- Most DIY prenups cover separate property and spousal support, then stop. That covers roughly half of what couples actually fight about if a marriage ends.
- The clauses that get invoked in real disputes are usually about specific assets (pets, a home with mixed contributions, equity that vests during the marriage) or specific events (a sunset clause, relocation, a health crisis).
- Adding a clause costs nothing. Litigating its absence later costs tens of thousands.
- A few of these clauses are straightforward to draft yourself; others (especially trust, business, and equity provisions) benefit from an attorney review.
Why this list exists
When family law attorneys describe contested divorces, the arguments rarely sound like the clauses in a standard prenup. They sound like this: who keeps the dog, what happens to the house where one partner paid the down payment but both paid the mortgage, does the equity grant that vested during the marriage count as separate or marital, whose student debt is whose after ten years of joint budgeting. Most off-the-shelf prenups do not answer any of those questions.
The fix is not a longer agreement. The fix is thinking through the specific situations most likely to come up for your life and addressing them by name. Below are the ten clauses most often forgotten, grouped by category.
Clauses about specific assets
1. Pet custody and care
Courts treat pets as property in most states, which means absent a clause, a dog gets assigned to whoever can prove ownership, not whoever is the primary caregiver. A pet clause can specify primary custody, a visitation schedule, and shared responsibility for veterinary costs. If you co-adopted the animal after marriage, this is one of the most commonly contested items in a separation.
2. Cryptocurrency and digital assets
Crypto holdings move between wallets, get staked, get lost to forgotten seed phrases, and gain or lose 80% of their value in a year. Generic "investments" language is almost never sufficient. A modern prenup should identify pre-marital crypto by wallet address or exchange, specify whether staking rewards during the marriage are separate or marital, and address what happens if tokens are swapped for other tokens during the marriage.
3. Intellectual property and creative work
If one partner is a writer, designer, musician, software engineer, or any other creative, work produced during the marriage may be considered marital property in most states. An IP clause can specify that work authored by one partner belongs to that partner, that royalties on pre-marital work stay separate, and that software or patents filed during the marriage follow named rules. Without this, a book advance earned during year three can become contested years later.
4. Unvested equity and stock options
If you received an RSU grant three months before the wedding that vests over four years, most states will treat some portion of the vested shares as marital. The same is true for options, SARs, PSUs, and phantom equity. A clause can specify a time-based formula (shares vested before marriage vs after), or simply assign the entire grant to one spouse. What matters is that the document addresses it explicitly.
5. The family home and mixed contributions
The most common mixed-contribution scenario: one partner puts down $200,000 from pre-marital savings, both partners pay the mortgage from joint income, the home appreciates $400,000 during the marriage. Who gets what? Every state handles this differently, and without a clause you're relying on tracing arguments that can become very expensive. A good clause specifies how the down payment is credited back, how appreciation is split, and what happens if the home is sold during the marriage and the proceeds rolled into a new property.
Clauses about specific events
6. Sunset clauses
A sunset clause either dissolves the agreement after a certain number of years of marriage or modifies specific provisions at milestones. A typical version: the agreement expires after 20 years, or the spousal support waiver becomes null after 10 years, or separate property designations become marital after a specific date. This is a way to express "we're protecting ourselves during the early years but want to treat a long marriage differently."
7. Infidelity and lifestyle clauses
Some states enforce these, some do not, and you should not rely on one as your only protection. But a clause tying a cash penalty or asset reallocation to proven infidelity is legal in a number of jurisdictions. Lifestyle clauses (weight, substance use, frequency of contact with extended family) are more controversial and rarely enforced. If this matters to you, talk to a lawyer in your state before including one.
8. Relocation and career trade-offs
If one partner is likely to relocate for the other's career, or one partner plans to leave paid work to raise children, a clause can acknowledge the trade-off and specify what compensation looks like. This might be a lump sum, an increased share of marital property, or modified spousal support terms. The goal is to avoid the situation where a partner who stepped out of the workforce for ten years finds themselves without protection because the standard spousal support waiver was signed without thinking about that scenario.
9. Health and incapacity
What happens if one partner develops a serious illness or is incapacitated during the marriage? A thoughtful clause can specify that support obligations are modified if one partner becomes unable to work, or that spousal support is preserved in the event of long-term disability regardless of any waiver elsewhere. This is different from a standard prenup clause and often prevents a difficult fight during an already painful time.
10. Business protection and non-interference
If one partner owns a business, a non-interference clause can specify that the other partner won't seek a role in the business, won't claim operational decision-making, and agrees to a specific valuation method if the business needs to be divided. This protects the business from becoming a negotiating chip during a divorce, which can be especially important if there are outside investors, partners, or employees who could be affected.
How to think about adding these
Not every clause above fits every couple. The useful question isn't "should I include all ten?" The useful question is "which of these situations am I most worried about, and which would I regret not addressing?" A prenup with four well-chosen custom clauses is usually stronger than a prenup with ten generic ones.
Clause supports all ten of the above as optional clauses in the builder, with suggested language for each. Attorney review is recommended for IP, equity, and business clauses, since the language for those is more jurisdiction-sensitive than the others.
Start your free draft on Clause and take a look at the optional clauses section. You don't have to include anything you don't want, and you can see the suggested language before deciding.
Clause is not a law firm and this article is not legal advice. Enforceability of specific clauses varies by state. Consult a licensed family law attorney in your state for guidance specific to your situation.