prenuptial agreements

Prenuptial Agreements: What They Are And Who Needs One

Prenuptial agreements might have a bad reputation from tabloid accounts of celebrity divorces, but these important legal arrangements are for more than the rich and famous. Nor are prenuptial agreements a statement that a couple plans to divorce or otherwise wants an exit strategy. When done right, a prenuptial agreement can help a couple take stock of their assets and set the stage for efficient and open communication about joint finances, thus strengthening the marriage. In essence, a prenuptial agreement enumerates one or both of the partners’ assets and stipulates which of these assets will not become jointly held upon marriage but instead remain individual property. While one of the most common reasons, and the most notorious in pop culture, is to protect an individual’s assets in case of divorce. This is especially important when a couple’s assets are imbalanced; if one partner makes or owns ten times the other’s worth, the assumption of each partner being entitled to half the property at divorce is not fair. Prenuptial agreements, however, have many other uses and can serve the needs of many kinds of people. For instance, a prenuptial agreement can protect one spouse’s assets from the other’s liability. For example, if a woman is a doctor, and her husband owns his own business, they may have a prenuptial agreement as part of an asset protection plan. If the wife is sued for malpractice, her husband’s business is not counted as part of her property, limiting her potential payout amount and

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Immigrants tying the knot after signing a prenup

Because the current political climate has taken a darker turn toward immigrants, a lot of foreign nationals are “tying the knot” with their American brides and grooms almost impulsively. Marrying a United States citizen is one of the quickest ways to achieve your lawful permanent resident status, or green card. However, an impulsive marriage could raise red flags with immigration officials, especially if it includes a prenuptial agreement. Immigration attorneys say that many of the international couples who are rushing their weddings are also getting prenups — just in case the marriages don’t work out — to protect their assets. Prenups aren’t unusual, especially for professional couples with considerable wealth. About 14 percent of couples have them. A prenup would seem like a reasonable thing to do, especially if a couple is marrying after a whirlwind romance or a long-distance love affair. However, most of those couples don’t have to worry about an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent investigating whether or not the marriage is a fraud designed to get around restrictive immigration laws. If a marriage is deemed a sham, the consequences can be serious — it could include deportation, the inability to return to the United States or even incarceration. One of the many things that ICE agents look at when they determine if a marriage is real is whether or not the couple has jointly-held assets and mingled their funds. A prenup may make that difficult to do because it’s essentially designed to keep that from happening

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A prenup can simplify Massachusetts property division

When a couple is preparing to begin a life together as husband and wife, many consider drafting a prenuptial agreement. Once considered to be solely in the realm of the rich and famous, these contracts are becoming commonplace within many marriages, regardless of wealth. A prenuptial agreement can greatly simplify the property division portion of a Massachusetts divorce, in the event that a marriage does not work out. In order to create a prenup that will withstand any future legal challenge, there are a few necessary precautions that should be taken at the onset. A prenup should be clearly drafted and easy for all parties to understand. It should outline a fair distribution of assets in the event of a divorce, and not make any extreme or unbalanced demands. Finally, a prenuptial agreement should be just that: an agreement, not a condition of marriage. Should one party try to challenge a prenup, the matter will likely go before a judge. Judges will review the agreement to ensure that it was created as an outline of how assets are to be divided in the event of divorce. Stipulations or conditions that are unfair or heavily biased toward one party are likely to be thrown out. In the event that the entire document is found to be invalid, the property division process will revert back to the guidelines of the state. The best way to create a prenuptial agreement that is fair and enforceable is to work together to structure the Massachusetts

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Could a postnuptial agreement actually save your marriage?

One important tool that is often forgotten about when it comes to family law is the postnuptial agreement. This week, the Huffington Post featured an interesting article explaining how a postnuptial agreement can actually help many couples whose marriages are on the rocks. Postnuptial agreements are like prenuptial agreements in that they are both contracts that spell out what would happen in the case of a divorce, only postnuptial agreements are entered into after the couple has been married and prenuptial agreements are entered into before the marriage. The article gave the scenario of a couple who had been fighting over financial issues and was hastily considering a divorce. The wife, worried and anxious about where a divorce would leave her, went to a local family law attorney for advice. The attorney told the woman that divorce was not the couple’s only option and that there were alternatives available like filing for legal separation or executing a postnuptial agreement. The woman talked to her husband and soon they agreed that a postnuptial agreement was right for them. She said the agreement they reached gave them both peace of mind knowing exactly what would occur should they choose to split, and also helped them to address the disagreements regarding finances that they were having. Many people overlook postnuptial agreements as an effective tool in a family law attorney’s toolbox. Not only do they allow the couple to plan for divorce before the emotions rise, they are also a way to potentially

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