Separate Property, subject to
law, third-party rights, and any specific restriction in a schedule. Nothing in
this agreement eliminates a joinder, consent, recording, fiduciary, tax, or plan
requirement imposed by law on a particular transaction.

6. LIABILITIES

6.1 Premarital Liabilities

Each liability listed in a party's disclosure schedule is allocated between the
parties to the party who incurred it unless Schedule D states otherwise.

6.2 Liabilities During Marriage

The parties select the following internal allocation:

• ☐ A liability signed by one party and incurred solely for that party's
  Separate Property is allocated to that party.

• ☐ A liability jointly signed by both parties is allocated as stated in the
  signed obligation or Schedule D.

• ☐ Household and family liabilities are allocated as follows:
  [____________________________________________________________]

This allocation governs only between the parties. It does not release a party
from an obligation to a creditor or restrict a creditor's lawful rights.

6.3 Reimbursement Between Parties

A party who pays a liability allocated to the other may seek reimbursement for
the amount paid, less any agreed offset. This limited reimbursement clause does
not create a liability cap, automatic attorney-fee award, cure period, or right
to seize property without court process.

7. HOUSEHOLD ARRANGEMENTS

The parties will contribute to ordinary household expenses as follows:

[____________________________________________________________]

[____________________________________________________________]

Payment of household expenses does not itself transfer title or amend the
property designations in this agreement. The parties may use a joint household
account under written operating instructions attached as Schedule D.

8. DISSOLUTION OR LEGAL SEPARATION

8.1 Property and Liabilities

If a Washington court determines this agreement is enforceable, the parties ask
the court to apply its express property and liability terms. RCW 26.09.080
otherwise directs the court to make a just and equitable disposition after
considering all relevant factors, including the nature and extent of community
and separate property, marriage duration, and each party's economic
circumstances.

8.2 Spousal Maintenance — Select One

An unchecked option has no effect. Counsel must draft any waiver or limitation
expressly; a property waiver alone is not a maintenance waiver.

• ☐ No advance waiver. Either party may request maintenance under current
  Washington law, including the factors in RCW 26.09.090.

• ☐ Express mutual waiver. Each party expressly waives a claim for spousal
  maintenance, subject to a Washington court's determination of the validity,
  interpretation, and enforceability of this agreement.

• ☐ Agreed maintenance terms. The parties adopt the terms in Schedule E,
  subject to court review under current Washington law.

This agreement does not insert a generic “public assistance” or
“unconscionability at enforcement” exception from another state's statute.
Washington counsel must advise each party about the actual consequences of the
selected provision and the current Bernard/Matson analysis.

8.3 Children

This agreement does not determine parentage, a parenting plan, residential
placement, decision-making, relocation, child support, or any child's rights.
Those matters remain for the legally authorized process at the relevant time.

8.4 Court, Fees, and Dispute Process

Any dissolution, separation, or agreement-enforcement issue will proceed in a
court with lawful jurisdiction and venue. This agreement contains no arbitration
mandate, contractual jury waiver, automatic prevailing-party fee, predetermined
injunction, or exclusive-county clause.

9. RIGHTS AT DEATH

The base agreement does not waive inheritance, intestacy, homestead, family
allowance, beneficiary, retirement-plan, survivor, or other rights arising at
death. If the parties intend a death-related waiver or property arrangement,
their separate family-law and estate-planning counsel must draft Schedule F,
coordinate wills, trusts, beneficiary designations, and any other required
instruments, and verify the governing state and federal law.

Do not use RCW 26.16.120 as a general premarital-agreement clause. Its text
addresses agreements by spouses or domestic partners concerning community
property and taking effect at death, with its own execution requirements and
creditor and equitable limitations.

10. REPRESENTATIONS

Each party separately represents on the date that party signs:

1. I have read the entire final agreement and every schedule.

2. My disclosure schedule is complete and accurate in all material respects as
   of its stated date.

3. I received the other party's completed disclosure schedule and had an
   opportunity to request documents, valuations, and corrections.

4. My independent attorney explained Washington's default property and
   maintenance rules and the reasonably foreseeable effect of this agreement.

5. I understand the rights I retain and the rights I alter or waive.

6. I had sufficient time to review and negotiate the final agreement and was
   not directed by the other party or the other party's attorney.

