Premarital agreements can be very useful from an estate planning perspective. This is particularly true for people who are entering into second or third marriages after having children from previous marriages.
If you simply allow all assets that you bring into the marriage to become community resources you are doing nothing to protect the interests of your children. There are no guarantees with regard to what your spouse would choose to do with the assets if you were to die first.
He or she could remarry, and your children may not necessarily have the best relationship with your spouse.
By entering into a prenuptial agreement you are maintaining ownership of your own personal resources. As a result you have the power to make sure that your children will receive inheritances regardless of happens in the future.
While most people are well aware of the fact that premarital agreements exist you can also enter into a post-marital agreement. This type of agreement can accomplish something similar.
You and your spouse may have no intentions of separating, but you may not agree with regard to how to distribute the family’s assets as you are engaged in the process of estate planning. This lack of concurrence can be resolved by entering into a post-marital agreement that divides the property between the two individuals involved.
Each person can then go forward and make independent estate planning decisions. Both parties would be content with their respective choices and the disagreements would come to an end.
Mr. Kraft assists clients primarily in the areas of estate planning and administration, Medicaid planning, federal and state taxation, real estate and corporate law, bringing the added perspective of an accounting background to his work.
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