A clause in which you give up the right to further financial information does not excuse your spouse from disclosing assets in the first place.
What the Clause Said
In Kwon v. Kwon, 333 Ga. App. 130 (2015), the antenuptial agreement recited that each party had made “a substantially accurate disclosure” of all assets, that neither wanted an independent audit of the other’s holdings, and that each “specifically waives and relinquishes any right to obtain further knowledge with regard to said holdings.” After the husband died, the administrator of his estate argued that a showing of full and fair disclosure “was achieved via waiver of additional financial disclosure in the document.”
Why the Argument Failed
The Court of Appeals rejected it. “Just as imposing a duty to inquire on one party would eviscerate the other party’s duty of full disclosure, so would allowing a waiver provision to substitute for full disclosure eviscerate the duty to disclose.” The practical problem is obvious from the opinion: “If this were so, a party could avoid making any disclosure simply by including such a provision in an antenuptial agreement.”
What Was Actually Waived
The Court also read the clause narrowly. Because the waiver was made “with full knowledge of the holdings of the other party,” the wife “did not waive her right to obtain full and fair knowledge of Mr. Kwon’s assets by signing the agreement; she only waived her right to obtain ‘further knowledge’ of the holdings she already knew about.”
So a waiver can cover information you already have. It cannot cover assets you were never told about.
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