In the United States, approximately 50% of marriages end in divorce. When a divorce occurs the court may separate any marital properties between the two people how they see equal. In order to protect your own property and belongings, you may consider getting a postnuptial or prenuptial agreement in precaution to a possible divorce.
Postnuptial and prenuptial agreements are agreements made between the couple, splitting up the property between them before a divorce may occur. While a postnuptial agreement is created after the couple is legally married, a prenuptial agreement is created before the marriage. There are many advantages to getting either of these contracts:
1. Avoid your spouse’s debt
If you end up getting a divorce, your spouse’s debt may be split between you and themselves whether or not it was at the fault of yourself or your partner. This also applies to previous debts that were not accrued during the time of the marriage. Creating a prenuptial or a postnuptial can help you have more control over the split of the debts.
2. Protect your property
Property can be worth a fortune and if the properties are important to you or your spouse, you may want to agree on how your properties will be split up, or else the court will often split it up as even as possible.
3. Protect your assets
Any assets that you gained before your marriage you may want to keep in order to support yourself in old age or simply further in life. However, if you don’t split it up prior to a divorce, it will be split “equally”. This could mean that if you are extremely wealthy and your spouse is not, you may have to give up much more of your wealth to your spouse by the court’s order. Having an agreement before hand can prevent this from happening.
4. Eases the divorce process
A large part of a divorce is how marital property will be split up, and this is where a lot of disagreements may take place. Having agreements already set out gives you one less thing to stress about during the difficult divorce process.
One of the few downsides that you may want to consider when getting a postnuptial or prenuptial agreement is that starting off a marriage or serious relationship with a contract that is applicable to a divorce isn’t the most romantic thing for you and your partner to do. While this is true, it’s important to consider just how many married couples end up getting divorced. Especially if you’re someone with a lot of wealth and/or assets, you may want to protect your belongings in case the worst occurs.
If you are interested in finding out more about prenuptial or postnuptial agreements and any matrimonial issues, contact our office at 718-539-1100 or email us at info@jckimlaw.com.