Divorce
For most people before entering a marriage, they spent a lot of their life investing into their finances. It’s important that finances and personal estates are protected by law before entering into a new stage of your life. According to a divorce lawyer from our friends at Brandy Austin Law Firm, PLLC, a prenuptial agreement protects the rights of someone’s personal estates and finance in the event of a possible divorce. Signing a prenuptial agreement before marrying ensures that you will have peace of mind.
What happens to property during marriage?
When a couple first gets married, all the assets obtained before marriage are combined together. This is known as community property. In some states, community property includes assets, debts, income from employment, and estate liabilities. Even if the property was under one spouse’s name, it will become community property, under certain laws. While there are ways to keep property separate, it requires the person having sole ownership and management of the property when it was purchased for it to be considered separated property.This includes recorded deeds and purchase agreements.
What is a Prenuptial Agreement?
A Prenuptial Agreement or “Prenup” for short, is a contract between two individuals that protects their financial interest in case of a divorce. With a Prenuptial Agreement, both parties will have property or their assets protected under the guidance of certain laws. A Prenups helps create a guideline for handling assets between a couple. In some cases, prenups can also help in handling debt in divorces or death of spouses.
Who can a get prenuptial agreement?
When getting a Prenup, people that have a significant amount of debt, planning on bringing estates into the marriage, wealthy, children or want protection over property should sign one. Getting a prenup allows these assets to be protected by the court.
What are the benefits of a prenup?
There are many benefits when signing a prenuptial agreement. Some of these benefits include protecting spouse’s property or asset, avoiding high legal fees, protected from debt, arguments, clear set up of trust in the event of a spouse’s death, and protected family generation property.
What if I don’t get a prenup?
In the event of the divorce, any property that was obtained or owned previously is now owned by both spouses.This means that both partners are entitled to it. Which then gets handed to the court to decide what happens to the property. There, property is divided into marital property and non-marital category.
Can I adjust or terminate a prenuptial agreement?
Yes you most definitely can. A married couple can modify any agreements that are set up in a prenup. This also applies to dismantling the agreement.However, both parties must consent and sign in writing for any change to be done.These modifications are referred to as postnuptial agreement.
Why should I get it?
It’s highly recommended to get a prenup especially right before entering into a marriage in the chances of divorce, debt or the legal protection on years worth of assets.Even if you’re not planning on divorcing your spouse, protecting assets in general has a lot of benefits. Setting prenups in a marriage allows any asset previously acquired before marrying to be placed as a separate property.
If you are planning on getting married, contact a divorce lawyer near you to create your prenup.