Prenuptial & Post-Nuptial Agreements

Pre-Marital Agreements, or Prenuptial Agreements, are legal agreements that are negotiated before a couple gets married. A Post-Marital Agreement, or Post-Nuptial Agreement, is signed after a couple is already married. This can take place very soon after a marriage or many years later. Couples getting married today often know that a divorce can wreak havoc with their finances. In many cases, a couple seeking a Prenuptial Agreement has previously been married, with each having estates that were built by years of hard work, sometimes with a previous spouse and children from that marriage, and want to protect their estates from any future litigation, including divorce litigation or litigation over their estate after their passing. Many people don’t realize that if their relationship ends because one member of a couple dies, then their children and their surviving spouse can end up in litigation over their estate, which can be very similar to a divorce.

Spender vs Saver

Prior to a marriage, it is wise to learn if you and your soon-to-be spouse are both spenders, if both are savers, or if one is a spender and one is a saver. When working on a Prenuptial Agreement, you can discuss these questions together and determine how you will manage any differences in your philosophies about money. It is better to have those conversations before entering marriage than after. If you determine that regardless of the differences you may have about money and other life decisions, that you still get married, then you are entering into the marriage with a better understanding of who you are marrying, which can only benefit the marriage.

Prenuptial Agreements using the Collaborative Process

One of the best processes for creating a Pre-Marital Agreement is through the Collaborative Process. In the Collaborative Process, your attorneys prepare you for the discussions by helping you to consider your goals and concerns, such as:

• Will one of you stay home if/when you have children?
• If one of the parents stay home, what will you do to compensate or protect the person who is staying home and giving up their career, even temporarily, to make sure that that stay-at-home parent won’t eventually suffer from the loss of his or her career advancement?
• If one party has a great deal more income or assets that the other party, do you want to address that in the event there is a divorce or death of the more financially secure party?
• Do you want to put a life insurance policy in place or create and fund an account to assure that the party with less income of assets is financially secure if there is a divorce or the other party dies?
• Do you want to ensure that your children receive from your estate in the event of your passing?

These are just a few of the questions marrying parties can and should consider.

The Collaborative Process enables couples to explore these and other questions which help you to get your new relationship off to a healthy start. At a later time, you can modify the pre-marital agreement in a post-marital agreement to better fit your relationship through the years.

Contact a Family Ally Today for More Information on St. Louis Marital Agreements

Each couple’s situation is unique, and marital agreements can be customized to fit your specific needs. Consulting with the legal professionals at Family Ally to ensure that your agreement is legally sound.