Prenuptial Agreements in Norway

Register of Marriage Settlements

Norway’s central register authority, the Brønnøysund Register Centre, maintains the Register of Marriage Settlements. This register includes agreements between spouses that regulate ownership of property or assets differently from what is provided under standard marriage laws. For instance, if spouses wish to adopt a system of separate property, they must formalize it through a marriage settlement.

To offer protection against creditors, a marriage settlement must be officially registered in the Register of Marriage Settlements. These rules also apply to registered partners.

Historical and Searchable Records

The Register includes settlements dating from 1928 to the present. Around 120,000 marriage settlements registered before 1981 are cataloged in a manual index, while agreements registered after 1981 are accessible through a searchable digital database.

Public Access to Information

The Register contains important details about the property and assets of spouses. It operates under the principle that such information should be publicly available. To access information about a specific marriage settlement, it is usually enough to provide the name, date of birth, and address of one of the spouses. For electronic searches, including the spouse’s national identity number can improve search accuracy.

Cross-Border Legal Collaboration

Our office has experience working on U.S.–Norway prenuptial agreements and always partners with local legal counsel in each jurisdiction as necessary.