Navigating Prenups and Postnups: Safeguard Your Future Today

prenuptial agreements AKA prenups are a contract between parties to determine how to end their marriage however the beauty of a prenup is it’s done before the parties get married what happens when you fill out a prenup you go see a trusted advisor an attorney and you bring all your asset information with you a document will be drafted and that document will have the following in it all of the assets and debts that the parties are bringing into the relationship ship at the time of marriage it would also have a valuation of those assets the parties can then decide whether or not they agree with the valuation of those assets because they’ve been disclosed if you have a prenup all assets have to be disclosed for it to be a valid prenup if not the prenup can be set aside what happens when the prenup is signed is that the prenup becomes a contract between the parties and that enables the parties if they separate to know what the separation will be when the prenup is filed with the court during a divorce that’s what the judge decides is the allocation of the assets and debts between the parties the way you enforce a prenup is that you file it with the court and you ask for it to be enforced typically this is called a motion to enforce a settlement agreement the prenup is the settlement agreement because it was done before the relationship started if the judge decides to enforce the prenup then that will actually be the resolution of the divorce between the parties the way a prenup can be contested is if the parties are able to show one that all the assets were not disclosed or two that the assets that were disclosed were not properly valued what it means is that if one party has taken advantage of another party by not disclosing the assets at all or undervaluing the assets a judge can make a determination to set the prenup aside if a judge decides to set the prenup aside then what happens is that a regular divorce proceeding would happen what that means is that all of the assets of the parties in the marriage would be subject to Equitable Division if a prenup was valid then those assets would not be subject to Equitable division what is a postnuptial or a postnup a postnup is a contract that the parties come up with during the marriage about how they want to end the marriage however postnups can be tricky the reason why is because there’s certain things that cannot be settled between parties in a postn one thing is child support child support has to be determined by Court what a postnup can decide is asset allocation between the parties if that is done then that will be enforcable by a judge if it’s brought before the court when constructing a postnup it needs to be understood what the assets are that the parties is separating and how they’re going going to be separated what cannot be done is determinations of custody or child support those matters have to be decided by a judge they cannot be decided by a postnup because a postnup in actuality is just a contract that the parties agree to how they’re going to separate up assets after they’re divorced that can involve property that can involve 401ks it can involve frequent flyer miles we’ve had clients that have argued over animals in postnups we’ve had clients that have argued over settlements of personal injury cases in postnups we’ve had clients which have argued many different things to put in a postnup and want to have them valid postup shows can be difficult to enforce so it’s best to work with a trusted advisor to make sure that the postup is legal and will be binding when it’s presented to the court because certain things can’t be decided in a postnup such as child support child custody etc those are not postup show issues so if they’re written in a postup the postup will not be valid if you have any questions about prenups or postnups don’t hesitate to give us a call we’re here for you when you need us