A prenuptial agreement is a legal agreement entered into between two people before they 
are married that that can cover a wide variety of issues centered on property rights and assets. In addition to the traditional role that most people think of (dictating the division and distribution of a variety of physical assets and setting terms for any required spousal maintenance at divorce), pre-nups can also cover death, incapacity, estate planning, student debt, spousal support and a variety of other legal issues including the division and attribution of income earned during marriage.”
What is the purpose of a prenuptial agreement?
There are many, but “one of the main reasons to sign a prenup is to deviate from what the law would provide in the event of a divorce. People often want to protect their assets from distribution and a prenup is the obvious answer. There are other reasons that might not come to mind as quickly [such as] if one party has a child from a prior marriage — it can be important to have a prenup so that the parent can support that child with marital income. Another reason has to do with the fact that divorce laws vary state by state. If you live somewhere that has laws of equitable distribution but you may move to a community property state, it is important to protect your assets and set how they will be distributed.
Often people want a prenup so they can keep what they brought into the marriage, which the law typically already protects — it’s when financial assets get commingled that things get complicated.
Buying a house together with just one person’s money is commingling. Starting a business together using one person’s capital is commingling. Moving money around more than a few times can even qualify as commingling. The longer you’ve been married, the more you are likely to commingle your assets [and have] non-marital assets turn into marital and, thus, divisible assets.
Prenups are not just for rich people. Typically, you think of a prenuptial agreement as being for those individuals with substantial means to protect. This isn’t always the case anymore, and in fact, many millennial clients hire lawyers to assist them with a prenup to protect them from their future spouse’s student debt and visa versa. Even though these individuals may have significant earning potential, they realize that they should each be responsible for their own student loans. The best part is that these couples have discussed their financial situations in great detail before hiring attorneys to draft a prenup, so there are no unpleasant surprises.
Steven W. Hair, focuses his practice as a divorce attorney, family law attorney in Clearwater, Palm Harbor, and Safety Harbor.
For more information, visit our website at www.FamilyLawClearwater.com
or call (727) 726-0797.