Many couples are considering to get prenups before they tie the knot to prevent argument on the assets in case they divorce. According to a AAML survey, there is an increase in the number of couples getting prenup. The reason is that people are now more realistic and they want to avoid having to spend a lot of money on the layer in the event that they divorce.
Who Should Have a Prenup?
Prenup is necessary if both sides have a significant asset. Without a prenup, one of the party could lose a large amount of asset during divorce. Prenup not only protect your bank account but it will protect all types of assets including pensions and retirement account.
However, even people without a significant asset are getting prenup. One of the reasons is to protect their credit profile because divorce can cause a big drop in the credit. The credit score can drop fast if you have financial difficulty in paying for your alimony and spouse’s debt.
What Happen If You Don’t Have a Prenup
Without a prenup, the law of your state will decide how to deal with the properties that are acquired during marriage. Usually, this means the property of both spouses will be divided equally according to the law. The spouse that is richer may be responsible in paying for the other spouse’s debt in case of a divorce. Both spouses will also be share in the management of a property acquired during marriage.
How Can a Prenup Protect Your Asset?
If both have different income, for example, one is a housewife, and one is working, prenup can decide who will pay child support during divorce. It can also decide how to treat a debt, for example, it will determine how the debt will be divided between the two.
If the divorce involves kids from previous marriage, a prenup will protect certain assets during divorce. Prenup can also protect you from getting chased by the debt collectors of your spouse’s debt.
Hiring a Lawyer to Prepare a Prenup
It is not cheap to get a prenup done. Both spouses have to hire their own lawyers to avoid conflict of interest. Many lawyers will be happy to compose a prenup for a flat fee. There are different regulations in every state on what you can or cannot include in the prenup. Therefore, it is important that you consult a lawyer in your state.
Before going to the lawyer, you and your spouse must sit down and be honest with each other about what asset you two have. You should discuss every asset you have from the most valuable asset to the least valuable asset. You can even take into account any piece of item that has a lot of meaning to you even though it is not valuable in market, for example, a dress your mother made for you.
You will have to list all the assets and describe how to handle them in different situations. You can also outline any special clause in case of an infidelity on your spouse. The lawyer will be responsible in guiding you through each step of the process.
Drafting Your Own Prenup
You may want to save money by drafting your own prenuptial agreement. After drafting the agreement, you can take it to your lawyer for review. The marriage laws constantly change so you should not be writing the prenup agreement yourself if you are not familiar with the law. Instead, you should always seek advice on a lawyer as they are supposed to have up to date knowledge on the laws in your state.
If you don’t know anything about writing prenuptial law, you can consider using a ready prenuptial agreement form in a PDF editor. The prenup agreement form in Movavi PDF Editor cover all the information on decision making and responsibility sharing that most parties would agree in advance.
You can type as usual in the blank fields to fill in the prenuptial form. The save and print button is conveniently located on top. There is the copy/paste command that you can use to copy and paste any information from other PDF into the form. You can also copy signature and paste into the signature field in the form.
Conclusion
Prenuptial law is increasingly common and courts no longer look at them suspiciously as they do before. Almost every state now permit prenuptial agreement but the agreement is still being scrutinized carefully in the court. Therefore, it is important to always use a prenup agreement that is written in a clear and understandable format.
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