HAMMELMAN LAW

Pre-Marital Agreements are increasingly more common with the rate of subsequent marriages on the rise and with the age at which people are getting married rising. Contrary to what movies would have you believe, these are rarely contentious. Couples usually have a shared goal of making sure assets they have worked long and hard for are protected from shared liability and also kept for any children that they may not legally share with the other spouse.

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Pre-Martial Agreements can be useful in many other situations as well, though.

• Large income disparities between the parties

• Spouses agree that one spouse will stay home to raise children and will be compensated for that upon divorce or separation

• Inheritance expected from one side of the family

• Spouses do not legally share any or all children

• One or both of the spouses has debts or expects to incur debt that the other does not want to take on

• One or both of the spouses would like to insulate assets for:

  • Estate planning purposes

  • Due to a prior divorce settlement 

  • As required by a Revocable Living Trust with an ex or deceased spouse