There is no denying that prenuptial agreements have a bad reputation, but this is not necessarily warranted. While some people who enter into prenuptial agreements (which are simply legal contracts) are guided by jaded reasons, most have legitimate reasons for doing so.
The most important point to make is that having a prenup in place in no way means that your marriage is more likely to end in divorce. If it does, however, your financial rights may be better protected. Discuss your divorce-related concerns with an experienced Belton divorce attorney today.
What Your Prenuptial Agreement Realistically Can Do
Your prenuptial agreement can address all of the following matters (but the protections provided are only as strong as the prenuptial agreement itself):
Each party’s rights and obligations as they relate to specific properties that either or both own (regardless of when the properties are acquired or where they are located)
Each party’s rights regarding the purchase, sale, transfer, use, exchange, lease, abandon, assignment, or management and control of a specific property
How property will be addressed upon any specific event, such as separation, divorce, death, or the occurrence (or even nonoccurrence) of any other event specified
The modification of or the elimination of spousal maintenance
The creation of a will, trust, or another legal arrangement that carries out the provisions in the premarital arrangement
The ownership rights as they relate to the disposition of death benefits from a specific life insurance policy
The law chosen to govern the prenuptial agreement’s construction and disposition
Any other matters, including the parties’ personal rights and obligations, as long as the issues involved are not in violation of public policy and there is no related statute that imposes a criminal penalty
To put this more simply, your prenuptial agreement can identify separate property that will not be split between you in the event of divorce, can authorize the management and control of said property, can explicitly require or exclude spousal maintenance (alimony), can choose which state will oversee the implementation of the prenuptial agreement regardless of where it was enacted or where you live at the time it is called into action, and – finally – can include any terms that are important to either of you, as long as they are not illegal and do not violate public policy.
What Your Prenuptial Agreement Cannot Do
Other than matters that are illegal or that violate public policy, the only marriage-related issues that your prenuptial agreement cannot address are child custody and child support terms, unless the child support terms included are more generous and expansive than the state’s own guidelines.