What Is A Prenuptial Agreement – When To Apply For A Prenup, Talk To Your Lawyer For Legal Advice

Before entering into a marriage contract, a de facto relationship, it’s crucial to decide whether you want to sign up for a prenuptial agreement or not. Mostly legal advisors will recommend you to sign up for a prenup to avoid complications if for some reasons either one of the partners decide to call it quits. A prenuptial agreement basically outlines how the assets including also the liabilities will be distributed among the couple in case one of the partners decides to file for a divorce.

A prenuptial agreement is similar to a financial contract which is signed between the two parties before getting married or entering into a de facto relationship, it can also be signed during the course of the marriage or the de facto relationship or in some cases even after the relationship or marriage comes to an end.

Individuals decide to enter a prenuptial agreement in order to protect their assets such as if they own a business, an organization, any personal property, and other regular assets as well.

If the couple decides to go their separate ways for whatever reasons, the prenuptial ensures and outlines the division of the assets stated in the agreement. When a prenuptial agreement is in place, Family Law Courts do not get involved when and if the couple has already decided to divide their property in the prenuptial agreement prior to the marriage or the de facto relationship.

The entire purpose of a prenup is to ensure that there are none to little complications in the division of the property among the partners.

If the individuals decide to sign a prenup agreement, it is their duty and responsibility to take advise from their legal attornies in drafting a prenup contract. Both the individuals cannot hire the same lawyer for legal to advise due to conflict of interest.

Once the clauses of the prenup are defined, it is then required of the legal advisor to sign a certificate stating that they have provided proper legal advice to their client including what they are entitled to in case of a breakup of the marriage or the relationship and outlining the pros, cons of signing a prenup.

Therefore it is crucial to draft a prenuptial agreement according to the Family Law Act, failure to do so will result in both the parties settling for their property claims through the court.

For example, there is a woman who lives in Europe and met a man from America online, both decided to commit to the relationship legally. Now legally the man’s wife, she has zero English speaking skills, had no notable assets and is childless. The American husband, on the other hand, is a rich business owner and has offspring as a result of his previous marriage. The husband requests his wife in Europe to move in within America and decide to hold a proper legal wedding ceremony. Just a few days before the marriage, the man asks his future wife to sign a prenup and warned her if she disagreed to sign, he will not proceed with the marriage.

The woman then obtains legal advice, where her legal advisor asked her not to enter the prenup agreement as it will prove as an extreme disadvantage to her in the future. The woman didn’t take her lawyer’s advice and went ahead with the prenup anyways. Meanwhile, another prenup agreement was asked to be signed, and the woman again ignored her lawyer advise and went ahead with a second prenup agreement. The couple decided to call it quits after a few years.

Therefore the matter went to court where it was stated the woman was pressured into signing a prenup agreement but her husband appealed otherwise, where the court decided both the parties agreed to sign the prenup without any pressure from either party.

When the matter was taken to the court again, it was proved that the now ex-wife had an unfair bargain, leaving everything behind in Europe, she had nothing to go back to, therefore the terms of the prenup agreement didn’t apply to her as the basis of the agreement was based on a threat by the husband not going ahead with the wedding if she didn’t sign the prenup.

This example was to outline the significance of having full knowledge before entering a prenuptial agreement and to think it through before getting into one as it may not always end up in your favor even if you were right.