Before Your Marriage

Marriage involves both a personal and economic relationship between the husband and wife. While we are not marriage counselors, we can help you understand the legal impact your marriage may have on your financial circumstances including your income, expenses, assets and debts and the impact it may have on the custody and visitation arrangements of your children.

Pre-Nuptial Agreements

There are often financial concerns prior to a new marriage. The most common situations that cause concern are when one spouse owns or earns considerably more than the other and when one spouse anticipates inheriting or receiving considerable property or income from a family member or family business. Pre-nuptial agreements are agreements the couple enter into before the marriage that address how financial issues will be handled if the spouses later separate or divorce. The most common goals of pre-marital agreements are to protect their pre-marital assets from being divided in the divorce proceedings and to reduce the possibility of the wealthier spouse from having to pay alimony in the event of a divorce or separation. For those who want to protect their assets and income, we can help you determine the financial risks of the new marriage, help you decide on the most appropriate ways to reduce those risks, write an agreement designed to implement your decisions and coordinate the review and signing of the agreement by your future spouse prior to the marriage. For those who have been asked to sign a pre-nuptial agreement, we can review the agreement with you, explain the effects of the agreement including what legal rights you may be giving up, suggest changes to the agreement that would make it more favorable to you and help you decide whether to sign the agreement.

Asset Protection Counseling

Many people considering marriage, especially if it is their second marriage or later in life, have substantial assets that they are bringing into the marriage. For these individuals, protecting those assets if the marriage fails is a very big concern before and during the marriage. If this is a concern for you, we can help you understand the steps you need to take before and during your marriage to protect those pre-marital assets and increase the chances that you retain sole ownership and possession of them if you later get divorced.

Custody and Visitation Counseling

A new marriage affects your children as well as your wallet. A new marriage changes every aspect of daily life for you and your children. Sometimes those daily changes may impact the current custody and visitation arrangement you have with your children. Relocating is one obvious change that will impact that custody and visitation relationship, but others may be less obvious. If your new marriage or the new marriage of your former spouse will involve changes or adjustments that you feel may affect your children, you need to talk to an attorney to determine what steps, if any, you can take to protect you and your children. We can help you identify potential areas of concern, explain how the law applies to your situation, evaluate your options and decide what steps you need to take next to protect your best interests and the best interests of your children.
.