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Prenuptial agreement
What does a prenuptial agreement cost?
“What does a prenuptial agreement cost?” is usually the first question. The good news: the most expensive item, the notary, is not open to negotiation at all. The fee follows by statute from the assets being settled. That makes the price fairly precisely foreseeable in advance.
Karcher Rechtsanwälte in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, focusing on uncontested divorce and international family law. Advice in German, English and Spanish.
Part of our guide Prenuptial agreementTwo items: the notary and the lawyer
The costs of a prenuptial agreement fall into two clearly separate parts. One is fixed by statute, the other follows the work involved.
The notary has to record the agreement: without one, a prenuptial agreement is void § 1410 BGB. The fee is not negotiable: it is set out in the Court and Notary Costs Act (GNotKG) and is the same for every notary in Germany. Comparing prices gets you nowhere here.
The lawyer advises you and drafts the agreement so that it fits your marriage and withstands judicial review of its content. That fee is separate from the notary’s and follows the scope and difficulty of the work.
How the notary calculates
The notary’s fee follows a simple logic: transaction value × fee rate.
For a prenuptial agreement the transaction value is the combined assets of both spouses § 100 GNotKG. What counts, therefore, is neither the income nor a notional value in dispute, but what is actually there in the way of assets.
One point is regularly overlooked and distorts every rough calculation: debts reduce the transaction value only up to half of the respective spouse’s assets. A couple with a property worth 800,000 euros and 600,000 euros of outstanding loan therefore do not end up at a transaction value of 200,000 euros but at 400,000 euros. With heavily financed property in particular, the notary’s fee turns out noticeably higher than a simple “assets minus debts” calculation suggests.
On that value a 2.0 fee is charged GNotKG KV 21100, twice the rate of the basic fee table Annex 2. On top of that come 19 % VAT and small disbursements (postage, copying).
An example calculation
The following figures are illustrative and rounded according to the current GNotKG table; the actual fee hangs on your specific transaction value. VAT and disbursements are not yet included.
| Transaction value (§ 100 GNotKG) | 2.0 fee (net) |
|---|---|
| € 50,000 | € 330 |
| € 100,000 | € 546 |
| € 500,000 | € 1,870 |
What becomes clear: the fee rises with the assets, but considerably more slowly than the assets themselves. Even at half a million euros of transaction value the notary stays in the low four figures.
The property regime and the scope determine the price, not the notary
Because the fee hangs on the transaction value, it is solely the scope of what is settled that decides the costs, regardless of the choice between separation of property and a modified regime. At the same level of assets, the recording costs the same.
Where you settle several matters in one agreement, for instance the property regime and the pension rights adjustment, the transaction value and with it the fee rise. That is almost always cheaper than fighting out the same questions later in divorce proceedings.
What our advice costs
Our fee for advice and drafting follows the work your case involves: a simple separation of property is a different matter from a modified regime with a business dimension and an international component. We name the costs to you transparently in the first conversation, before you commit to anything.
What belongs in the agreement
The costs hang on what is settled; before the question of cost it is therefore worth looking at the content. Which three levers a prenuptial agreement has and where the freedom of arrangement ends is set out under prenuptial agreement. Where the main point is to protect a business or larger assets, excluding or modifying the equalization of accrued gains by prenuptial agreement deals with the decisive question: separation of property or a modified regime.
Where you have already separated, the divorce settlement agreement takes the place of the prenuptial agreement: the same questions, only asked later.
Would you like to know what a prenuptial agreement costs specifically in your situation? Give us the key figures in a confidential first conversation: we estimate the notary’s fee and our own fee for you, without obligation.
Attorney at law · focus on family law
Admitted since 2010, more than fifteen years of experience in advising and representation. The contact for new instructions at Karcher Rechtsanwälte in Frankfurt-Gallus.
Legal notice: This article is provided for general information and does not replace legal advice in an individual case. Any laws, deadlines and amounts mentioned reflect the state of affairs at the time of publication and may change. A binding assessment requires a personal consultation.