A postnup is a contract between spouses, and it has to be paid for.
Wyoming has no postnuptial-agreement statute. What governs is contract law and the Wyoming Supreme Court, which enforces marital agreements as written and asks three things of them: a voluntary signature, knowledge of what was given up, and terms that are not unconscionable. A postnup carries one requirement a prenup does not: the marriage you already have cannot be the consideration, so each spouse must give something. I draft these for one spouse, never both, and write them to survive the divorce lawyer who reads them years later.
Call or text me. Clients get my cell number from day one, and I answer. Just been served? Here's what happens next.
Three things that decide whether it holds.
For a prenup the marriage is the consideration. After the wedding it cannot be, and the Supreme Court requires an exchange of other identifiable consideration: property transferred, a claim released, an account funded, an obligation taken on. A married person may contract and be bound "as if he were unmarried" (W.S. § 20-1-202(a)), but only on a contract that is one.
The defenses are those of any contract: duress, fraud or concealment, unconscionability, language that does not say what one side meant. Courts reviewing marital agreements look for full disclosure of what each spouse had and an independent lawyer for each. The record of the signing is the agreement's best defense.
Property, the business, the inheritance, alimony, and inheritance rights between spouses are yours to settle; a waiver of the surviving spouse's elective share may be signed "before or after marriage" after fair disclosure (W.S. § 2-5-102). Custody and child support are not: custody is decided at divorce (W.S. § 20-2-201), and agreed support is tested against the guideline (W.S. § 20-2-307(d)).
Who signs one, and why now.
The business, the inheritance, the second marriage, the reconciliation
Nobody signs a postnup for no reason, and the reason is usually that something changed. A spouse started a company in year five and the investors, or the bank, want to know what happens to the ownership in a divorce. A parent died and an inheritance arrived, and in Wyoming an inheritance is not automatically out of reach: the court divides all the property of the parties as it finds "just and equitable," with the party through whom property was acquired as one factor among several (W.S. § 20-2-114). The separate property page explains why that surprises people, and a postnup is the only document that settles the question in advance.
A second marriage has two sets of obligations that will collide without a document: the children of the first marriage, who expect the house and the retirement accounts, and the new spouse, who has a claim on marital-years growth and an elective share of the estate. A reconciliation after a separation often comes with an agreement, because the spouse who stayed wants a promise about what happens if the same thing happens again, and because an agreement reached calmly is better than one reached in a divorce. And a prenup signed in a hurry, without schedules or separate lawyers, is often replaced by a postnup that both spouses can defend. The prenup page covers what the earlier document should have contained.
- 01The conversation between the two of you about why, and what each of you wants protected; the agreement that follows should be able to say it plainly
- 02Each spouse retains their own lawyer; I represent one of you, never both, and the agreement records that each had counsel
- 03Disclosure schedules exchanged: statements, tax returns, entity documents, trust documents, appraisals where values are contested
- 04The consideration identified and written down: what each spouse is giving, in terms a court can read as an exchange
- 05Draft, negotiation between counsel, every change initialed; a clause that says what it supersedes and how it can be amended
- 06Signed and notarized with lawyers present, schedules attached, originals kept by both; the transfers the agreement promises actually made
- 07Afterward: accounts kept the way the agreement says, estate documents and beneficiary designations brought into line, the agreement revisited when the next change arrives
The sequence is mine, not a statute's. Wyoming sets no procedure for marital agreements; the steps exist to build the record a court will look for later.
What the agreement has to do.
- Define the property. What is each spouse's alone, what is marital, and what happens to growth, income, and improvements on the separate side. The business and its appreciation, the inherited parcel and the mortgage paid from joint funds, the retirement account opened before the wedding: each needs a sentence, because a court will not supply one.
- Settle alimony. Alimony in Wyoming has no formula and is discretionary (alimony); spouses may waive, cap, or scale it by the length of the marriage. A waiver that leaves one spouse with nothing after a long marriage invites an unconscionability argument, and the agreement should say whether it reaches temporary support and fees during a divorce, which a court can order under a separate statute (W.S. § 20-2-111).
- Coordinate the estate. The elective share, the homestead and family allowances, and intestate succession can all be waived in the agreement (W.S. § 2-5-102). The will, the trust, and the beneficiary designations then have to match it, or the agreement says one thing and the paperwork another.
- Leave the children out. No custody clause, no support cap, no clause that keeps a divorce out of court. Those are void, and their presence tells a judge the drafter did not know the limits. The custody and child support pages describe what the court decides at the time, on the facts then.
How a Wyoming court reads one.
Fairness and disclosure review, the four corners, the agreement that is ignored, and what happens at divorce
Fairness and disclosure
Wyoming courts enforce marital agreements as contracts, but spouses are not strangers bargaining at arm's length, and the review reflects that. The questions are whether each spouse knew what the other had, whether each understood what rights were being given up, whether each signed willingly, and whether the result is so one-sided that no reasonable person would have agreed to it. Disclosure answers the first two: the schedules attached to the agreement are the proof that the signing spouse was shown the picture. Independent counsel answers the third. The terms themselves answer the fourth, which is why an agreement that strips one spouse of everything is harder to defend than one that scales with the years and leaves both able to live.
Read within its four corners
When the language is clear, the court reads only the document and will not supply a term the spouses could have written and did not. A postnup therefore has to anticipate what married people actually do: deposit the inheritance in the joint account, put the spouse on the company payroll, buy the next house with separate money and title it jointly, pay the mortgage on the "separate" ranch from the household account for fifteen years. Each of those needs a rule in the agreement, and the division of assets page shows what a court does when the agreement is silent and the bank statements have to be traced instead.
The agreement the spouses ignored
The commonest way a good postnup fails is conduct. The separate account that became the household account, the business whose profits were spent on the family for a decade, the promised transfer that never closed: each hands the other side an argument that the agreement was abandoned or waived, or that the consideration was never delivered. An agreement needs to be followed, and my office checks in when a client's circumstances change, because a postnup written for a company of three people may not fit one of thirty.
At the divorce, and in Teton County
When a marriage with a postnup ends, the agreement is pleaded in the complaint or the answer, and the spouse resisting it carries the burden of showing a reason not to enforce it. The court then applies the agreement to the property it covers and decides the rest under the statute. Terms the agreement does not reach, and the children always, are decided as they would be in any divorce (divorce in Wyoming; step by step). In Teton County every divorce is heard by one district judge, who requires mediation if either spouse asks for it and decides many motions on the papers, so a dispute over whether a postnup is enforceable is usually briefed and decided before trial rather than argued at it. Rule 26 disclosure applies regardless of what the agreement says (Rule 26 disclosures), and the courthouse page covers where the case is heard. Postnups in Jackson tend to be about the same things as prenups here: family land, the company, trust money, and a spouse from somewhere else; the high-net-worth page covers the valuation fight a well-drafted agreement avoids.
Asked about Wyoming postnups.
Are postnuptial agreements legal in Wyoming?
What is the "consideration" problem with a postnup?
Can a postnup decide custody or child support?
Do we each need our own lawyer?
Can a postnup replace a prenup we signed in a hurry?
Is a postnup the same as a separation agreement?
Start with a confidential conversation with Aaron Herzberg.
A consultation is a scheduled working session, in person in Jackson or by video, in which we go through your situation and I tell you what I would do. It is a paid working session, not a sales pitch. The fee is quoted when we schedule. Your note reaches me directly, my office runs the conflicts check and puts the meeting on my calendar, and you can call or text any time.
40 E Simpson Ave, Jackson, WY 83001 · by appointment · video consultations for out-of-state clients · info@puzzlegroup.com