Marital Agreements

Marital Agreements

Bergen County Marital Agreement Attorneys

Experienced Marital Agreement Lawyers in New Jersey

Even though marriage legally ties a couple’s finances and rights together, there are a variety of reasons why couples may wish to create some form of a marital agreement. Furthermore, although commonly referred to as “marital agreements”, these agreements can be especially beneficial to couples who choose to remain unmarried. Whether you are seeking to create, contest, or validate a prenuptial agreementpostnuptial agreement, or a non-marital agreement,

the most important step you can take towards a successful resolution is to retain the counsel of an experienced Bergen County marital agreement attorney. Not only is it a requirement for each party entering into a marital agreement to retain separate legal representation, but having an experienced attorney on your side can be invaluable when it comes to ensuring the issues you and your partner wish to address are done so correctly and accurately, and that any marital agreement you enter into is fair, legally binding, and representative of your best interests. At Townsend, Tomaio & Newmark, our family law attorneys have extensive experience helping clients to draft fair and accurate marital agreements, contest marital agreements when they were improperly created, and uphold marital agreements when their validity comes into question. Call our office to discuss your unique needs and concerns when it comes to any kind of marital agreement and the various issues they can raise in a free and confidential consultation with our attorney team today.

Prenuptial Agreement Attorneys

Perhaps the most common type of marital agreement, prenuptial agreements are signed between partners who are soon-to-be-married. Prenuptial agreements are generally created to protect whatever individually-owned assets either of the parties wishes to protect from equitable distribution in the event of a divorce, and can also lay the groundwork for how equitable distribution would be handled should the couple divorce. This not only greatly reduces the time and stress of a potential divorce, but it also allows each party to feel more secure entering into the complex legal and financial relationship that marriage is.

Most courts will view your relationship and your willingness to sign a prenuptial agreement as a business arrangement, done without some of the emotional compromises that may come with an agreement like a postnuptial agreement, for example. For this reason, it is much easier for the terms of a prenuptial agreement to be enforced should they come into question, given the couple who entered into the prenuptial agreement followed the necessary requirements for drafting a legal and enforceable prenuptial agreement. Those requirements are as follows:

  1. Each party entering into the prenuptial agreement must retain separate legal counsel, or expressly waive their right to counsel in writing
  2. Any assets mentioned in the prenuptial agreement must be accurately valued, and fully disclosed
  3. Each party must be given an appropriate amount of time to consider whether or not they wish to enter into the proposed prenuptial agreement
  4. There must be no evidence of manipulation, coercion, or threat by either of the parties towards the other when signing the prenuptial agreement

If you are considering entering into a prenuptial agreement, or are in need of contesting or validating the terms of an existing prenuptial agreement, our Ridgewood prenuptial agreement attorneys are prepared to provide you with the knowledgeable, effective, and insightful legal counsel that you need and deserve in such an important matter.

Postnuptial Agreement Attorneys

As the name suggests, postnuptial agreements are entered into after a couple has already married. For this reason, courts tend to view postnuptial agreements with a much more critical eye, as they understand that many times one party or the other may feel pressured to enter into a postnuptial agreement in order to keep the marriage together. While it certainly is possible to create a legal and binding postnuptial agreement, a great deal of care needs to be taken when doing so, especially when it comes to ensuring that there is no question of manipulation or coercion by either of the parties.

Postnuptial agreements address the same types of issues that prenuptial agreements do, including addressing which private assets are to be kept private in the event of a divorce and creating a plan for equitable distribution. Furthermore, postnuptial agreements have the same requirements as prenuptial agreements (which you can view above), but as already mentioned, most courts will take a much closer look at the motives and pressures faced by both parties who entered into the postnuptial agreement, should its validity come into question.

Non-Marital Agreement Lawyers

Non-marital agreements (also referred to as cohabitation agreements) address many of the same issues that prenuptial and postnuptial agreements address, but does so for couples who choose to remain unmarried. Importantly, cohabitation agreements may also grant certain rights to unmarried couples that are normally only associated with a marriage. These additional rights include:

  • The right to make advanced health care directive decisions
  • Add unmarried partners to health care and life insurance policies
  • Give power of attorney to one or both partners

As important as any prenuptial or postnuptial agreement can be, cohabitation agreements can often be even more so in order for the unmarried couple to enjoy a protected and legally empowered life while remaining unmarried.

Contact Our Hackensack Marital Agreement Lawyers Today

At Townsend, Tomaio & Newmark, our attorneys have extensive experience helping couples through any legal matter related to any kind of marital agreement in towns across Bergen County.

Our firm regularly works with expert financial consultants and advisers, and as such we are capable of helping you to ensure that any asset addressed in your marital agreement is accurately valued, and that the terms of your marital agreement reflect those same values when it comes to ensuring your agreement is fair to you.

To speak with our legal team today in a free and confidential consultation regarding your marital agreement, or how we can help you to contest or affirm an already existing marital agreement, please contact our firm today.

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