Montana

All states

Luck of the Draw score: 70 out of 100

Montana judges may divide everything either spouse owns, including property from before the marriage or inherited, and set maintenance as they find just, but they may not consider marital misconduct. Each party may substitute the assigned judge once without giving a reason. On the book’s scale, 0 is a contract you can read and 100 is one that mostly says “ask the judge.” Montana ranks 19 of 51, counting from the state that leaves the least to the judge. How the index works, and every state’s score.

Part	Score	The rule, and where it comes from
Property	20 / 20	The court ‘shall… finally equitably apportion’ all property ‘belonging to either or both, however and whenever acquired’, including property acquired before marriage or by gift or inheritance, with no presumption of equal division. Mont. Code Ann. § 40-4-202(1)
Alimony	20 / 20	Maintenance is set ‘in amounts and for periods of time that the court considers just’ after considering listed factors, with no formula or cap. Mont. Code Ann. § 40-4-203(2)
Fault	0 / 20	Both property apportionment and maintenance are made ‘without regard to marital misconduct’. Mont. Code Ann. §§ 40-4-202(1), 40-4-203(2)
Lawyers’ fees	20 / 20	After considering both parties’ financial resources, the court may order a party to pay a reasonable amount of the other’s costs and professional fees. Mont. Code Ann. § 40-4-110
Second opinion	10 / 20	Each adverse party in a district-court civil action is entitled to one substitution of the district judge, and dissolution is not among the excluded case types. Mont. Code Ann. § 3-1-804(1)

Getting in

No waiting period. Both people sign the application, at least one appears before a clerk of district court with proof each is 18 (or 16 with a judge’s approval), and they pay $53. There is no waiting period, and the license expires after 180 days.
MCA §§ 40-1-202, 40-1-203, 40-1-212

Who can marry you. A judge, public official with that power, mayor, justice of the peace, authorized notary, tribal judge, or any mode a religious denomination or tribe recognizes may solemnize, and couples can instead file a declaration of marriage with two witnesses. The statute does not address online ordination, but a marriage stands if either spouse believed the officiant qualified.
MCA §§ 40-1-301, 40-1-311, 1-5-630

Common-law marriage: A couple can still become married here without a license. A couple can still form a common-law marriage in Montana if the person claiming it proves both were competent to marry, agreed by mutual consent to a marital relationship, and confirmed it by living together and public repute. A relationship begun in a state without common-law marriage counts only after the couple lives in Montana; visits are not enough. Montana treats marriages valid where contracted as valid.
MCA §§ 40-1-403, 40-1-104; In re Estate of Hunsaker, 1998 MT 279, 291 Mont. 412, 968 P.2d 281; In re Estate of Zugg, 2025 MT 78, 421 Mont. 368, 567 P.3d 297

Chapter 5 of the book covers getting in, and whether you are in at all.

The property system

Montana is one of forty-one equitable distribution jurisdictions. Equitable distribution. Each of you owns what’s in your own name during the marriage. At a divorce a judge divides the marital property as the judge finds equitable, which is not a promise of half. Chapter 11 of the book covers what that means, and Chapter 22 covers what happens to it when you move.

What counts as marital. Montana is an all-property state: the judge equitably divides everything either spouse owns, however and whenever it was acquired and however it is titled. For premarital, gifted or inherited property and its increased value, the judge must also weigh the other spouse’s contributions, including homemaking and maintaining the property.
MCA § 40-4-202(1); In re Marriage of Funk, 2012 MT 14, 363 Mont. 352, 270 P.3d 39

An inheritance that touches a joint account

A judge can reach it either way. A Montana judge can divide inherited property in any event, after weighing the other spouse’s contributions. When inherited money went into a joint savings account both spouses used, the Montana Supreme Court held it could not be traced and that awarding the whole inheritance to the spouse who received it was error.
In re Marriage of Steinbeisser, 2002 MT 309, ¶¶ 37-39, 313 Mont. 74, 60 P.3d 441; In re Marriage of Funk, 2012 MT 14, 363 Mont. 352; MCA § 40-4-202(1)

Chapter 12 explains how mine becomes ours.

Your spouse’s medical bills (Article 5)

Both of you can be liable from the first dollar. Marriage alone does not make a spouse liable for the other’s debts, except that expenses for necessities of the family and the education of the children are chargeable on the property of both spouses or either of them, and the spouses may be sued jointly or separately for them.
Mont. Code Ann. § 40-2-106(1)

Chapter 8 of the book explains the three ways states handle this.

