Prenup Notarization Requirements State by state.
A handful of states make notarization (or witnesses, or an authentic act) a statutory requirement — everywhere else it's your strongest cheap insurance. Here's every state's rule, with citations.
Updated July 3, 2026Key takeaways
- Seven states require notarization or equivalent signing formalities by statute: New York, Minnesota, Georgia, Louisiana, South Dakota, Arkansas, and Idaho.
- Florida is a special case: two witnesses are required for waivers of spousal estate rights (§ 732.702).
- Everywhere else, notarization is recommended, not required — it defeats "I never signed that" challenges for $50.
- Formality failures are fatal in the mandatory states: an unnotarized New York prenup is unenforceable, full stop.
- Online notarization (via Proof) satisfies the requirement in minutes — it's a $50 add-on at checkout.
The short answer: 7 states require it, the rest recommend it
By statute, New York, Minnesota, Georgia, Louisiana, South Dakota, Arkansas, and Idaho require a prenup to be notarized, acknowledged, or executed with equivalent formalities — in every other state it's best practice rather than law.
The mandatory seven each phrase it differently, and the differences matter. New York requires the agreement be acknowledged with the same formality as a recorded deed (DRL § 236(B)(3)). Minnesota requires notarization plus two witnesses (§ 519.11). Georgia requires attestation by at least two witnesses, one of whom may be a notary (§ 19-3-63). Louisiana goes furthest: a prenup must be an authentic act executed before a notary and two witnesses (Civ. Code art. 2331). South Dakota requires execution and acknowledgment "in like manner as a grant of land" (SDCL 25-2-16). Arkansas (§ 9-11-402) and Idaho (§ 32-917, § 32-922) both impose acknowledgment formalities.
Florida is the special case worth its own sentence: the base prenup statute doesn't require notarization, but waivers of spousal estate and homestead rights require two subscribing witnesses (§ 732.702) — and since most complete prenups include those waivers, Florida couples should treat witnessed execution as effectively required. Each state's full picture, including these nuances, lives in its own guide — every row of the table below links to one.
Every state's rule, with citations
The table below is generated from our 51 state-law guides — the same source of truth behind each state's own page — so the classifications and citations always match.
Click any state for its full guide: enforceability requirements, what you can and can't include, disclosure standards, and spousal-support waiver rules alongside the signing formalities shown here.
| Notarization / formality | Governing law | |
|---|---|---|
| Alabama | Recommended (not required by statute) | No UPAA — common law: Barnhill v. Barnhill, 386 So. 2d 749 (Ala. Civ. App. 1980); estate waivers under Ala. Code § 43-8-72 |
| Alaska | Recommended (not required by statute) | No UPAA — common law: Brooks v. Brooks, 733 P.2d 1044 (Alaska 1987); opt-in community property under AS 34.77 |
| Arizona | Recommended (not required by statute) | Uniform Premarital Agreement Act — Ariz. Rev. Stat. §§ 25-201 to 25-205 |
| Arkansas | Required — signatures must be acknowledged (notary, attorney affirmations, or two disinterested witnesses) | Arkansas Premarital Agreement Act — Ark. Code Ann. §§ 9-11-401 to 9-11-413 |
| California | Strongly recommended (not required by Fam. Code § 1611) | Uniform Premarital Agreement Act — Cal. Fam. Code §§ 1600–1617 |
| Colorado | Recommended (not required by statute) | Uniform Premarital and Marital Agreements Act — Colo. Rev. Stat. §§ 14-2-301 to 14-2-313 |
| Connecticut | Recommended (not required by statute) | Connecticut Premarital Agreement Act — Conn. Gen. Stat. §§ 46b-36a to 46b-36j |
| Delaware | Recommended (not required by statute) | Uniform Premarital Agreement Act — 13 Del. C. §§ 321–328 |
| District of Columbia | Recommended (not required by statute) | Uniform Premarital Agreement Act — D.C. Code §§ 46-501 to 46-509 |
| Florida | Required — sign before a notary with two witnesses (the formality needed to waive estate and homestead rights) | Uniform Premarital Agreement Act — Fla. Stat. § 61.079 |
| Georgia | Required — attested by at least two witnesses (one is typically a notary) | O.C.G.A. §§ 19-3-62 to 19-3-68 + the Scherer v. Scherer three-part test (not a UPAA state) |
| Hawaii | Recommended (not required by statute) | Uniform Premarital Agreement Act — HRS Chapter 572D |
| Idaho | Required — executed and acknowledged before a notary, like a deed (Idaho Code § 32-922) | Uniform Premarital Agreement Act — Idaho Code §§ 32-921 to 32-929 |
