Whether you have a billion-dollar singing voice like Beyoncé or dreamed up a little company called Amazon, you may have premarital assets you need to protect. You promise to love and honor and all that, but can your spouse promise to keep hands off your assets? In Virginia, you can safeguard your private property with the help of a prenuptial agreement.
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Protecting Assets Prior to Marriage
Nobody has a crystal ball. Nobody can foretell the future. Beyoncé’s prenuptial contract (all prenuptial agreements, or prenups, are marital contracts) reveals her business savvy.
Knowing part of her fame is her sex appeal and body image, the singer stipulated in her prenup that she would receive $5 million for each child she has with husband Jay-Z. Pregnancy and childbirth could have taken a toll on Queen Bay’s physique. The $15 million (from three kids) makes a soft cushion if she falls from the charts.
A prenup protects what you already have — like golden pipes — while also shielding you from future, unknown problems — like a postpartum paunch. It can be written very broadly, but most people use the contract to define and fence off their separate property:
- Intellectual property — For example, songs either Jay-Z or Beyoncé write and record
- Real estate — Beyoncé bought a three-bedroom corner condominium in New York City three years before marriage; when she sold it in 2017, the $4.95 million profit was, legally, all hers
- Vehicles — Together, the power couple has a multimillion-dollar car collection, but the 1959 Rolls Royce Beyoncé got as a gift from Jay-Z in 2006, before marrying him, is hers alone
We could go on, but Queen Bay’s possessions are overwhelming (they also have a yacht, a private jet, and several mansions; yawn). The point is, a simple legal agreement can protect your premarital assets, no matter how valuable they are. If your marriage dissolves, you stay solvent. You keep what you brought to the table. Other areas of property you may have before marriage:
- Inheritance
- Patents and royalties
- Gifts
- Stocks and bonds
- Retirement, savings, and bank accounts
- Awards from lawsuits
- Winnings from gambling and lotteries
Protect Your Prenup
A prenup is the best way to protect assets before a marriage, but even a prenup can be ruled invalid if either you or your future spouse do something amiss:
- Be honest — Do not attempt to hide assets in your process of safeguarding them; list everything you want to identify as your separate property
- Be gentle — Do not compel your future spouse to sign the prenup
- Be reasonable — A prenup that is ruled “unconscionable” is void; having cruel or ridiculous clauses makes the entire contract unconscionable
- Be clean and sober — Both of you need to sign the prenup without any alcohol or drugs clouding your minds
- Be formal — A spoken agreement or a cocktail napkin will not convince a judge of the solemnity of your contract; engage a family law attorney to draft the papers, then sign them
The Postnuptial Agreement
You cannot get a prenup after marriage, but you can get a postnup — a postnuptial agreement that retroactively shields your personal property. The advantage of a postnup is that you can define both spouse’s separate assets (from before the marriage) and stipulate the disposition of marital property.
Many couples sign postnups when one of them “hits it big,” by winning a lottery, snagging a Nobel Prize, or penning a New York Times bestseller. The postnup can improve marital harmony and clarify an exit strategy, should the marriage fail.
Hire An Experienced Family Law Attorney
In drafting either a prenup or a postnup, your attorney has to know the legal way to do it correctly. As we hinted at briefly above, tiny errors could lead you to forfeit your personal property in a divorce. Both contracts can be challenged by either spouse and ruled invalid by a Virginia court.
To adequately protect assets owned before marriage, get a marital contract (prenup or postnup) written by an experienced family law attorney. The attorney will represent only one of you, so your spouse could enlist another attorney. But the security, peace of mind, and financial stability of your lives may depend on the document, so be willing to spend a little to save a lot later.
The Firm For Men works unceasingly to help Virginia’s men in all areas of family law. From prenuptial agreements to property settlement agreements, we can help protect your assets and your financial security. Contact us today or phone our Virginia Beach office right now at (757) 383-9184.
