Nevada Prenuptial Agreement Lawyer

Prenups, Without the Awkwardness

Bring up a prenup during wedding planning and someone at the table will flinch. The assumption is that one person expects the marriage to end. In our experience it’s usually the opposite. The couples who ask about prenuptial agreements are the ones who want to have the hard financial conversation now, on their own terms, instead of later in a courtroom.

A prenuptial agreement, called a premarital agreement in Nevada statute, sets out how property, income, debt, and business interests will be treated if the marriage ends or one spouse dies. Nevada is a community property state. Without an agreement, most of what either of you earns or acquires during the marriage belongs to both of you equally, and a court decides how to divide it. A prenup lets the two of you decide instead.

Lyon Law works with couples across Reno, Las Vegas, and the rest of Nevada. Marshall Lyon has seen these agreements tested in divorce court, which tends to make for a more practical document. No one can promise how a judge will rule down the road, but we know the provisions that commonly draw challenges and the drafting gaps that give a spouse an opening, and we address them before you sign.

What a Nevada Prenup Can Cover

Nevada adopted the Uniform Premarital Agreement Act as NRS Chapter 123A, which lets couples settle most financial questions in advance. In practice, the agreements we draft most often deal with a handful of things.

• Property you owned before the marriage, and whether it stays yours.
• A business, a professional practice, or a stake in a family company, including how growth during the marriage is treated and what happens to it if you separate.
• Inheritances or gifts expected from family.
• Debt each of you brings in, and who is responsible for it.
• Whether spousal support will be paid if the marriage ends, and on what terms.
• How the house gets handled, especially when one of you owned it first.

Nevada law is equally clear about what a prenup cannot do. It can’t decide child custody or child support. Those questions belong to the court and get answered based on the child’s best interests at the time, not a document signed years earlier. And a support waiver won’t be enforced if it would leave one spouse dependent on public assistance. Knowing where the lines are is part of drafting something that holds.

Who Actually Needs One

The stereotype is that prenups are for the wealthy. The people we see most often are business owners who don’t want a divorce to force a sale, professionals with real earning growth ahead of them, couples marrying for the second time with children from a first marriage to protect, and people with family property that is meant to stay in the family. Net worth has less to do with it than the desire to know where you stand.

A common example: one partner owns a small business with a couple of employees. Without an agreement, the marriage may create community-property or community-income issues involving the business, including the treatment of growth during the marriage. If the marriage ends, sorting out and valuing those issues can take months and can force decisions the owner never wanted to make. A prenup that addresses the business directly settles those questions in advance.

If you’re not sure whether an agreement makes sense for you, that’s a reasonable question to bring to a consultation. Sometimes the honest answer is that you don’t need one.

Prenups in Reno and Las Vegas

Nevada’s prenup law is the same statewide, but the circumstances aren’t. In Reno we see a lot of family businesses, ranch and land holdings, and second marriages later in life. In Las Vegas it’s more often a professional practice, a partner in a growing company, a couple where one spouse arrives with substantial debt or student loans, or a couple who got engaged here and wants the paperwork done before they fly home. We work with clients in both markets, and most of the process, from the first conversation through signing, can be handled remotely when that’s easier.

Already Married? A Postnuptial Agreement Can Accomplish Similar Goals

A postnuptial agreement works much like a prenup, except it’s signed after the wedding. Couples reach for one when circumstances change: a business takes off, an inheritance arrives, one spouse steps back from a career to raise kids, or the two of you simply never got around to the conversation before the ceremony. One key difference: a postnup can address property and debt, but in Nevada it cannot waive or limit spousal support in a future divorce. Nevada courts also look more closely at postnups than prenups, because the leverage between spouses is different once they’re married, so how the agreement is prepared matters even more. Full disclosure and independent advice for each spouse are the two things that make a postnup stick.

Why Timing and Process Decide Whether It Holds

A signed prenup isn’t automatically an enforceable one. Under NRS 123A.080, a Nevada court can set an agreement aside if one person didn’t sign voluntarily, or if the agreement was unconscionable when signed and that person didn’t receive a fair and reasonable disclosure of the other’s finances, didn’t waive that disclosure in writing, and had no reasonable way of knowing. That’s a long sentence with a short meaning: pressure, secrecy, and lopsided terms are the three ways a prenup dies.

The practical translation: start early, disclose everything, and give both people room to ask questions and get their own advice. An agreement handed over the week before the wedding is the one most likely to be challenged. An agreement built over a few months, with full financial disclosure and each person having had the chance to consult their own attorney, is the one that holds. We build for the second kind.

If you want to see what actually happens when a prenup meets a divorce, we’ve written about it separately.

Ready to Talk It Through

Most people who contact us about a prenup are a little nervous about raising it with their partner. That’s normal, and it’s part of what we help with. Reach out to schedule a consultation, and we’ll walk through whether an agreement fits your situation, what it should say, and how to bring it up in a way that feels like planning rather than a negotiation.

Marshall Lyon was named a Top Attorney in Nevada by Nevada Business Magazine in 2025.

Common Questions

How much does a prenup cost in Nevada?

It depends on how complex your finances are and whether both of you are already in agreement on the terms. A straightforward agreement costs far less than the dispute it prevents. We’ll give you a clear estimate after the first conversation.

Can I use a Nevada prenuptial agreement form or template?

You can, but a form isn’t written for you. It doesn’t know your assets, your goals, or the questions you and your partner haven’t thought to ask, so it may leave out facts and topics that matter to your situation. Forms can also lag behind changes in Nevada law, and you won’t know that until it counts. If a prenup is worth doing, it’s worth doing right.

How far before the wedding should we start?

Two to three months is comfortable. That leaves time for financial disclosure, review, and revisions without the wedding date doing the negotiating for you. Ideally, you get the prenuptial agreement out of the way before you invite people to the wedding or put any deposits down.

Do we each need our own lawyer?

Strictly speaking, no. Nevada law doesn’t expressly require it. Practically, yes, and for two reasons.

Independent review makes the agreement much harder to challenge later, so we recommend it every time.

Having the same attorney represent both of you is a separate question. Under Nevada Rule of Professional Conduct 1.7 that is a concurrent conflict of interest, and it can be waived only if every condition in Rule 1.7(b) is met, including that the lawyer reasonably believes they can provide competent and diligent representation to each client and that both clients give informed consent in writing. In a prenuptial agreement, that first condition is very hard to satisfy honestly. Even with a signed waiver, joint representation can create significant problems later.

Can a prenup be changed after we’re married?

Yes. Under NRS 123A.070 a prenup can be amended or revoked after the wedding by a written agreement signed by both spouses. No new consideration is needed.

Can a prenup include a lifestyle or infidelity clause?

You can include them, but that doesn’t mean they’ll hold up in court. Nevada courts have not been receptive to them, and provisions like that can put the rest of the agreement at risk. We’ll talk through what you’re actually trying to protect and whether there’s a way to get there that holds up.

What’s the difference between a prenup and a cohabitation agreement?

A cohabitation agreement covers unmarried partners who share a home or finances. It’s a different document under different law, covering similar ground: agree on the money now, while it’s easy. If you’re not planning to marry, that’s the one to ask about.

Sources

NRS Chapter 123A, Nevada Uniform Premarital Agreement Act. Content of the agreement, NRS 123A.050. Amendment and revocation, NRS 123A.070. Enforcement, NRS 123A.080. Nevada Rule of Professional Conduct 1.7, conflict of interest: current clients.

This page provides general information about Nevada law and is not legal advice. Reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship.