A prenuptial agreement is a contract formed between partners who intend to marry with provisions for the protection of their separate assets and the division of their anticipated marital assets should the marriage end in a legal separation, divorce, or death. A prenuptial agreement outlines many aspects of the marriage, including each spouse’s financial obligations and expectations as well as provisions for asset dispersal. But how does a prenuptial agreement affect future children of the relationship or children from former relationships? Call our Denver prenuptial agreement lawyers for a free consultation today.
When one person entering a marriage has children from a previous marriage or relationship, they may wish to protect their child’s inheritance rights by including financial protections in the prenuptial agreement. Without these protections, the state’s intestacy laws could disperse assets in a way that doesn’t align with the decedent’s wishes if they die without a will or estate plan. A valid, enforceable prenuptial agreement clarifies separate property and protects a child’s inheritance rights by keeping property intact rather than allowing it to become a marital asset subject to division during a divorce or disbursement to a spouse after death. For more information on your unique case, call our Denver family law firm today.
A prenup may also include a provision protecting one spouse’s income from the other spouse’s child support obligation for children from a previous relationship.
One of the main reasons for creating and signing a prenuptial agreement is to avoid court should the marriage end in divorce. While both partners might already have firm beliefs about how they would handle child custody for future children should the marriage end, they cannot address these issues in a prenuptial agreement. Courts make all family court decisions in a child’s best interests. Upholding this standard requires the court to evaluate the circumstances at the time of the divorce before signing the divorcing spouses’ parenting time agreement into custody orders or making a legal decision in a contested child custody case.
The reasons for prohibiting child custody provisions from prenuptial agreements are clear. For example, suppose the spouses agree on 50/50 custody of their children before they have them and before the marriage. Then, years later, one spouse files for divorce due to the other spouse’s domestic abuse or chronic addiction. Upholding a child custody provision made before the child was born in this case would not be in the child’s best interest.
Some couples may wish to include provisions for child support for their future children in a prenuptial agreement. For example, if one spouse is a low-earner and the other has billions of dollars in their accounts, one or both spouses may wish to waive the lower earner’s obligation for child support should they one day separate or divorce. This type of provision isn’t enforceable.
The court considers it the obligation of both parents to support their children. More importantly, circumstances may have changed at the time of a divorce. A billionaire could lose their wealth or a court could overturn the agreement if it doesn’t uphold the court’s standard of deciding in the best interests of the child.
Colorado’s formula for calculating child support is based on the income and parenting time responsibilities of each parent at the time the divorce occurs.
It’s critical to have a prenuptial agreement drafted by an attorney with both parties represented by legal counsel. A contract that’s binding and enforceable must meet the state’s requirements, including any provisions for future children or the protection of a child’s inheritance rights. Call Ciancio Ciancio Brown, P.C. to talk about how a prenuptial agreement could work for you and your fiancé.
