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Prenuptial Agreements · Virginia
Life changes.
Your agreement can change with it.
The prenup you signed at thirty may not fit the life you built by forty five. Children arrive, businesses grow, careers pause, and what felt fair once may not feel fair now. Virginia law gives you a clean way to update the agreement. It just insists you do it one specific way.
First call is a conversation, not a commitment. · By Corrie Sirkin, Esq.
The Short Answer
Yes, a Virginia prenup can be changed or cancelled after the wedding, but only one way. Under Virginia Code § 20-153, an amendment or revocation must be a written agreement signed by both spouses. Nothing else counts. Not a conversation, not an email, not years of living as if the agreement did not exist. The writing controls until a signed writing replaces it.
How It Works
One rule governs every change: in writing, signed by both.
Here is the honest picture: the law makes updating a prenup simple, and people get it wrong constantly anyway, because they assume informal understandings count. They do not.
What the statute says
Virginia Code § 20-153 covers amendment and revocation. After marriage, a premarital agreement may be amended or revoked only by a written agreement signed by the parties, and the amended agreement or revocation is enforceable without consideration. Two things in that sentence do real work. "Only" means only. A verbal agreement to ignore a clause, a text message, a handshake over an anniversary dinner: none of it changes the document. And "without consideration" means neither spouse has to give something up to make the change binding. You do not need to trade anything. You need a signed writing.
Why couples update their agreements
The reasons are the same life events that make people wish they had a prenup in the first place, arriving on schedule. Children are born, and the support terms drafted for a childless couple no longer fit. A business named on the schedule gets sold, and the protection should follow the proceeds. One spouse steps out of the workforce, and the couple wants the financial terms of that sacrifice written down. An inheritance arrives. A sunset clause is approaching and the couple wants to extend, revise, or let it lapse on purpose rather than by accident. The agreement was a snapshot of one moment. An amendment is how it keeps up with the marriage it serves. And if the original agreement was a prenup but the change is happening years into the marriage, the update is functionally a marital agreement, which Virginia law fully supports.
The trap: drifting away from the agreement informally
The most dangerous version of this story is the couple who quietly stops following their prenup. They merge the accounts the agreement said to keep separate, retitle the house the agreement said was one spouse's, and tell each other the old document does not really reflect who they are anymore. Years later, in a divorce or an estate fight, both sides discover the truth at the worst possible time: the signed agreement is still the operative document, and the years of informal practice are just evidence for expensive arguments about commingling and gifts. If the agreement no longer matches your life, change the agreement. Do not just live differently and hope. The same care that built the original applies to any amendment: voluntary signing, updated disclosure where the numbers have moved, and ideally a lawyer for each spouse, because an amendment can be challenged on the same grounds as the agreement it modifies.
The ruleAfter marriage, amendment or revocation only by a written agreement signed by both spouses, under Va. Code § 20-153.
What countsA signed written amendment or a signed written revocation. Nothing verbal, nothing implied, no matter how long the couple lived differently.
No trade neededThe statute makes an amendment or revocation enforceable without consideration. Neither spouse must give something up for the change to bind.
Best practiceTreat an amendment like the original: voluntary, with refreshed disclosure where finances changed, and independent counsel for each spouse.
The Statute, Plainly
Virginia Code § 20-153 provides that after marriage, a premarital agreement may be amended or revoked only by a written agreement signed by the parties, and that the amended agreement or the revocation is enforceable without consideration. The writing is the whole ballgame: informal understandings change nothing.
Va. Code §§ 20-153, 20-155, 20-149, 20-151 · verified as of June 2026
When to Revisit the Agreement
Six moments that call for an amendment.
A good rule of thumb: any life event big enough to change your estate plan is big enough to warrant rereading the prenup.
A Business Is Sold or Started
Protection should follow the proceeds of a sale, and a new venture deserves its own terms before it grows.
Follow the ValueA Career Pause
One spouse steps back for the family, and the financial terms of that sacrifice go into a signed amendment.
