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 

  • you are the current or former spouse of one of the parties involved 

  • 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 

  • you have a relationship with one of the parties involved and the relationship is comparable to a partnership or kinship. 

  • 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

In 2022:

EUR 65

From 1 st January 2023:

EUR 70 

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. 

Links to laws related to the matter

Marriage Act (in Finnish)

Processing times

  • 3-4 weeks.

Frequently asked questions

Our contact details 

Email 

Use secure email to ensure that the information is encrypted. When using secure email, send the messages to [email protected]. 

Send secure email

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, 00531 Helsinki, Finland. 

Service locations  

You can also bring the documents to the mailbox of any of our service locations. 

Service locations

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