7. I sign voluntarily, without fraud, duress, coercion, or undue influence.

8. No oral promise, omitted side agreement, wedding ultimatum, or undisclosed
   financial fact induced my signature.

11. AMENDMENT, REVOCATION, AND GENERAL TERMS

11.1 Effective Date

This agreement becomes effective only when the parties legally marry each
other. If they do not marry, it has no effect.

11.2 Amendment or Revocation

The parties may amend or revoke this agreement only by a later writing signed by
both parties after renewed financial disclosure and an opportunity for separate
independent legal advice. Counsel must determine whether the later instrument is
premarital, postmarital, a separation contract, a community property agreement,
or another type of agreement and apply the correct Washington rules.

11.3 Entire Agreement

This document and its completed schedules contain the parties' entire agreement
on the subjects expressly addressed. No schedule may be omitted at signing.

11.4 Severability

If a court declines to enforce a provision, the remaining provisions survive
only to the extent the court determines they can lawfully and fairly operate
without the rejected provision. This clause does not direct a court to rewrite a
material bargain.

11.5 Governing Law

Washington law governs, subject to a court's conflict-of-laws analysis and any
mandatory law applicable to property, plans, creditors, or proceedings outside
Washington.

11.6 No Assignment or Force-Majeure Terms

Neither party may assign this agreement. It contains no force-majeure clause,
liability cap, contractual default schedule, or self-help remedy.

12. SIGNATURES AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Each party should sign separately before that party's own notary after the
party's independent attorney signs the applicable counsel certificate.
Acknowledgment is used as an execution safeguard; this form does not state that
notarization alone establishes enforceability.

Party A

I sign this agreement voluntarily after reviewing the final agreement and all
schedules with my independent attorney.

Signature: __________________________________________

Printed name: [________________________________]

Date and exact time: [________________________________]

Party A Acknowledgment

State of Washington )

County of [________________] ) ss.

This instrument was acknowledged before me on [__/__/____] by [PARTY A NAME].

Notary signature: ____________________________________

Printed name: [________________________________]

Commission expiration: [________________________________]

Party B

I sign this agreement voluntarily after reviewing the final agreement and all
schedules with my independent attorney.

Signature: __________________________________________

Printed name: [________________________________]

Date and exact time: [________________________________]

Party B Acknowledgment

State of Washington )

County of [________________] ) ss.

This instrument was acknowledged before me on [__/__/____] by [PARTY B NAME].

Notary signature: ____________________________________

Printed name: [________________________________]

Commission expiration: [________________________________]

13. INDEPENDENT COUNSEL CERTIFICATES

Party A's Counsel

I represent Party A only. Before Party A signed, I reviewed the final agreement
and schedules, advised Party A concerning Washington law and the rights affected,
and had an opportunity to request disclosure and negotiate revisions. This
certificate is not a prediction that a court will enforce the agreement.

Attorney signature: __________________________________

Printed name / bar number: [________________________________]

Date: [__/__/____]

Party B's Counsel

I represent Party B only. Before Party B signed, I reviewed the final agreement
and schedules, advised Party B concerning Washington law and the rights affected,
and had an opportunity to request disclosure and negotiate revisions. This
certificate is not a prediction that a court will enforce the agreement.

Attorney signature: __________________________________

Printed name / bar number: [________________________________]

Date: [__/__/____]

14. REQUIRED SCHEDULES

Schedule A — Party A Financial Disclosure

Schedule B — Party B Financial Disclosure

Use the same categories and attach supporting documents.

Schedule C — Fairness and Consequence Review

Schedule D — Businesses, Special Assets, Debts, and Household Terms

[____________________________________________________________]

Schedule E — Maintenance Terms, If Selected

[____________________________________________________________]

Schedule F — Death-Related Terms, Only After Separate Estate Review

[____________________________________________________________]

SOURCES AND REFERENCES

• RCW 26.16.010 — separate property of spouse (official Washington Legislature)
• RCW 26.16.030 — community property and management (official Washington Legislature)
• RCW 26.09.080 — disposition of property and liabilities (official Washington Legislature)
• RCW 26.09.090 — maintenance factors (official Washington Legislature)
• RCW 26.16.120 — death-effective agreements as to community-property status (official Washington Legislature)
• In re Marriage of Cooper and Sinha, No. 38609-1-III (Wash. Ct. App. Mar. 19, 2024) — official opinion applying Bernard and Matson