Prenuptial Agreements – Do’s and Dont’s
Unless your a lawyer, you probably don’t really know much about prenuptial agreements. For example, did you know that prenuptial agreements that “promote divorce” are unenforceable? Or that you can’t put anything in your prenup about religion, child custody, and damages for cheating? Before you try to take a wack at filing your own prenup, learn what you can and can’t do.
It can be tough to get over the biases of asking your wife/husband to sign a prenup. A lot of people wonder how they can ask their partner to sign a prenup without insulting them. Filing a prenup is like a car or life insurance policy. You never expect to be in a sudden or accidental death but most people still get a life insurance policy. Over 50% of married couples end up getting divorced, when the chances are one out of two, its crazy not to have a prenup. Although a prenup may not protect you from all your problems that come from divorce, if properly drafted, it will definitely limit them.
Another question a lot of people ask is what’s the point of a prenuptial agreement? The answer is protection of property, providing or not providing alimony, and the preservation of separate property and debt. In this day in age this can be extremely important, without a backup plan or prenup, a divorce and completely ruin you financially.
Finally, a lot of people want to know exactly what can and cannot be put into a prenup. If you’d like to learn more about the law surrounding prenups you can read Family Code sections 1600 et seq., also known as the Uniform Premarital Agreement Act. There you can find more specifically what exactly you can and can’t put into a prenuptial agreement.
Filing a prenup can be stressful, but it’s worth it when it’s over. The protection it offers you in case of divorce will prevent your bank account and property from being devastated.
January 29 2011 | Rhode Island (Ri) Prenuptial Agreements! Important Provisions In Well Drafted Premarital Agreements | Comments Off
What Breaks a Prenuptial Agreement
Potential spouses enter into prenuptial agreements to determine their property rights during a marriage and to protect their property rights in the event of a divorce or death. Prenuptial agreements provide an advantage of protecting separate property, taking care of tax considerations, and preventing long and contested divorce. Prenuptial agreements are great, but not all of them actually work when it comes to using them.
Basic Requirements
To be valid, a prenuptial agreement must:
be signed by both spouses; be accompanied by a complete disclosure of all assets, income and debts of each spouse;
• allow sufficient opportunity to consider the provisions of the agreement and obtain separate legal advice before signing;
• not be the product of fraud or duress; and
• be entered into freely and voluntarily.
Voluntariness
The prenuptial agreement is only valid if it is entered into voluntarily, i.e., if she thought she was signing a birthday card, or she didn’t know she’s giving up all rights to property, the agreement will not be valid.
Disclosure
If a spouse did not reveal the true extent of his financial well-being, the agreement might be unenforceable. For example, where she didn’t tell her fiancé that she just inherited an estate, and made him sign a prenuptial agreement.
Public Policy
A prenuptial agreement which violates public policy will not work. Examples of this are: an agreement which mandates the parties to get divorced in 5 years, or an agreement which requires a spouse to procure illegal drugs for the other spouse. As a more common example, a prenuptial agreement will not work to limit child support. Most courts uphold a prenuptial agreement which prohibits spousal maintenance.
No Attorney
Not being represented by an attorney can work as an excuse of not having opportunity to consider agreement. For that reason, I do not recommend giving a prenuptial agreement for signature to an unrepresented future spouse.
To sum up, most prenuptial agreements will do their job, but you have to take adequate precautions.
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7 Reasons You Better Get a Prenuptial Agreement
A prenuptial agreement is a contract between two people about to get married that shows exactly how assets will be distributed in the event of divorce or death. Such agreements have existed for thousands of years in some form or another.
A common myth is that prenuptial agreements are only designed for very wealthy individuals and this is not necessarily true. A person who has managed to save $25,000 may be more protective of their little nest egg than someone who has millions.
You should consider having a prenup if you fall into any of the following categories:
• You should consider having a prenup if you fall into any of the following categories:
• You have assets such as a home, stock or retirement funds
• Own all or part of a business
• You may be receiving an inheritance
• You have children and/or grandchildren from a previous marriage
• One of you is much wealthier than the other
• One of you will be supporting the other through college
• You have loved ones who need to be taken care of, such as elderly parents
• You have or are pursuing a degree or license in a potentially lucrative profession such as medicine
• You could see a big increase in income because your business is taking off, or that garage band you play in has just gotten a contract with a big record company.
Hire Separate Attorneys
It would be in your best interest to hire separate prenuptial attorneys in Michigan. To help ensure an enforceable agreement, both parties need their own lawyers. If both parties involved have the same Michigan prenuptial lawyer, it could be construed as a conflict of interest. Many prenup agreements in Michigan have been thrown out because an aggrieved spouse did not have legal representation. The attorneys co-write the agreement with their clients’ best interests in mind.
