If you’re like a growing number of Americans, you and your spouse put a prenuptial agreement in place before you married. California residents often get them because they can override community property requirements for property division agreements in divorce.
Your prenup likely addresses things like how your assets and debt will be divided if the marriage ends, which assets you brought into the marriage that you want to keep in divorce, how inheritances are to be handled and possibly even alimony (spousal support) requirements.
If your marriage has been going along fine for a number of years, you may have almost forgotten about your prenup or maybe even assumed that it expired. (Note: They don’t expire unless a couple includes a sunset provision.)
What circumstances may warrant a postnuptial agreement?
That means the terms of your prenup (assuming they’re fair and legally valid) would be upheld if you divorced – even if they don’t reflect your current financial situation or your lives. For example, maybe you started a highly successful business or have a far higher income than you’d ever imagined. Maybe your spouse decided to stop working outside the home to raise the children.
Those are just a couple of things that could warrant updating your prenup. While technically, you can’t modify a prenup after you’re married (as the name suggests), you can replace it with a postnuptial agreement.
A postnup can also be wise if one spouse has accrued a considerable amount of debt that the other doesn’t want to be responsible for if the marriage ended. Postnups can also be valuable if a spouse has become disabled or seriously ill and unable to work or if one spouse contributed substantially to an in-law’s care or education.
It’s best to get a postnup while things are going smoothly
Whether divorce isn’t something you can even imagine or one or both of you are beginning to give it some thought, it’s always smart to at least review the terms of your prenup occasionally, ensure that they still reflect your lives and, if necessary, replace this agreement with a postnup that is agreeable and fair to both of you and will hold up in court if it has to.
It’s best to do this while your marriage is on solid ground rather than wait until things get contentious. Things can change unexpectedly at any time. As with a prenup, it’s critical that each spouse has their own legal representative when dealing with any marital agreement to protect their rights and interests.