Definition
A postnuptial settlement is a legal arrangement made between spouses after marriage that transfers, allocates, or secures property or financial interests — typically in favor of a wife, children, or other family members. The term encompasses two related but distinguishable instruments:
1. Spousal postnuptial settlement: An agreement between husband and wife, executed during the marriage, that defines each spouse's property rights, either in anticipation of separation or as a general reorganization of marital finances.
2. Voluntary settlement on family members: A transfer of property made by a spouse — historically, almost always the husband — after marriage, conferring a benefit on the wife, children, or both, without receipt of fair consideration. This is the older, narrower sense found in equity jurisprudence and reflected in Burrill's definition.
In both uses, the settlement is distinguished from an antenuptial (prenuptial) agreement by the timing: it is made after the marriage ceremony has occurred. It is also distinguished from a divorce settlement or separation agreement, which anticipates or accompanies the legal dissolution of the marriage.
---
Common Confusion
"Postnuptial settlement" and "postnuptial agreement" are often used interchangeably in modern sources, but historically they carried different emphasis. A settlement, in the equity tradition, referred specifically to a disposition of property — the actual conveyance or trust arrangement — while an agreement referred to the contractual promise underlying it. In older cases and treatises, the settlement was the operative document; the agreement was merely preliminary. Modern usage has largely collapsed this distinction. Researchers should also avoid conflating postnuptial settlements with separation agreements: a separation agreement contemplates or accompanies marital breakdown, while a postnuptial settlement, in its traditional sense, was made during an ongoing marriage with no necessary connection to anticipated dissolution.
---
Why It Matters in Research
The term carries significant historical freight that can mislead researchers working with 19th- and early 20th-century sources.
First, the voluntary settlement doctrine. In equity, a postnuptial settlement made without adequate consideration was classified as a "voluntary settlement" and was vulnerable to challenge by creditors of the settling spouse under fraudulent conveyance principles. Burrill's citation to Kent's Commentaries points directly to this doctrine. Researchers tracing disputes over whether a settlement could be set aside by creditors will find this vocabulary essential — cases and treatises will use "voluntary settlement" and "postnuptial settlement" as near-synonyms in this context.
Second, the coverture background. Pre-20th-century materials on postnuptial settlements were written against the backdrop of coverture, under which a married woman had severely restricted capacity to hold property independently. A postnuptial settlement was one mechanism by which a husband could, in equity, carve out separate property for his wife's benefit — particularly through a trust. The mechanics assumed in older sources (husband as settlor, wife as beneficiary) do not map cleanly onto modern marital property law, where both spouses have full legal capacity. Researchers must read historical materials with this structural asymmetry in mind.
Third, jurisdictional fragmentation. The enforceability of postnuptial settlements varies considerably across U.S. jurisdictions, particularly regarding spousal agreements made during an ongoing marriage. Some states apply heightened scrutiny — requiring independent counsel, full financial disclosure, and findings of fairness — that they do not apply to prenuptial agreements. Others treat the two instruments similarly. This variation is not merely modern: the older equity doctrine on voluntary settlements also varied by jurisdiction in how it balanced creditor protection against family provision.
Fourth, corpus connections. Researchers moving from postnuptial settlements to broader questions of marital property, trust formation, or creditor remedies will need to engage with the Law Mind Contracts and Family Law encyclopedias, as the term sits at an intersection of contract doctrine, equity, and domestic relations law.
---
Historical Dictionary Support
Burrill's Law Dictionary provides the clearest period definition: "A settlement made after marriage upon a wife or children; otherwise called a voluntary settlement," with citation to Kent's Commentaries at volume 2, page 173. This definition accurately captures the dominant 19th-century usage — the instrument as a property disposition in favor of dependents, not as a bilateral contract between equals.
What Burrill's definition does not capture is the bilateral, contractual dimension that postnuptial settlements increasingly assumed through the 20th century. As married women gained full legal capacity, the settlement evolved from a unilateral grant by the husband into a negotiated agreement between spouses. Modern postnuptial agreements addressing spousal support, property division, and inheritance rights bear little structural resemblance to the equity settlements Burrill describes, even when the same term is applied. Historical dictionaries generally miss this transition entirely.
The citation to Kent is genuine and valuable: Chancellor Kent's treatment in the Commentaries addresses both the equity mechanisms for creating valid family settlements and the conditions under which they could be challenged as fraudulent against creditors — the central legal tension surrounding postnuptial settlements throughout the 19th century.
---
Jurisdictional Note
A majority of U.S. states now recognize postnuptial agreements as enforceable contracts, but the standards for validity differ meaningfully from state to state, with some jurisdictions requiring stricter procedural safeguards than those applied to prenuptial agreements on the theory that the parties' bargaining dynamics differ once the marriage has begun.
---
Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
The Law Mind Family Law Encyclopedia — "Postnuptial Agreements — Formation and Enforceability"
The Law Mind Contracts & Commercial Law Encyclopedia — "Specialized Contracts — Settlement Agreements and Releases"
---