It Depends on What the Agreement Says
A prenuptial agreement can affect what a surviving spouse receives in Massachusetts, but the answer depends on the agreement’s language and enforceability. Some prenups address rights at death in considerable detail. Others focus primarily on divorce. The fact that you signed one before the wedding does not, by itself, tell us what happens to the house, retirement benefits, or the rest of the estate when one spouse dies.
What Death Provisions Can Do
Death provisions can serve several purposes. A spouse may waive certain inheritance rights, agree to accept a specified benefit, or receive a contractual promise of support through the estate plan. In a second marriage, the couple may want to provide for each other while preserving property for children from earlier relationships. Those goals can work together, but the agreement needs to say how. “We each keep our own property” may not answer every question that arises after a death.
How Massachusetts Courts Look at Prenups
Massachusetts recognizes prenuptial agreements, and its courts have addressed agreements limiting rights in a deceased spouse’s estate. Whether a particular agreement is enforceable requires review of the document and the circumstances surrounding it, including disclosure and the process by which it was signed. A family should not assume that any signed page settles the matter, but neither should it assume that a surviving spouse can disregard an agreement simply because the result is now unwelcome. See Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court decision in Rosenberg v. Lipnick.
A Waiver Is Not the Same as a Promise
A waiver and a promised gift are different provisions. If the agreement waives a spouse’s right to claim against the estate, that may limit a right the spouse would otherwise have. If the agreement requires life insurance, a particular payment, or the right to occupy a home, someone still needs to implement and maintain that obligation. The policy may need to remain in force, the beneficiary designation may need to be correct, or the estate plan may need specific provisions. Signing the prenup does not complete those later tasks.
Review Your Will and Trust With the Agreement
Your will and trust therefore need to be reviewed alongside the agreement. Suppose the prenup requires a payment to your spouse, but your later will leaves everything to your children without addressing it. The omission does not necessarily eliminate the contractual obligation. It may instead leave the estate dealing with a claim that could have been anticipated. A coordinated plan identifies what is owed, how it will be satisfied, and which assets are intended to provide it.
Retirement Plans Need Consent After the Wedding
Retirement benefits deserve special attention because federal rules may require spousal consent that a prenup cannot supply. Federal regulations expressly state that consent contained in an agreement entered into before marriage does not satisfy certain qualified-plan survivor-benefit consent requirements. Additional action after marriage may be necessary. Do not assume that a general waiver in the prenup allows a retirement account or pension to pass to children without reviewing the plan’s requirements. See Federal rules on prenuptial agreements and spousal consent.
Joint Accounts and Later Gifts
Joint ownership and voluntary gifts also need examination. A couple may sign a prenup, then spend twenty years opening joint accounts, changing beneficiaries, and buying property together. The agreement may permit gifts between spouses or explain how those later actions are treated. A waiver of a statutory inheritance right does not necessarily cancel a spouse’s separate right under a beneficiary designation. The actual ownership and transfer arrangements need to be considered rather than reduced to “the prenup controls everything.”
Prenups and MassHealth
Long-term care planning is another reason to bring the agreement to your attorney. Spouses may consider their finances separate under a prenup, but that does not necessarily make them separate under MassHealth eligibility rules. An agreement designed around inheritance or divorce should not be assumed to resolve public benefit questions. The legal obligations between spouses and the rules applied by a government program may be different.
Bring the Complete Agreement
When we review an estate plan for someone with a prenup, we need the complete signed agreement, including schedules and amendments. A summary of what you remember agreeing to is not enough. The useful question is whether the agreement, current assets, and estate documents still produce the result you intend. Addressing that while both spouses can participate gives the family a much clearer set of instructions than leaving the children and surviving spouse to compare conflicting documents after a death.
Start with a free 15-minute consult call with Nicole Ott, our Lead Intake Coordinator. Tell her when the agreement was signed and whether your will and trust were updated afterward. That is usually enough for us to say what to do next.
