A premarital agreement is a contract between two people who plan to get married. The contract is made before and in contemplation and consideration of marriage. Such agreements are generally made by people who wish to provide for children of a previous marriage or who have accumulated substantial wealth. The typical premarital agreement alters the statutory property rights and interests of a surviving spouse and provides for the support and maintenance of the spouses and their children.

Because the subject of this page is premarital agreements as they pertain to estate planning, we will limit our discussion of premarital agreements to how they affect the way your property is distributed when you die. If you are married when you die, and your spouse survives you, your spouse will not automatically receive all of your property if you die without a will and your spouse is not the natural or adoptive parent of all of your children.

Many people who have married again after the death or divorce of a previous spouse want to leave all of their property to their children and none to their new spouse. Ohio law prohibits that, however, without a premarital agreement because Ohio law gives that new spouse certain property rights in your estate just by virtue of your marriage, even if you have a will that does not give anything to your new spouse. The most significant right is the statutory share, which is either one-half or one-third of your estate, depending upon how many children you have. The answer, then, if you want to be sure that your children or other beneficiaries receive all of your property, is to have a premarital agreement and a will disinheriting your new spouse. Premarital means before marriage, so the document must be signed before you get married.