Also known as: financial status disclosure · disclose financial status · disclosing financial status · financial disclosure · asset disclosure
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
Adequate information regarding a party's property, liabilities, and income provided to the other party before execution of a premarital or marital agreement. The disclosure must include a reasonably accurate description and good-faith estimate of value unless the recipient expressly waives further disclosure in a separate signed record or already possesses adequate independent knowledge.
Derek Douglas owns a manufacturing plant and presents Danielle Dixon with a handwritten asset list one week before their wedding. The list omits several valuable patents and a recent plant sale. Danielle signs the prenup without independent counsel. Because the disclosure omitted material assets, the court refuses to enforce the agreement against Danielle.
Demetrius Douglas and Deborah Dunn sign a marital agreement after marriage. Demetrius provides Deborah only a summary of his business interests that omits recent liabilities. After Demetrius dies, Deborah seeks an elective share. The court finds the disclosure inadequate and permits the claim to proceed.
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Dylan Duffy and Deborah Dunn execute a marital settlement agreement during divorce proceedings. Dylan conceals income from a side business. Deborah later proves she lacked full knowledge of his finances at signing. The court sets aside the agreement as unfair and unreasonable.
Adequate disclosure requires a reasonably accurate description and good-faith estimate of the other party's property, liabilities, and income. A separate signed waiver or the recipient's independent knowledge can substitute for formal disclosure.
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No. When a party receives only an incomplete list that leaves out valuable patents or recent sales, the disclosure is inadequate. The agreement becomes unenforceable on that ground even if other formalities appear satisfied.
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It can. When the surviving spouse already possesses substantial independent knowledge of the other spouse's assets and income from working on the projects, that knowledge may substitute for formal disclosure and support enforcement.
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Under Florida law a spouse may invalidate an agreement by showing it is unfair or unreasonable and that the challenging spouse lacked full, frank financial disclosure or a general knowledge of the other spouse's assets and income at execution.
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…agreement will be upheld if it either made a reasonable provision for the spouse or was entered after a full and fair disclosure of financial status. See Geyer , 516 Pa. at 502 n. 9, 533 A.2d at 427 n. 9. The concluding paragraph of the Geyer plurality opinion, however, injected a basis for uncertainty as to whether Hillegass was…