If you’ve already gotten married and didn’t want to bring up a prenuptial agreement, all is not lost. You can still protect your assets if you decide to go through with a post-nuptial agreement. Things change during marriages, from your finances to your career paths, so protecting your interests isn’t necessarily a bad thing. A post-nuptial agreement can affect you and your spouse, so it’s important to come up with one that is fair and all-encompassing.
Your post-nuptial agreement can determine who is responsible for which debts in your marriage, to create a waiver that states your spouse won’t be entitled to your retirement accounts if you divorce and even to describe how your assets will be split in the case of your death or divorce.
The agreement can create a balance in your marriage, and it doesn’t have to be viewed negatively. Instead of seeing it as a trust issue, use a post-nuptial agreement to make sure you’re both making good decisions now. You could add clauses dictating what happens if your spouse cheats or if you cheat on your spouse, determine what happens to income you receive through lottery winnings and so on.
Your post-nuptial agreement is about more than just saying what you want to protect, it’s about protecting your spouse, too. Take for example student loans. In a marriage, any student loans you accrue are shared debts. If you accrued them before marriage, they’re separate. If you want to guarantee that they stay separate regardless of when they’re accrued, then a post-nuptial agreement is for you. Your attorney can help you and your spouse draft one that works for both of you. Our website has more on these important documents.