| Illinois | Recommended (not required by statute) | Illinois Uniform Premarital Agreement Act — 750 ILCS 10 |
| Indiana | Recommended (not required by statute) | Uniform Premarital Agreement Act — Indiana Code § 31-11-3 |
| Iowa | Recommended (not required by statute) | Iowa Uniform Premarital Agreement Act — Iowa Code ch. 596 |
| Kansas | Recommended (not required by statute) | Kansas Uniform Premarital Agreement Act — K.S.A. §§ 23-2401 to 23-2412 |
| Kentucky | Recommended (not required by statute) | No statute — case law: Edwardson v. Edwardson, 798 S.W.2d 941 (Ky. 1990); writing required by KRS 371.010(5) |
| Louisiana | Required — authentic act before a notary and two witnesses, or act under private signature duly acknowledged | Matrimonial agreements — La. Civil Code arts. 2325–2337 |
| Maine | Recommended (not required by statute) | Uniform Premarital Agreement Act — 19-A M.R.S. §§ 601–611 |
| Maryland | Recommended (not required by statute) | Common law — Cannon v. Cannon, 384 Md. 537, 865 A.2d 563 (2005) (no UPAA) |
| Massachusetts | Recommended (not required by statute) | G.L. c. 209 § 25 + DeMatteo v. DeMatteo, 436 Mass. 18 (2002) (no UPAA) |
| Michigan | Recommended (not required by statute) | MCL 557.28 + Rinvelt v. Rinvelt (1991) and Allard v. Allard (2016) (no UPAA) |
| Minnesota | Required — signed before two witnesses AND acknowledged before a notary | Minn. Stat. § 519.11 (rewritten effective Aug. 1, 2024) |
| Mississippi | Recommended (not required by statute) | Case law — Smith v. Smith, 656 So. 2d 1143 (Miss. 1995); Mabus v. Mabus, 890 So. 2d 806 (Miss. 2003) (no statute, no UPAA) |
| Missouri | Required — marriage contracts must be acknowledged or proved like conveyances of land (Mo. Rev. Stat. § 451.220); online notarization is included for Missouri couples | Common law — Ferry v. Ferry, 586 S.W.2d 782 (Mo. App. 1979) (no UPAA) |
| Montana | Recommended (not required by statute) | Uniform Premarital Agreement Act — Mont. Code Ann. §§ 40-2-601 to 40-2-610 |
| Nebraska | Recommended (not required by statute) | Uniform Premarital Agreement Act — Neb. Rev. Stat. §§ 42-1001 to 42-1011 |
| Nevada | Recommended (not required by statute) | Uniform Premarital Agreement Act — NRS 123A.010 to 123A.100 |
| New Hampshire | Recommended (not required by statute) | RSA 460:2-a — with standards from In re Estate of Hollett, 150 N.H. 39 (2003) |
| New Jersey | Recommended (not required by statute) | Uniform Premarital Agreement Act — N.J.S.A. 37:2-31 to 37:2-41 |
| New Mexico | Included — New Mexico's UPAA requires a signed writing; acknowledgment before a notary is standard practice, and online notarization is included for every New Mexico couple | Uniform Premarital Agreement Act — NMSA 1978, §§ 40-3A-1 to 40-3A-10 |
| New York | Required — deed-style acknowledgment before a notary | Domestic Relations Law §236(B)(3) |
| North Carolina | Recommended (not required by statute) | Uniform Premarital Agreement Act — N.C.G.S. Chapter 52B |
| North Dakota | Recommended (not required by statute) | Uniform Premarital and Marital Agreements Act — N.D.C.C. ch. 14-03.2 |
| Ohio | Recommended (not required by statute) | Case law — Gross v. Gross, 11 Ohio St.3d 99 (1984); Fletcher v. Fletcher, 68 Ohio St.3d 464 (1994) |
| Oklahoma | Recommended (not required by statute) | 43 O.S. § 121 + the Burgess test — Matter of Burgess' Estate, 646 P.2d 623 (Okla. 1982) |
| Oregon | Recommended (not required by statute) | Uniform Premarital Agreement Act — ORS 108.700–108.740 |
| Pennsylvania | Recommended (not required by statute) | 23 Pa.C.S. § 3106 — codifying Simeone v. Simeone, 581 A.2d 162 (Pa. 1990) |
| Rhode Island | Recommended (not required by statute) | Uniform Premarital Agreement Act — R.I. Gen. Laws §§ 15-17-1 to 15-17-11 |
| South Carolina | Recommended (not required by statute) | Common law — Hardee v. Hardee, 355 S.C. 382, 585 S.E.2d 501 (2003); no UPAA |
| South Dakota | Required — executed and acknowledged like a grant of land (SDCL 25-2-16) | Uniform Premarital Agreement Act — SDCL §§ 25-2-16 to 25-2-25 |
| Tennessee | Recommended (not required by statute) | Tenn. Code Ann. § 36-3-501; Randolph v. Randolph, 937 S.W.2d 815 (Tenn. 1996) |
| Texas | Recommended (not required by statute) | Uniform Premarital Agreement Act — Texas Family Code Chapter 4 |
| Utah | Recommended (not required by statute) | Uniform Premarital Agreement Act — Utah Code § 81-3-201 et seq. (formerly § 30-8-1 et seq.) |
| Vermont | Recommended (not required by statute) | No statute — Vermont case law (Bassler v. Bassler, 593 A.2d 82 (Vt. 1991); Stalb v. Stalb, 719 A.2d 421 (Vt. 1998)) |
| Virginia | Recommended (not required by statute) | Virginia Premarital Agreement Act — Va. Code §§ 20-147 to 20-155 |
