Postnuptial Agreements are much like prenuptial agreement – they are marital contract where the husband and wife divide their marital assets.
However, as opposed to a prenuptial agreement which is made prior to marriage, the postnuptial agreement is made during marriage.
Although less common than prenuptial agreement, a postnuptial agreement is used to divide marital property in a similar fashion to the prenuptial agreement.
In the case of the postnuptial agreement, a married couple will have jointly held “marital” property.
A common marital property example is a home. The marital home belongs to both the husband and the wife. However, the parties may have gotten married with different assets which belonged solely to one or the other.
When the people were married, the pre-marital property because “marital” property under the law and both of the owned it. A postnuptial agreement can be utilized to set-out that a certain piece of property (like a house) belongs solely to the husband or wife.
Utilizing a postnuptial agreement ensures that if a divorce or death takes place, the property in the agreement belongs solely to the husband or wife. Without the agreement, the property would need to be divided by a court in the case of a divorce.
In the example of the house, the husband and the wife would each own 50% and it would, therefore, need to be divided. This is not the case is a postnuptial agreement is used.
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