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Binding Financial Agreements in Melbourne
A financial agreement lets the two of you decide the financial outcome instead of leaving it to a court. It only works if it is done properly, and the requirements are strict. An agreement that fails them is not a weaker agreement, it is no agreement at all.
Certainty, bought with compliance
A binding financial agreement is a contract about the financial consequences of a relationship ending. Made properly, it replaces the assessment a court would otherwise carry out, which is what makes it valuable to anyone who wants to know the answer in advance rather than discover it later.
Agreements can be made before a marriage, during it, or after it ends, and there are equivalent provisions for de facto couples. Whichever window you are in, the document is only binding if a set of formal requirements has been met.
We draft and review agreements for clients with businesses, trusts, inherited wealth and second relationships, in Melbourne and Dandenong.
What most people mean by a prenup, made under s 90B.
Made under s 90C, often when a business or an inheritance arrives.
Made under s 90D, as an alternative to consent orders.
The same structure under ss 90UB, 90UC and 90UD.
Whether an existing agreement still does what you think it does.
Where the point of the agreement is to keep a structure intact.
What actually makes an agreement binding
The requirements are in s 90G for married couples and s 90UJ for de facto couples. In substance: the agreement must be signed by all parties, and before signing, each party must have received independent legal advice from a legal practitioner about the effect of the agreement on that party's rights and about its advantages and disadvantages. Each party must also have a signed statement from the practitioner who advised them, confirming that the advice was given.
These are not formalities attached to the agreement. They are the agreement's authority.
It is worth being clear about what independent means. One practitioner cannot advise both parties. Each side needs their own lawyer, giving advice to them alone, on the document as it stands. A single adviser who drafted the agreement and then explained it to both people has not produced a binding agreement.
Advice on both sides
Each party, separately advised, before signing, about the effect on their own rights and about the advantages and disadvantages to them. Not a briefing on what the document says.
The signed statement
Each party's practitioner signs a statement confirming the advice was given. It is the evidence that the requirement was met, which is why it is the first thing anyone attacking the agreement looks for.
Signed by everyone
Straightforward, and still a source of failure where an agreement is signed in counterparts, signed by the wrong entity, or amended after one party signed.
Your agreement is only as strong as their advice
If you are the party who wants the agreement, your instinct may be to keep the other side's involvement minimal: move quickly, present the document late, discourage them from spending money on lawyers. Every one of those instincts weakens the document you are paying for.
The person most exposed by a poorly advised counterparty is the person who wanted the agreement.
An agreement signed by someone who was rushed, under-advised or pressured is the agreement most likely to be challenged, and the challenge is usually aimed at the circumstances of signing rather than the terms. Giving the other party time, a genuine opportunity to negotiate, and their own properly instructed lawyer is not a concession. It is the difference between a document that holds and a document that produces litigation at exactly the moment you were trying to avoid it.
Agreements can still be set aside for reasons beyond the formal requirements. We cover the grounds separately in when and how agreements get set aside.
Drafted to survive being tested
Establish what it has to do
Ring-fencing a business, protecting an inheritance, providing for children of a first marriage, or simply removing uncertainty. The purpose drives the drafting, and a document that tries to do everything usually does none of it cleanly.
Draft against the attack
We draft assuming the agreement will one day be read by someone looking for a way out of it. That means proper process, contemporaneous records, realistic terms, and no reliance on the other party never taking advice.
Review it when things change
An agreement written for a couple with no children and one business does not necessarily suit them fifteen years later. Reviewing it is far cheaper than discovering its limits during a separation.
When certainty is worth paying for
Agreements are most valuable where the alternative is genuinely unpredictable.
Business owners
Where a separation would otherwise put a trading business into a valuation exercise, and possibly into the hands of a court, an agreement is the cleanest way to keep the business out of the argument.
Family law for business ownersSecond relationships
Where each party arrives with assets, and often with children from a previous relationship, an agreement lets both sides be clear about what stays separate and what is genuinely shared.
How assets are dividedFamily and inherited wealth
Where money is expected to pass down a family line rather than into a relationship, and where trusts are involved, an agreement is usually a better tool than hoping the structure will do the work.
Trusts and family lawAn honest read on whether an agreement will hold
Initial consultations are confidential and run by senior practitioners. If you already have an agreement, bringing it in for review is usually the most useful hour you will spend on it.
Book a consultationWhen an agreement can be made
For married couples, before the marriage (s 90B), during it (s 90C), or after it has ended (s 90D). For de facto couples, the equivalents are ss 90UB, 90UC and 90UD. The window you are in changes the drafting, not the requirements for the agreement to bind.
After separation, an agreement is one of two routes to a final outcome, the other being consent orders. Which suits you depends on what is being transferred and what each party needs certainty about. See property settlement.
What an agreement cannot do
It cannot deal with parenting. Arrangements for children are not something two people can bind by contract, because the question is what serves the child rather than what the adults agreed, and that can only be answered at the time.
It also cannot make itself unchallengeable. A properly made agreement is durable, not immune, and the grounds for setting one aside exist regardless of how carefully it was drafted. See setting aside an agreement.
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Financial agreement questions
Last reviewed July 2026. Section references are to the Family Law Act 1975 (Cth). Financial agreements for married couples sit in Part VIIIA, with an equivalent regime for de facto couples. Family law matters are dealt with by the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia. This page is general information, not legal advice.
Make it properly, or do not rely on it.
Whether you are considering an agreement, negotiating one, or wondering whether the one you signed years ago still does its job, arrange a consultation and we will give you a straight answer about whether it will hold.
See also: Setting Aside an Agreement, Property Settlement, Division of Assets, Separation & Divorce, Family Lawyers in Melbourne.