| Washington | Recommended (not required by statute) | No statute — Washington case law (In re Marriage of Matson, 107 Wn.2d 479 (1986); In re Marriage of Bernard, 165 Wn.2d 895 (2009)) |
| West Virginia | Recommended (not required by statute) | Uniform Premarital Agreement Act — W. Va. Code §§ 48-1A-101 to 48-1A-1001 (agreements signed on or after July 1, 2023) |
| Wisconsin | Recommended (not required by statute) | Wisconsin Marital Property Act — marital property agreements, Wis. Stat. § 766.58; Button v. Button, 131 Wis. 2d 84 (1986) |
| Wyoming | Recommended (not required by statute) | No statute — Wyoming case law (Lund v. Lund, 849 P.2d 731 (Wyo. 1993); Seherr-Thoss v. Seherr-Thoss, 141 P.3d 705 (Wyo. 2006)) |
Notarization is the cheapest insurance in family law: fifty dollars and fifteen minutes against a future argument about whose signature that is.
— James Sexton, Esq.
Why notarize even where it's optional
Because the attacks a notary block defeats — forged-signature claims, 'I never saw this document' — are cheap to make and expensive to fight, and $50 ends them before they start.
When a prenup is challenged years later, the challenger's opening moves are predictable: I didn't sign it, I signed something else, the pages were swapped. A notarial acknowledgment (ideally with each partner initialing pages) converts those arguments from triable questions into non-starters. It also timestamps the execution — useful evidence that the agreement wasn't a night-before ambush, which pairs with the timing guidance in how long a prenup takes.
It's worth saying what notarization does NOT do: it authenticates signatures, not fairness. A notarized agreement with hidden assets still dies in court — the full enforceability picture is covered in are online prenups legally binding.
How online notarization works
Remote online notarization (RON) connects you and a commissioned notary by video — identity verified, signatures witnessed, digital seal applied — and satisfies notarization requirements in the states that permit it.
The mechanics take about fifteen minutes: you join a recorded video session, the notary verifies identity (photo ID plus knowledge-based checks), watches both signatures, and applies a digital seal. Most states now authorize RON and recognize out-of-state notarizations under standard comity rules.
With Trusted Prenup it's the $50 add-on at checkout, fulfilled through Proof — and if your chosen state is one of the mandatory-formality states above, the checkout flags that for you automatically. One honest caveat: Louisiana's authentic-act requirement is its own animal (notary plus two witnesses, civil-law form), so Louisiana couples should read their state guide and strongly consider attorney review.
Your state's formalities, handled automatically
Pick your state, and the checkout flags whether notarization is required or recommended — with same-day online notarization as a $50 add-on.
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Frequently asked questions
Which states require a prenup to be notarized?
Seven require notarization/acknowledgment or equivalent formalities by statute: New York, Minnesota, Georgia, Louisiana, South Dakota, Arkansas, and Idaho. Florida additionally requires two witnesses for spousal estate-rights waivers. Every other state recommends rather than requires.
What happens if we skip notarization in a state that requires it?
The agreement is generally unenforceable — formality statutes are not suggestions. An unacknowledged New York prenup, for example, fails even if both spouses admit they signed it. In required states, treat the notary block as part of the agreement itself.
Is online (remote) notarization valid for a prenup?
In the many states that authorize remote online notarization, yes — and states generally recognize each other's notarizations. Louisiana's authentic-act form is the notable exception that deserves attorney guidance. Our $50 add-on handles RON via Proof.
Do we need witnesses too?
In most states, no. Minnesota requires two witnesses plus a notary; Georgia requires two attesting witnesses; Louisiana's authentic act requires a notary plus two witnesses; Florida requires two witnesses for estate-rights waivers. Each state guide covers its exact formality.
We already signed without a notary — is our prenup dead?
In a recommend-only state, it may well be fine, though re-executing with a notary is cheap peace of mind. In a mandatory state, take it seriously: re-execute properly, ideally with attorney review, before you need the agreement to matter.
Trusted Prenup is not a law firm and does not provide legal advice. This page is general information about prenuptial agreements and pricing and is not a substitute for advice from a licensed attorney about your situation.