Hello, my name is Brian L. Jackson. I’m a Tulsa Father’s Rights attorney. Today we’re going to talk about prenuptial agreements. What are they? What are they used for? Well, a prenuptial agreement is basically more or less a contract you enter into with a prospective spouse prior to marriage, i.e., prenuptial. Now what they can do for you is it can protect your assets. For example, let’s say you’re getting married, and let’s say you’re a doctor. You have a thriving practice. You’re making good money that you got that established on your own before you got married. Well, you may want to enter into a prenuptial agreement before you get married in the event that the marriage doesn’t work out. And statistically, I’m sorry to say, but a lot of marriages don’t work out. The statistics are not in your favor in that regard, which isn’t a reason necessarily not to get married, but it is a reason to protect yourself.
So you may want to look at a pretended prenuptial agreement that would make certain provisions for what happens to your practice in that scenario if the worst should happen. When you should look at a prenuptial agreement is if you have assets that are your assets going into a marriage that you don’t want to end up in the marital pool if you get divorced. That’s when you do it. Also, if you are a high earner, if you’re a doctor, you’re a lawyer, any of that kind of thing where you make a good salary, you may want to do a prenuptial agreement as to the issue of alimony. Alimony is basically spousal support. It’s support for your ex-spouse, and the court can enter an order like that if there’s a significant disparity between what you were making and what she’s making. It is equitable relief, and the courts can consider it if you have that kind of a disparity as part of divorce proceedings.
So, that’s another reason to do a prenup; if you want to avoid that or minimize your exposure, do a prenup. What you can’t do with prenups, prenuptial agreements can not control child custody or child support because that’s deemed to be something that has to be determined based on what’s in the best interest of the children at the time. And so you can’t contract that away. But you can deal with property and debt that way. Another reason you might look into it is to say she’s got significant student loan debts you don’t want to be on the hook for. But, yes, if you do have assets, you have a high income, any of those kinds of scenarios going into a marriage definitely get a prenup. If you feel like you are interested in a prenup or want to talk about it, give me a call. I can help you out. Again, my name is Brian L. Jackson. I am a Tulsa Father’s Rights attorney, and we’ve been talking about prenuptial agreements.