Fairness, UpdatedAn Inheritance Lands
Family money arrives and the agreement is updated to name it, before commingling makes it complicated.
Name It NowA Sunset Clause Nears
If the agreement expires on an anniversary, decide on purpose: extend it, revise it, or let it lapse knowingly.
Decide, Don't DriftFull Revocation
Some couples eventually choose to end the agreement entirely. One signed writing does it cleanly.
A Clean EndingThe Practical Side
What keeps the update clean, and what creates the next fight.
An amendment done right settles things for another decade. An informal drift creates litigation for one.
+ Helps your case
- A written amendment signed by both spouses, every time
- Refreshed financial disclosure where the numbers have moved
- Independent counsel for each spouse on significant changes
- Calendar reminders to reread the agreement after major life events
- Estate documents and beneficiary forms updated to match
− Hurts your case
- A verbal agreement to ignore a clause, however sincere
- Living contrary to the agreement and assuming that changes it
- Retitling property the agreement says is separate
- An amendment signed under pressure during a marital crisis
- Letting a sunset clause expire by accident instead of by choice
Corrie Sirkin, Esq.
Founding Partner
Attorney Insight
What I tell couples years after the signing.
"A prenup is not a tattoo. It is a living document, and the couples who treat it that way are the ones it actually serves."
Corrie's honest counsel: reread it every five years, and after every big change.
The agreement that protected you at the wedding can quietly stop matching your life, and the gap is where fights are born. So put it on the calendar. Reread the prenup every five years and after every major event: a child, a sale, a move, an inheritance. If it still fits, wonderful, you spent twenty minutes. If it does not, a signed amendment is a far smaller project than the original was, the statute does not even require you to trade anything for it. The only update that costs you is the one you made verbally.
More on Prenuptial Agreements
Related parts of a Virginia prenup.
01
Premarital Assets
Read more → 02Business Interests
Read more → 03Inheritances & Gifts
Read more → 04Debt Protection
Read more → 05Spousal Support Terms
Read more → 06Children From a Prior Marriage
Read more → 07Postnuptial Agreements
Read more → 08Full Financial Disclosure
Read more → 09Independent Review
Read more → 10Updating the Agreement
You are hereQuestions People Actually Ask
Plain answers about changing a prenup.
These are the questions we hear most about amending or revoking an agreement. If you have a different one, we are happy to answer it directly.
Have a specific question?
Call 571.260.0999 or send us a message.
Can a prenup be changed after the wedding in Virginia?
Yes. Under Va. Code § 20-153, a premarital agreement can be amended or revoked after marriage, but only by a written agreement signed by both spouses. The statute also makes the change enforceable without consideration, meaning neither spouse has to give anything up in exchange for the amendment to bind.
We have ignored our prenup for years. Is it still valid?
Almost certainly yes. Living contrary to the agreement does not amend or revoke it, because the statute says changes happen only through a signed writing. The agreement remains the operative document, and the years of informal practice become evidence in expensive arguments about commingling and gifts. If the agreement no longer fits your life, sign an amendment that does.
How do we cancel a prenup entirely?
With a written revocation signed by both spouses. That single document ends the agreement, and no exchange of value is required. Before revoking, understand what the default law will then control: property division, spousal support, and the surviving spouse's estate rights all snap back to Virginia's default rules the moment the agreement is gone.
Does an amendment need lawyers and disclosure like the original?
The statute requires only the signed writing, but the smart practice mirrors the original. An amendment can be challenged on the same grounds as any marital agreement: involuntariness or unconscionability without disclosure. For significant changes, refresh the financial disclosure and have each spouse advised by their own counsel. The update is only as durable as the process behind it.
When You Are Ready
The agreement served you then. Make it serve you now.
Bring us the agreement and tell us what changed. We will draft the amendment that brings it up to date, the one way Virginia law recognizes. Three offices across Northern Virginia, one phone number.