Spelling Out Marital Property Rights in Advance
The division of marital property can be one the most difficult issues to resolve in a divorce. For this reason, many people who bring significant assets to a marriage seek a lawyer's help to spell out property rights in advance through a prenuptial agreement.
At the law firm of Anne-Louise DePalo in Dongan Hills, Staten Island, New York, I help clients draft both prenuptial and postnuptial agreements. Prenuptial refers to agreements you enter into before marriage and postnuptial refers to agreements you enter into while you are married. Either type of agreement allows you to determine how martial property will be divided and whether "alimony", called maintenance, should be paid in the event of a future divorce.
There are several situations where a prenuptial agreement makes sense:
- If you have separate property such as an inheritance, a family business or real estate that you wish to preserve as separate property
- If you are entering a second marriage and want to protect the estate rights of your children from a first marriage
- If you and your spouse have drastic differences in income and you do not want to share all the assets equally in case of a divorce.
Married couples may draft postnuptial agreements when they are having disputes over property or a business venture and wish to work out an agreement now before those issues lead to a divorce. Since debts are also divided in the event of divorce, a postnuptial agreement can be used to protect one spouse from a debt incurred by the other spouse.
Prenuptial and postnuptial agreements are enforceable in New York as long as there is full disclosure of assets and the spouse signing the agreement was not coerced and was given a right to retain his or her own attorney.
To schedule an attorney consultation to discuss a prenuptial or postnuptial agreement: Call 718-351-3748 or fill out the contact form on this Web site. My law office is located on 94 Hancock Street in Dongan Hills, Staten Island, New York