What Can A Prenuptial Agreement Do For You
• Keep finances separate. Every state has laws designating certain kinds of assets accumulated during marriage as marital property or community property, even if these assets are held in the name of just one spouse. If a couple divorces, or when one spouse dies, the marital or community property will be divided between them, either by agreement or by a court. If you want to avoid having some or all of your individual accumulations during marriage divided up by a court, you can do so with a premarital agreement.
January 29 2011 | Abandonment & Divorce Legally Speaking | Comments Off
Oddities of Prenuptial Agreements
By and large, a prenuptial agreement between a couple is a serious thing which is used to dictate events and settlements should the marriage end in divorce. These events usually just entail the division of property and take into account prior assets, with alimony occasionally being discussed. However, occasionally a prenuptial agreement strays off the beaten path somewhat, and some odd stipulations are made in these pre wedding agreements.
A prime example of a type of bizarre prenuptial agreement is when a penalty for infidelity is imposed on one or both individuals. Rather than going with the old fashioned methods of trust and hope, some individuals genuinely do insert a financial penalty if their other half commits adultery during the marriage.
There are celebrity examples of this. When actors Charlie Sheen and Denise Richards were married, beforehand they signed a prenuptial agreeing that if either party were to commit adultery, the other would receive a cool $4 million for the transgression. The couple are now divorced, and as far as one knows, the payout was never collected. It is, nevertheless, an odd stipulation that does not exactly give a feeling of trust.
January 29 2011 | What Is A Prenuptial Agreement And Who Needs One? | Comments Off
Prenuptial Agreement Forms | Prenup Templates (Part 6): Getting Releases
Please note that the information provided herein is not legal advice and is provided for informational and educational purposes only. If you need legal advice with respect to getting a prenuptial agreement, you should seek professional assistance (e.g. make a post on Dynamic Lawyers). They have Toronto, Ottawa, Hamilton, Brampton, Mississauga and other Ontario lawyers registered to help you. They will soon be offering Prenuptial Agreements in their Legal Forms + Video Guides section.
This is the sixth of a series of blog posts Toronto Lawyer Michael Carabash is writing about prenups or prenuptial agreements for Ontario. In the first blog,he discussed what they are, when are they used, and what is required for them to be valid and enforceable. In this blog, he’ll discuss how they can be challenged. In the second blog,he reviewed Loy v. Loy – a Ontario Superior Court of Justice case which reviewed the jurisprudence concerning how prenuptial agreements (and other domestic contracts) can be challenged. In the third blog, I’m discussed some tips that will help mitigate against future challenges to prenups. In the fourth blog,he talked about about what happens if a prenup is set aside (in other words, what will govern the division of property, spousal support, etc.)? He also discussed the doctrines of UNJUST ENRICHMENT, CONSTRUCTIVE TRUST, and RESULTING TRUST - which can be used by a party to claim to assert property claims. In the fifth blog, discussed ownership and division of property can be dealt with in a prenuptial agreement template. In this blog,he’s going to focus on the idea of requiring a spouse to release your estate from claims through your prenuptial agreement.
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When a Prenuptial agreement becomes invalid
In modern society marriage and divorce are considered to be normal things and they occur very often. Most people view marriage as an emotional and physical union, but it is also a financial union and all the things involving finances work better if they are regulated by appropriate documents. A prenuptial agreement is a document signed by both parties that regulates the financial relationships between them in case of a divorce. Of course some people consider it to be a bad sign, but it is only a useful document that can help regulating financial aspects during hard times. Of course at the marriage day no one wants to think about even a possibility of breaking up, but still a one third of all first marriages and a half of second and third ones end with a divorce. It is always wiser to discuss and put on paper the entire thing concerning property, because if a couple can not agree who gets what, the property will be divided by the state.
There are many reasons why a prenuptial agreement can become invalid, most of these reasons are based at various mistakes or violations made before or at the signing phase. The simplest reason why a prenuptial agreement can become invalid is if it was signed after the wedding. Also an agreement can become invalid if one of the spouses was pressured by the other, if the agreement wasn’t read by one of the parties and if one of the parties had no time to think the agreement over.
Information provided during signing from both parties is also very important. If one of the parties had provided false information or even incomplete information, the agreement will be considered non valid. The agreements regulate only financial aspects of the relationship and if things like child support obligations are regulated by the prenuptial agreement it will be considered invalid. In some cases the court can still keep the agreement valid but remove the illegal parts.
In some rare cases agreement can be cancelled by the court due to unconscionability, it means if an agreement is unfair and in case of divorce all the property goes only to one party the court can found it invalid. It doesn’t mean that you can’t agree that your spouse gets all of the money and you get nothing, but if the agreement is very unfair, the court will view it as invalid.
