Pre-marital Agreements
Prenups are not just for divorce and do not necessarily mean you are planning for divorce, they can define how you will plan for marriage.
Pre-marital Agreements
When you get married, you are essentially going into a contract.
With a pre-marital agreement, you and your loved one can enter into the contract with clear boundaries, expectations, and communications, while you are feeling very amiable about each other. You and your loved one can figure out how difficult topics and scenarios will be handled with a clear and cool head, and a loving heart.
Defining Expectations for Marriage
A prenup can include aspects like, income, financial responsibilities, living expenses, property distribution during a marriage, clarify situations where one or both parties are entering into the marriage with children from previous relationships. There can be a confidentiality clause so that the terms of the prenup are not shared. It is not just for celebrities and CEOs, it can help anyone who wants to protect their pre-martial assets, and future earned assets.
As many expect, a prenup can define what should happen if the marriage ends.
A prenup can save both parties time and money from a confusing divorce process, should one occur.
Define Aspects & Expectations During a Marriage
You can include many aspects into a pre-marital agreement, including how the marriage will function.
Aspects to consider:
- Who will pay for medical insurance
- How will you file taxes (jointly, separately)
- How each party will share and retain their wages for family expenses.
- Will income from sources outside of wages be counted differently? (Such as money from a spouse's inheritance from a loved one.)
- If you will have separate, and/or joint bank accounts.
- If one spouse has a business before marriage or creates one during the marriage, how will this be owned during the marriage, or spilt upon divorce.
- If one spouse incurs debt during the marriage, will it be a shared assets or individually owned.
- If one spouse has debt from before the marriage, like a student loan, will both parties now pay the loan or will that expense not be shared.
- If a child with a disability is born, who should fund care or potential be a care giver.
- Who should fund child card, day care, or other care for potential children.
- How inheritance may be distributed for children, particularly if there children from before the marriage to account for, especially if you want money to go directly to a child, rather than go by default to a spouse.
- Spousal rights to use and transfer property.
- You can even define things like who will take out the trash.
- How job changes may affect the marriage.
If Life Circumstances Change During the Marriage
If major income changes occur, children are born, or other circumstances merit it, a prenup can be modified after the marriage as a post-nuptial agreement. The two of you can even agree to cancel a prenup agreement during your marriage.
If the Marriage Ends
While no one wants a marriage to end, there may be unforeseen circumstances that arise. In the event of divorce, you can define things like...
- Alimony can be defined, or you can both agree to opt out of this upon divorce. Financial support to a former spouse can be a one time event, occur for a short amount of time, or occur for a long amount of time.
- You may define how assets should be separated upon divorce.
- You can define how custody of pets should be handled upon divorce.
