Many people think the hardest part of a premarital agreement is asking their partner to sign one. However, the most challenging part may be deciding what to include in the contract. It is usually wise to have an idea of what you want in the agreement even before asking your soon-to-be spouse to sign one. Knowing what you want in your contract can provide a way to start talking about it, and can also help you explain why you want one to your partner.
Issues to Include in Your Premarital Agreement
Premarital agreements are mainly used to address any property division issues that may arise in the event of divorce. The most common issues to address in a premarital agreement are as follows:
- Providing children from previous marriages with certain assets
- Defining the owner of a business
- Division of retirement benefits
- Outlining separate and marital property
- Division of debts
- Defining the spouse to receive maintenance and the amount
- Division of joint accounts
- Division of household expenses
- Division of savings account
- The cost of higher education for either spouse and how that cost is divided after divorce
Understanding the items you want to include in your premarital agreement is a good start. Once you know which items you want to include, you can then take it one step further.
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