Daniel J. Kollias has experience in family law, estate planning and business law. This expertise underpins our desire to draft effective marriage contracts that fully protect your rights. If you are considering preparing a prenuptial agreement in Cook, DuPage or Kane County, or if you have been presented with a proposed prenuptial agreement and would like a full assessment by an experienced attorney before signing, we are ready to help. “There are absolute peculiarities and unique aspects of post-nups in every state,” says Josh King of Avvo. “As in every state, there are unique features of family law in all its provisions. However, there is a fairly consistent theme that both parties must be represented by a lawyer. If you`re a party that wants to set up a post-nup, you`d better make sure it`s really buttoned up – that you have a calendar for assets, that you have nothing hidden, and that both parties are represented by a lawyer. “Provisions contained in a prenuptial agreement that relate to custody or child support are not enforceable, nor are provisions that attempt to regulate common aspects of the conjugal relationship. [9] Regardless of whether you have decided after marriage that certain protective measures are warranted, or if you are insured after your stay at home that you will be taken care of in the event of divorce, you should consider a marriage contract. It`s not for everyone, but it can be very effective in some cases. Learn more about the postnups of an experienced family law lawyer in your area.
“By being married, you`ve already made a deal,” says Meghan Freed, a family lawyer who practices at Freed Marcroft in Hartford, Connecticut. “Many people don`t realize it, so there`s an understandable desire to expose it, to express their common understanding of what a person`s death or the end of marriage would mean.” Marriage comes with a kind of default agreement – a set of responsibilities and rights already enshrined in state law, such as the right to obtain an equitable distribution of marital property in the event of divorce or to receive spousal support. Post-nups are a way to change marriage preferences to suit a couple`s individual needs and situation. This form of personalization can be appealing to today`s millennials, who are reaching marriage age after growing up in a world where they can customize everything from their college major to the media choices they consume to the lunch they order. However, some issues, such as child custody or child support, may not be resolved through prenuptial arrangements. An experienced lawyer can help clients understand all the benefits and limitations of these contracts and draft an agreement that is both binding and comprehensive. The preparation of a marriage contract has no time limit. As long as your agreement meets California legal requirements, the courts will consider it valid, regardless of the length of your marriage. In fact, post-marital agreements are more common among couples who have been married for years, as they better understand how much each party must win or lose. When asked if there was anything she would have liked to have done differently during post-nup negotiations, she replied that it was important to have “an emotional opinion,” perhaps as important as objective legal advice.
“If I could have done it, I would have liked to call someone who had a post-nup and say, hey, did it come back to bite your butt? Did you feel that was right? And just listen to some kind of more personal narrative about it. I think that would have been useful information. The couple is aware that the fact that they have created their own post-nup, without lawyers, can make them vulnerable if one of them challenges it in divorce proceedings. “I feel pretty confident,” Krista says, “but it`s mostly based on knowing ben and me. We are not quarrelsome. If and when they change their agreement, they will “definitely” hire lawyers, Krista says. Family law lawyers say that couples looking for post-nups often fall into certain main categories. Many people create post-nups to modify an existing pre-nup that has become obsolete or even unfair over the years. “You really see post-nups saying, `I`m cutting back. I will tell you more.
Because you were so awesome,” says Tom Kretchmar, a marriage lawyer at the Manhattan law firm of Chemtob, Moss and Forman. “There were a lot of moving parts and different factors that we combined in our marriage,” Ben says. Their post-marital or post-nup contract allowed them to have a marriage on their own terms. “We wanted to be guided by this agreement,” says Krista. “An understanding that we shared, in a formal sense, but also knowing that it was something we could change.” Presumably, there are still a lot of married celebrities and one percent with post-nups – there`s a rumor that Beyoncé and Jay Z have one that includes hefty fines for infidelity. And some evidence suggests that post-nups, like pre-nups a generation ago, could also be more widely accepted by the 99%. According to a 2015 survey by the American Association of Matrimonial Lawyers, an industry group, half of family lawyers nationwide reported an increase in client interest in post-nups over the past three years. The last major category of people looking for post-nups are relatively newly married couples who intended to sign a pre-nup and ran out of time. This describes Krista and Ben, who signed their post-nup during their first year of marriage after initially planning to sign a pre-nup.
Marriage contracts, including post-marital contracts, are often considered taboo or not in a spirit of love or camaraderie. Critics argue that such contracts suggest that the couple expects the marriage to fail. However, if a contract can solve financial problems, the couple may choose to make a deal in the hope of maintaining marital harmony. To be valid and enforceable, prenuptial agreements must meet at least the following basic requirements: There are generally three different but related types of prenuptial agreements in the United States today. “He kept saying, `Well, that would make my mom feel more comfortable,`” recalls Suzanna, who declined to give her last name for confidentiality reasons. The lawyer for her husband`s family drafted an agreement. At the time, Suzanna was a university professor and didn`t have the money to pay for her own lawyer. “They paid for my lawyer. The lawyer looked at him and said that everything was fine, that there was nothing to fear,” she recalls.
In exchange for an agreement that the inherited business and any future assets that might flow from it would not be considered matrimonial property in the event of divorce, the Post-nup Suzanna offered a sum of money that was paid over a period of time. .
