Remarrying can bring a renewed sense of joy to your life – not to mention financial baggage that you did not have the first time. Whether your or your new partner’s previous relationship ended due to divorce or death, you may be entering into this marriage with a range of assets, debts and other financial obligations and, quite possibly, children who may need support now or in the future. For more information on the financial considerations of remarriage in New Jersey, please read on, then contact one of our experienced prenuptial agreement attorneys in Bergen County, NJ. When contemplating the financial considerations of remarriage in New Jersey, you should:
Assess the risk
As unromantic as it sounds, you may want to determine if your new partner poses a financial risk. To determine the level of risk, you should examine whether your new partner:
- Has an addiction to gambling or drugs
- Has frequent interactions with the IRS over tax returns
- Owns a business or wants to start one and expects you to help finance it
- Has debts, i.e. credit cards, student loans and other obligations
Consider a legal agreement
Again, this undoubtedly sounds like the epitome of unromantic gestures, but if you and your new partner have not tied the knot, you should consider creating a prenuptial agreement. A prenuptial agreement, or “prenup,” can spell out who receives what in the event of a divorce as well as the handling of finances during the marriage, including:
- Outlining whether you and your spouse will commingle your income for household bills
- Ensuring a future inheritance remains solely yours or your children’s
If you have already gotten married, you may still consider a post-nuptial agreement.
Update your will and beneficiaries
To ensure that your assets end up where you intend, you will need to update your will as well as the beneficiaries on retirement accounts, life insurance policies and the like. Please bear in mind that those beneficiary designations supersede any intention stated in your will. You will have to take extra steps if you want your children from a previous marriage to take ownership of a particular asset at your death instead of your new spouse. In the Garden State, spouses, registered domestic partners and civil union partners will automatically inherit everything when a person dies intestate, i.e. without a will.
Address long-term goals and concerns
Couples marrying at a later age may want to consider how either spouse would handle the cost of long-term care if either spouse needs help with daily living activities. Additionally, you should identify your shared goals and visions for the future.
For more information, please reach out to one of our skilled Bergen County marital agreement attorneys today.
Contact our experienced Bergen County firm
To speak with our team of family law lawyers today, please contact us online, or through our Hackensack, NJ office at (201) 397-1750.
