Prenuptial Agreements

When you are planning to get married, there are a lot of decisions to make about your wedding and your future. You may also want to consider a prenuptial agreement. Prenuptial agreements are often extremely useful tools, particularly in high-asset marriages. These agreements allow couples to set up their marriage on their own terms rather than defer to rigidity laws.

There are plenty of reasons you may want a prenuptial agreement, such as:
•Addressing what will happen to your assets if you should pass away or divorce
•Deciding and memorializing, prior to marriage, how finances will be handled and by whom
•Your intended spouse has significant debt or risk of debt from which you wish to be protected
•Deciding the financial terms by which you and your intended spouse will be divorced, if such an eventuality occurs, while you still love and trust each other

It is possible to draft, document, and file a prenuptial agreement without legal aid but it can open the door to disaster. If all issues are not explicitly documented and accounted for, the agreement may not be binding.

Post-nuptial Agreements

Whether you are a newlywed or celebrating your 25th anniversary together, it might be time to create a post-nuptial agreement. Post-nuptial agreements are written by spouses after a marriage, in a sense they are very similar to prenuptial agreements. The idea behind a post-nuptial agreement is to settle financial and marital issues that are present. It also dictates how a couple’s assets will be divided if divorce or separation occurs.

A couple common reasons people choose post-nuptial agreements are:
•They have children from a previous marriage and want to ensure they receive some assets
•Someone has been unfaithful and one partner wants to persuade the other to work on the marriage
•They have decided to stop working to spend time caring for their children and want to make sure they will be financially stable

Creating a post-nuptial agreement can help save you money in the long run if you decide to separate or divorce.