Perhaps you’ve heard, but prenuptial agreements are on the rise in America. According to the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers survey, “51% of the attorneys cited an increase in the number of millennials requesting prenuptial agreements. In addition, 62% of the respondents have seen an increase in the total number of clients who are seeking prenups during the past three years.”
Prenuptial agreements (or, more commonly, pre-nups) were once thought of as solely for the rich and wealthy. Now, everyday folks who are entering into marriage are also engaging lawyers to draft pre-nups for them.
What Are The Common Prenuptial Agreement Issues In Hackensack?
- Protection of Separate Property: Utilizing a pre-nup can legally define which of the couple’s assets are joint marital property, and which are separate property. This can extend from everything as small as a treasured family book or family heirloom to things as large as a vintage car or a summer home. It’s a convenient way to safeguard items you may not want considered as joint marital property and subject to equitable distribution in the event of a divorce.
- Alimony/Spousal Maintenance: In the event of a divorce, it may be useful to come to terms on Alimony or spousal maintenance prior to the separation. This can be helpful in leading to less fighting and litigation about the dollars and cents down the road, when emotions may be running higher and tempers flaring.
- Division of Property: Fighting over the marital home is often one of the biggest issues in a divorce, and if you engage in a pre-nup you may be able to come to an agreement over what’s best for the marital home in the event of a break-up. Additional properties— a summer home or an office building— can also be protected from being part of Property Division.
- Financial Assets: Whether we’re discussing a stock portfolio, an amount of savings one party has amassed before entering the marriage, or certain I.R.A. and/or retirement accounts, couples may wish to safeguard their pre-marital financial assets. Even family inheritances can be formalized in a pre-nup agreement to minimize the negotiating, fighting and potential litigation over money.
- Financial Debt: If one soon-to-be-newlywed is entering the marriage in debt, be that from personal credit card expenditures, student loans, medical debt or some combination of such, that debt may be isolated in a pre-nup so it doesn’t become the other partner’s responsibility.
Obviously, entering a marriage is a moment of joy, hope and romance. We don’t like to consider the concept of divorce at the start of a marriage, and sometimes people can be cynical about pre-nups.
The latest U.S. Census Data shows the divorce rate in New Jersey at 7 people out of every 1,000. We don’t think of a pre-nup as a cynical or doomed-to-fail action at all, but rather as a protection and a safeguard for your life, and your financial life.
If you’re engaged or on the verge of an engagement, and are considering a pre-nup, schedule a consultation today with a family law attorney from the O’Cathain Law Group Family Law Department by calling (848) 356-5087 or filling out the form at the bottom of our homepage. Our dedicated family law team will help you protect what’s yours, and help you Move Forward— to marriage!
(201)488-1161
