In 1989, Doris and Nathan Etheredge signed an “Agreement to Devise Property.” It was a second marriage for both; each had children from prior marriages, and the agreement was signed well after their marriage. The agreement provided that their respective wills would leave assets to the spouse, in trust, for life and then be divided equally among all of their children. In 2015, they both executed new wills. Nathan’s will specifically disinherited his five children. Following Nathan’s death, his children sued to set aside the will and have the estate distributed according to the terms of the postnuptial agreement. The trial court agreed that the postnuptial was binding and the terms should be enforced. Doris (and later, her estate) appealed, making seven different arguments, including that the will revoked the postnuptial, that the postnuptial was either not binding or not valid, and that the intent of the postnuptial was to protect stepchildren from being disinherited, not a spouse’s own children. Many of the issues were dismissed because they had not been previously raised at trial. The court dismissed Doris’s argument that the children had no standing to enforce the postnuptial by referring to Aristotle’s Thirteen Fallacies. After a lengthy discussion of all of the bad arguments made by Doris’ estate, the court addressed the argument that the postnuptial was invalid because it was not “entered into knowledgeably” as required by Tennessee law. Although the children contended that this statute applies only to prenuptial agreements, Tennessee cases have said that postnuptial agreements are subject to the same statutory requirements as prenuptial agreements. The appellate court remanded to the trial court for a determination of whether the agreement was “entered into knowledgeably.” 

The enforceability of pre-marital or post-marital agreements in Mississippi is based largely on two elements: full disclosure of assets by both parties and independent counsel for each party (although a party may waive separate counsel under some circumstances). We can assist with implementing pre-marital agreements.