Marital Agreements
Marital Agreements for New York
Marital or post marital agreements are contracts entered soon after the marriage takes place, but before the couples seek no fault divorce. The main motive of these agreements is to protect interests of both the parties by furnishing them with income source and property, in event of annulment or death of the partner.
Marital contracts contain details regarding the custody of children, child support, freedom to waive the inheritance rights, furnishing a definite amount for particular duration, in case of no fault divorce, distribution of property.
The major difference between marital and pre nuptial agreements is that, the partners know each other's fiduciary assets or other confidential matters, which spouses can know only after marriage. When the couple marries, they become fiduciary of each other. Therefore, due to faith in one’s partner and by considering that neither of the spouses will take unfair undue advantage of each other, they enter a marital contract to safeguard their rights.
Marital contracts are usually made when couples fail to execute prenuptial agreements. While writing the prenuptial agreements, individuals need to be aware of their rights and note that they do not waive off anything minor. Thus, these contracts are extremely important since they are helpful during no fault divorce.
Other Considerations Of Marital Contracts:
If individuals file for a no fault divorce and they have the marital agreements, the divorce procedure dose not become lengthy. However, usually, people sign the marital contracts after their marriage and later, buy more properties and earn more income through various sources. It is not possible to mention all this in marital contracts, until and unless people renew their agreements.
Thus, unlike prenuptial agreements, the New York county court scrutinizes the post marital contract more carefully before granting no fault divorce. The judge regards such contracts to be of higher standard in terms of fairness as compared to the pre nuptials. In addition, during court proceeding for no fault divorce, prenuptials have lesser negotiating power than marital contracts.
In no fault divorce, individuals obtain annulment when no one is at fault. However, this does not necessarily mean that the couples cannot fight for their rights or simply obey the marital agreements.
Thus, it is no more a surprising factor when a spouse suggests the partner that they need to sign a marital agreement, because may be weeks or few years later, they may opt for a fault or no fault divorce.