As we enter the traditional “wedding season,” it is a good time to consider how individual property rights can be changed by major life events.
Many clients come to our firm for Prenuptial Agreements and Community Property Agreements.
The first way that legal rights can be altered is through a Prenuptial Agreement, better known as a “Prenup.” The basic idea of a prenuptial agreement is that the two engaged parties enter into a written contract, which governs how certain property or other interests will be handled during the marriage or in the event of a divorce.
The most common instance when people want a Prenuptial Agreement is when one party enters the marriage with significant assets and the other has very little. The party with the assets wants to protect themselves from being left in a divorce and out a lot of money. The most common prenuptial agreements spell out very specifically that “separate property” (meaning assets from before the marriage) are off limits to the other spouse in a divorce. However, there are many other provisions that can be included in a prenuptial agreement based upon the specific needs of the parties.
Washington State is a community property state, which means that all earnings accumulated during the marriage are owned by the married couple. One of our clients came to us wanting a Prenuptial Agreement because he had previous obligations to support both of his parents who were living on a different continent. That client was able to contract that a certain percentage of his earnings would go directly to his parents, and not be community property.
In order to have a valid Prenuptial Agreement, there needs to be independent legal counsel for both parties entering the agreement. That means that the party who did not draft the contract must have their own attorney to help them review the contract. This is extremely valuable because their attorney will advise them of their individual rights and what the proposed contract means for them. If necessary, the attorney can help them negotiate a fairer contract in response to the one proposed.
Another important consideration to have a valid Prenuptial Agreement is that the contract must be completed and delivered in plenty of time before the wedding, so the party who receives the contract is not under intense pressure to sign very close to the wedding date. Therefore, it is important to approach an attorney months before the wedding date in order to execute a prenuptial agreement in a fair process.
On the flip side, a Community Property Agreement is when two parties agree that any assets that either of them have accumulated in the past or will accumulate in the future will all be treated as community property, and therefore owned by the parties and delivered on death to the surviving spouse. This is most commonly seen when one party owned a large asset such as the family home, which they now feel comfortable owning equally with their spouse.
At Benjamin Law Group, we handle both types of parties to the prenuptial agreement. We can either help someone draft the agreement to their specific needs or we can counsel someone as to their rights and options when they are presented with one by their partner. We can also assist with a Community Property Agreement, where we are able to draft the agreement and represent both parties.
