Prenuptial agreements can be sensitive and difficult to discuss as you and your future spouse plan what you likely hope will be your future life together. This is why getting help from knowledgeable and compassionate attorneys is so crucial. Keep reading to learn more about how a prenup can potentially benefit your marriage.
If you are planning things now with a future spouse or would like personalized information about prenups, don’t hesitate to call a Union County prenuptial agreement attorney today.
What Is a Prenup?
Before we begin analyzing the benefits of a prenup, it will be useful to review what prenups are. A prenup, or prenuptial agreement, is a contract between future spouses laying out exactly what will happen if the marriage should end.
The content can vary widely from prenup to prenup, as these address specific and individualized concerns of the spouses. However, generally speaking, a prenup will address how property is to be divided after divorce as well as questions of spousal support.
What Makes a Prenup Valid in NJ?
What is required under New Jersey law for a prenup to be legal and enforceable? Prenups have several requirements, but the following are some important factors.
A Thorough Account of the Spouses’ Finances
An important requirement of prenups is that both spouses must disclose all their assets and income as well as all their debts and liabilities.
Sufficient Time and Lack of Coercion
Both spouses should have enough time to read through and analyze all parts of the agreement. If, say, one spouse is rushing the other, this may later become grounds to argue that the prenup was flawed and potentially manipulated by the hurrying partner in its execution.
In the Garden State, the Uniform Premarital and Pre-Civil Union Agreement Act codified into law all the contractual requirements of prenups. However, it does not apply to agreements between registered domestic partners or partners who are living together but have not gotten traditionally married. Given these cases, and if a prenup is of interest, spouses should use another type of legal agreement to modify domestic partnership rights and monitor each other’s obligations.
How Can a Prenup Benefit My Marriage in NJ?
Prenups provide married couples with a number of benefits.
For one, they help protect each spouse’s premarital assets and financial interests from the doctrine of equitable distribution. Regarding divorce law, New Jersey is known as an equitable distribution state, meaning that marital property isn’t divided 50/50 in a divorce. Instead, courts distribute marital assets according to their conclusion on what is fair (but not necessarily). Prenups can help prevent each spouse from having control over what happens with their own property should the couple later consider divorce.
So we see that prenups help primarily by outlining for the couple what can be expected in property division. That’s why prenups are also used to determine other important information, such as each spouse’s rights and obligations.
By clarifying all these details ahead of time, prenups can also help avoid a future divorce and the lengthy legal battles that can come with divorce. This is especially useful in high net worth divorces.
