Registering a prenuptial agreement
In a prenuptial agreement, the spouses can agree that when their marriage or registered partnership ends, their property is not split in half as laid down in the Marriage Act. A prenuptial agreement only becomes valid after it has been registered by the Digital and Population Data Services Agency.
In a marriage or a registered partnership, both spouses have marital rights to the other spouse’s property. If a marriage or a registered partnership is dissolved because of death or divorce, the property of the spouses is divided. Marital rights to property means that in the division of property, both spouses have the right to obtain half of their remaining combined property.
However, by concluding a prenuptial agreement, the spouses can agree that their combined property is not split in half as laid down in the Marriage Act. In the prenuptial agreement, the spouses must determine whether either or one of them has marital rights to each other’s property or part of it. The spouses can also agree that the extent of the marital rights to property depends on whether the marriage ends in divorce or death. The prenuptial agreement only becomes valid after it has been sent to the Digital and Population Data Services Agency for registration and the agency has registered the document.
You can send the prenuptial agreement for registration one month before the day of the wedding at the earliest. However, the agreement will only be registered on the day of the wedding. You can also conclude a prenuptial agreement or change or terminate the existing agreement at any time during your marriage by drawing up a new agreement. You can no longer submit a prenuptial agreement to the Digital and Population Data Services Agency for registration after the death of your spouse, or after an application for divorce has been filed even if the prenuptial agreement had been prepared in a correct manner before or during the marriage.
Please note that the Digital and Population Data Services Agency does not draw up prenuptial agreements and that we are only responsible for registering them. We recommend that you ask a lawyer or a public legal aid office for assistance in the preparation of the prenuptial agreement. This ensures that the agreement is in accordance with your wishes and meets all legal and other formal requirements.
How to prepare a prenuptial agreement?
A prenuptial agreement must be made in writing and it must be dated and signed. Two impartial witnesses must also certify the authenticity of the spouses’ signatures. However, the witnesses only need to certify the authenticity of the signatures and they do not need to be present when the document is signed.
You may not certify the authenticity of the signatures if
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you are the current or former spouse of one of the parties involved
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you are the current cohabiting partner, a sibling, or a family member of one of the parties involved in the direct ascending or descending line
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you have a relationship with one of the parties involved and the relationship is comparable to a partnership or kinship.
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A person who is below the age of 15 or whose mental capacity is affected to an extent that he or she does not understand the significance of being a witness is also disqualified as a witness.
Do the following
1. Draw up the prenuptial agreement in writing. You can use the services of a lawyer or a public legal aid office in the preparation of the agreement. Unfortunately, the Digital and Population Data Services agency cannot help in the preparation of a prenuptial agreement.
Make sure that your personal identity codes are entered correctly in the agreement, the document is dated and that both spouses have signed it. Ask two impartial persons to certify the authenticity of your signatures.
2. Print out and complete the form below to register the prenuptial agreement.
Fill in the application form (the form is in Finnish)
3. Send the signed original prenuptial agreement and the completed registration form to the address below or bring them to the mailbox of any of our service locations. Do not send any documents by email because we need the original documents.
4. We will return the original prenuptial agreement to you by mail. The registration certificate and the invoice for the registration will be sent separately.
Price
EUR 65.
We will send the invoice on a separate letter after registering the prenuptial agreement. We will send the invoice to Suomi.fi service or to OmaPosti. If you are not a user of these two services, we will send the invoice by post.
Frequently asked questions
No. Siblings, parents, children or other persons that are comparable to a partner or a family member cannot certify the authenticity of the signatures.
No. You must write the prenuptial agreement yourself and deliver the completed prenuptial agreement to the Digital and Population Data Services Agency for registration.
The authenticity of the signatures of a prenuptial agreement must be certified by two impartial witnesses. Can the Digital and Population Data Services Agency provide the witnesses?