A fairly negotiated prenuptial agreement can provides reassurance to the wealthier spouse as to the extent of the financial impact of a divorce and at the same time it gives the less wealthy spouse some guarantee of his or her entitlement to a Property distribution. So once again don’t be afraid to sign a prenuptial agreement, it is just and insurance policy and it will keep you from rash decisions made during a nervous divorce. And remember that an agreement must be only in written form, any agreements that were not written down and signed will be definitely considered invalid.
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What is a Prenuptial Agreement – and Who Needs One?
A prenuptial agreement is essentially a legally binding agreement made before a couple gets married or enters into a civil partnership. The agreement deals with what should happen to assets of the couple in the event of divorce, though various additions can also be made including provisions and recommendations for alimony and the division of property. Prenuptial contracts often go by alternate names, such as ante nuptial agreements or premarital agreements; however, the usage is the same.
The popularity of prenuptial agreements has increased since the turn of the 21st century, though they were not unheard of before then. This is attributed by lawyers to an increase in media coverage of high profile divorces, which often sees as exceedingly wealthy individual divorcing someone of lesser means – and being forced to sacrifice up to half of their fortune.
A prenuptial agreement is recognized by all 50 states of the America, though they are not always followed verbatim. Often, discretion is required in cases where wealth and income has increased – or significantly decreased – between the time of the agreement and the time of the divorce. A prenuptial agreement can be appealed against if the party that stands to lose out is unhappy, though just cause must be given for doing so. American courts tend to uphold and recognize prenuptial agreements as they are, but it is worth remembering that these agreements are not a final line. It is possible for either party to challenge a prenuptial. Recently, Stephen Spielberg’s wife did just that during their high profile (and acrimonious) divorce. She was successful in this attempt, and walked away with a settlement of over $50 million.
January 29 2011 | Oddities Of Prenuptial Agreements | Comments Off
Highly-Suggested Baby Shower Gifts
Have you ever been in a baby shower? There’s a good chance that you’ve been in at least one in the past. There are a lot of people around us that are pregnant and it’s now a common trend to hold a baby shower. Parents know that they need a lot of things for their babies and they know that their friends and loved ones are more than happy to provide baby shower gifts. This is actually a good thing for everyone. The parents get a little help as they receive gifts that their baby can use. On the other hand, the friends and loved ones get to attend an exciting party to help pave the way for the baby’s birth. Of course, the baby will end up as the clear winner especially if he receives great gifts.
This is why it’s important that you give great baby shower gifts. You have to keep the development of the baby in mind in choosing a gift. You’re actually in a good position to help the baby by giving him products that he can use for his development.
January 28 2011 | Top 5 Creative Baby Shower Centerpieces Ideas | Comments Off
Baby Shower Gifts – Multiple Choices
The basic idea behind organizing baby shower for the expectant mother is to arrange different kind of baby items for her in the form of baby shower gifts. Of course, pregnancy celebration is also an important aspect of such parties. After the baby’s birth, the mother shall require many small items like diapers, feeding bottles, bibs, baby oils, lotions, baby powder, toys and so on to properly look after her baby. If we give such items to the expectant mother in the form of baby shower gifts, it takes considerable stress off her mind regarding impending pecuniary responsibilities.
It Is Okay To Get Some Help
If you are about to attend a baby shower and find it difficult to make a choice regarding baby shower gifts do not hesitate to get help. It is in fact prudent to consult the expectant mother’s mother, sister, cousin, or a close friend as to what kind of baby gifts she would prefer to have. You can even ask the mom-to-be straight out regarding her choice. It is better to consult than end up giving useless gifts. If you feel too hesitant, you can log on to Internet. There are a number of sites offering excellent suggestions for baby shower gifts.
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Baby Shower Favors – 5 Lovely Gifts For Your Guests
When you are planning pragmatically for the party, make sure you include a thank-you token for all the guests you had invited earlier. The baby shower party favors aren’t very expensive and they can be easily ordered in bulk. It can be your commodity for celebration. The theme of a baby shower party favor is very important. It has to be chosen carefully before committing to them. Try to meet the part coordinator before buying them. The baby shower favors can be the miniature form of toys of cartoon characters, fairy tales or even animals. If you do not have a clue about the selection of baby shower favor theme, here are a few tips.
1. Chocolates and cookies
For gifting your guests, this will be the apt choice, though you will need to have some baking skills. They can be made cheap and sometimes can be bought if you do not have time. Orders can be placed in bulk but it might be a costly affair sometimes. If you acquire the skills of making cookies and chocolates into baby item shapes, then it becomes all the more simple. You can enlighten your guests with teddy bear shaped or baby shoes or some books, rattle. You can decorate them further by using fancy papers and ribbons with various colors.
January 28 2011 | What To Include In Your Baby Shower Gift Bag | Comments Off