If one of you dies (Article 9)

Montana follows the 2008 UPC: the surviving spouse may elect 50 percent of the marital-property portion of the augmented estate, where that portion is the whole augmented estate multiplied by a percentage that rises with marriage length (3 percent under one year to 100 percent at 15 years or more), with a $75,000 supplemental floor; the augmented estate includes the net probate estate, nonprobate transfers to others and to the spouse, and the spouse’s own property.
Mont. Code Ann. §§ 72-2-232, 72-2-233 (2019 Mont. Laws ch. 313)

Chapter 9 covers what a will can and can’t take away from a spouse.

Prenups and postnups (Article 12)

One look, under UPAA (1983), Mont. Code Ann. §§ 40-2-601 to -610. A premarital agreement is unenforceable only if the challenger proves it was not signed voluntarily, or that it was unconscionable when executed and the challenger lacked fair and reasonable disclosure, did not waive disclosure in writing, and had no adequate knowledge of the other’s finances. Spouses may contract with each other about property, subject to the rules governing persons in confidential relations, so postnuptial agreements are allowed under that fiduciary standard; a marital agreement waiving elective-share rights has its own statutory test.
Mont. Code Ann. §§ 40-2-608, 40-2-301, 72-2-243

What an agreement needs. The agreement must be in writing and signed by both parties and is enforceable without consideration; no notarization, witnesses, waiting period, or counsel requirement applies. If a support waiver would make a spouse eligible for public assistance at separation or divorce, the court may order support to the extent needed to avoid that. A waiver of elective-share rights (before or after marriage) fails if the surviving spouse lacked access to independent legal representation, lacked a plain-language explanation of the rights waived when unrepresented, or did not receive adequate financial disclosure.
Mont. Code Ann. §§ 40-2-604, 40-2-608(2), 72-2-243

Chapter 29 explains one look and two, and what makes agreements stick.

Children (Article 8)

Child support: Melson. Montana uses a modified Melson formula: each parent keeps a personal allowance, shares a basic child allowance by income, and pays an added standard-of-living share from remaining income. Support ends at emancipation or high school graduation, whichever is later, and no later than 19, unless a written agreement or the decree extends it.
MCA §§ 40-4-204(3), 40-4-208(5); ARM 37.62.101-.148; In re Marriage of Perkins, 274 Mont. 277, 908 P.2d 208 (1995); MCA § 41-1-101

Moving away with a child. A parent who plans to move must give written notice, and if the move will significantly affect the child’s contact with the other parent, must file a motion to amend the schedule and serve it at least 30 days before moving. The other parent has 21 days to respond, and the judge applies the child’s best interest.
MCA §§ 40-4-217, 40-4-219(1)(b)

Chapter 17 covers the children.

Getting out (Article 2)

How long you must live here before filing: 90 days. One spouse must have been domiciled in Montana, or stationed there in the armed services, for the 90 days before filing. The rule does not depend on where the marriage took place or where the grounds arose.
MCA § 40-4-104(1)(a)

How long it takes. The judge can find the marriage irretrievably broken on more than 180 days apart or on serious marital discord, which needs no separation, even if the other spouse denies it under oath. A decree cannot enter until 21 days after service, and the judge may continue a disputed case 30 to 60 days.
MCA §§ 40-4-104(1)(b), 40-4-105(3), 40-4-107(2)

The legal minimum for a spouse who moves here alone and files as soon as allowed, with no minor children and the other spouse objecting, is about 111 days from arrival to a final decree (90 days of residence + 21-day wait after service (same-day service assumed)). Courts often take longer.

If you moved here from another state

Montana’s law applies. In 1992 Montana’s Supreme Court rejected a wife’s argument that property in Washington, where the couple had lived before moving here, should be divided under Washington’s community property rules.
In re Marriage of Scott, 254 Mont. 81 (1992)

Chapter 22 covers what changes when you move.

Each entry on this page comes from the statute, rule or case it cites, read in September or November 2026, except where the entry says it has not been checked. A rule can change after that, and a rule on paper can play out differently in a particular courthouse. No lawyer reviews these pages.

If you practice family law in Montana and would like to correct or contribute to this page, write to me.

Meanwhile

• The default contract, with the options states choose among. Read it with a Montana lawyer, or paste it into a chatbot along with “I live in Montana” and treat what comes back as a list of questions, not answers.
• Three contracts you could sign instead.
• A worksheet for reading it together, and every state’s Luck of the Draw score.
• Corrections, including changes in the law since the book went to press.
• About the book.