A notary public working in the Digital and Population Data Services Agency may certify the authenticity of the signatures. When booking your appointment make sure to mention that you need two witnesses to certify the signatures. A fee is charged for certifying the authenticity of the signatures. If you want us to provide both witnesses, we charge EUR 56 (4 x EUR 14) for the service.
The Digital and Population Data Services Agency can only register prenuptial agreements prepared in Finnish or Swedish.
You can sign a prenuptial agreement drawn up in both Finnish or Swedish and in some other language.
If your prenuptial agreement is in a language other than Finnish or Swedish, it must be translated by an authorised translator before the agreement is sent to us for registration.
Using an agent is not obligatory. The agent is the person who takes care of the registration of the prenuptial agreement on your behalf. The lawyer who has drawn up your prenuptial agreement can also serve as the agent.
You should use the name that you have when sending the form to us.
Either of the spouses can request the registration alone.
Yes. You can hand over the original prenuptial agreement and the registration form when you register for the wedding ceremony or you can give the documents to the person officiating at the ceremony.
Yes. Only a registered prenuptial agreement is valid.
No. A prenuptial agreement must be submitted for registration before a District Court has received your application for divorce.
The prenuptial agreement becomes valid once it has been registered.
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If it has been submitted for registration before the wedding ceremony it becomes valid on the day of the wedding. The Digital and Population Data Services Agency can only register the prenuptial agreement when the wedding date can be viewed in the Population Information System.
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If the agreement has been submitted for registration after the day of the wedding, it will become valid on the day it is received by the agency even if the application would be processed later.
You can check our processing times on a separate page. Enquiries about the registration will not speed up the processing of the agreement.
Contact our customer service to check the registration of your prenuptial agreement (tel. 0295 536 244, Monday to Friday at 9–12) or send an email to [email protected].
You can request a copy of your prenuptial agreement registered in a local register office or the Digital and Population Data Services Agency by emailing to [email protected].
The copy will be sent by post or to the email address entered in the Population Information System. A fee of EUR 22 is charged for the copy.
Read more about ordering a copy of a registered prenuptial agreement.
No. A prenuptial agreement must be submitted for registration before a District Court has received your application for divorce.
The prenuptial agreement becomes valid once it has been registered.
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If it has been submitted for registration before the wedding ceremony it becomes valid on the day of the wedding. The Digital and Population Data Services Agency can only register the prenuptial agreement when the wedding date can be viewed in the Population Information System.
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If the agreement has been submitted for registration after the day of the wedding, it will become valid on the day it is received by the agency even if the application would be processed later.
You can check our processing times on a separate page. Enquiries about the registration will not speed up the processing of the agreement.
Contact our customer service to check the registration of your prenuptial agreement (tel. 0295 536 244, Monday to Friday at 9–12) or send an email to [email protected].
You can request a copy of your prenuptial agreement registered in a local register office or the Digital and Population Data Services Agency by emailing to [email protected].
The copy will be sent by post or to the email address entered in the Population Information System. A fee of EUR 22 is charged for the copy.
Read more about ordering a copy of a registered prenuptial agreement.
You can change your prenuptial agreement during the marriage by drawing up a new agreement and by submitting it to us for registration. You can prepare an entirely new agreement or change parts of the existing agreement.
You can cancel your prenuptial agreement by drawing up a new agreement stating that both spouses again have marital rights to each other’s property. You must also send this agreement to the Digital and Population Data Services Agency for registration.
We recommend that you ask a lawyer or a public legal aid office for assistance in the preparation of the agreements.
Our contact details
Use secure email to ensure that the information is encrypted. When using secure email, send the messages to [email protected].
Telephone
Our customer service number is 0295 536 244
and you can call us Monday to Friday at 9–12.
Postal address
You can also send the documents by post to: Digital and Population Data Services Agency, PO Box 1003, 02151 Espoo, Finland.
Service locations
You can also bring the documents to the mailbox of any of our service locations.
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