March 4, 2021
Whoever you hear the words prenuptial agreement, you might begin to fear that it means your relationship won’t survive. On the contrary, having a prenuptial agreement is more about protecting your personal assets and other finances you might enter the relationship with or have obtained throughout the relationship.
Below you’re going to find a guide that has everything you need to know when it comes to a basic prenuptial agreement template. We did the research, so you don’t have to.
Everything Needs to Be Fair
When you and your future spouse are creating your prenuptial agreement, you need to take your time. This is to ensure that everything outlined in the agreement is fair. Both parties need to agree about what is outlined in the agreement.
You’ll also want to make sure that you both agree on everything that’s listed in the agreement. If there’s something about the agreement that you don’t agree with, you need to continue hashing things out and discuss things until a compromise has been reached to satisfy both parties.
Children from Previous Relationships
Another aspect that you’ll want to include in your prenuptial agreement are specifics that pertain to children. Children that you may have had before the relationship. This is to protect any inheritance that your children have allocated to them. And ensure other things get taken care of for them ahead of time in the event of a split.
You have to remember that you’re merging families and having a blended family deserves its own protections as well.
Neglecting to include previous children in your agreement can spell disaster when it comes time to go to court.
Asset Disclosure
The agreement should hold a complete list of all assets, debts, and liabilities held by both parties. Marriage is about complete transparency with your future spouse. If you begin the marriage by hiding things, it can cause problems in the future.
If you don’t disclose all your assets and debts in the prenuptial agreement, you may find that the agreement can be thrown out entirely in the future.
Alimony
Are both spouses planning to work throughout the marriage? Is someone planning to retire soon? Are you considering a career change in the future? If you and your spouse agree that one of you is meant to stay home while the other one works, you will want to specify alimony in the agreement.
Alimony or spousal support will typically be given to the spouse that has not been working to help them continue to support themselves. Depending on your agreement, this support will only continue for a specified amount of time or if something changes including your spouse getting remarried or being able to financially support themselves (after the separation occurs).
You Need Your Own Attorney
Why would you need two attorneys if you’re getting married? Well, you could face some conflict if one attorney is handling the needs and wants of both sides. You could also find yourself facing some biases if the attorney chosen is your future spouse’s personal attorney.
By having your own attorney, you can ensure that all of your needs are heard and adequately spelled out in the legal documents. Now that you have a better understanding of some prenuptial basics, here are some things that could cause your agreement to be ruled invalid if not handled carefully.
Not Giving Enough Time for Documentation Review
When creating an agreement, you need to have a time that has been discussed previously, giving each party time to review the document. Depending on the amount of time given, each party will either move forward with signing or return to the drawing board to correct some of the items outlined within the agreed-upon terms.
Both parties and their lawyers should agree on the amount of time each will get to review documents and ensure that they stick to the timeline that has been set.
Providing Misleading Information
Again, as stated before, if you don’t want to fully disclose everything you have in your agreement, it might be time to reconsider why you’re drafting it, to begin with. An agreement can be thrown out and ruled invalid if all information provided isn’t accurate or information has been withheld.
You and your future spouse have got to ensure that you both have been 100% transparent about all debts, assets, and liabilities you have before marrying each other or you risk the agreement being thrown out and ruled unenforceable.
Unbalanced Agreement
The agreement cannot state that in the event of a split, one spouse will acquire all positive assets while the other acquires all negative aspects from the marriage, including debts.
The reason your agreement would be invalid because of this is that it could show that one spouse held a considerable amount of persuasive power over the other, and this would leave one person struggling after the separation took place.
Prenuptial Agreement: Finding an Agreement Before Saying I Do
A prenuptial agreement is designed to protect both parties that are involved in a marriage. Take the time to list all your assets and ensure the agreement is fair for everyone that’s involved.
If you don’t take the time to properly draft your agreement and meet the review deadline, you might find your agreement is invalid. If you’re looking for a lawyer to help represent you during the drafting of a prenuptial agreement, contact us here at Khonsari Law Group.
We’ve got the experience and knowledge of family law that you need to ensure you get the things you want and need if your marriage takes an unfortunate turn.