Are there good reasons for a Prenuptial Agreement in Indonesia?

    Prenuptial Agreements

A prenuptial agreement ("prenup" for short) is a written contract created by two people before they are married. A prenup typically lists all of the property each person owns (as well as any debts) and specifies what each person's property rights will be after the marriage.

 

  Who Needs a Prenup?

Lawyers advise clients to negotiate a prenuptial agreement under a variety of circumstances. As a general rule of thumb, the wealthier you are, the more important it is to have a prenuptial agreement. Upon divorce, many states give the less wealthy spouse ownership and control over half the richer partner’s assets, if those assets were acquired during the marriage.

• In particular, wealthy individuals should insist on a prenuptial agreement if they have children from a first marriage. Upon death, inheritance laws heavily favor the spouse of the deceased over the children of the deceased. This can potentially mean that a spouse of two years receives a greater share of assets than a child of twenty years. Individuals who feel this is a misallocation of assets can arrange for their children to inherit a much larger share of assets than would otherwise be the case using a prenuptial agreement.
• Own your own business? A prenuptial contract is critical. Imagine two equally wealthy individuals.One owns a business, while the other is employed as an investment banker. In the event of a divorce, and in the absence of a premarital agreement, the individual with his own business may find his spouse has not only partial ownership, but partial control over his business and its operations.
• If a spouse intends to leave the workforce after marriage, the couple should strongly consider negotiating a prenuptial agreement. A househusband or a housewife may enjoy the opportunity to stay at home and focus on the family, but will also forfeit years of earnings and job market experience. This leaves him or her heavily dependent on the wage-earning spouse.
• Finally, if one partner has incurred significant debt, the other should seek protection in a prenuptial agreement. State laws differ, but under some circumstances, creditors can reach the property of both spouses to resolve the debts of either.

Adapted from PrenuptialAgreements.org

 

  If You Don't Make a Prenup

If you don't make a prenuptial agreement, your state's laws determine who owns the property that you acquire during your marriage, as well as what happens to that property at divorce or death. (Property acquired during your marriage is known as either marital or community property, depending on your state.) State law may even have a say in what happens to some of the property you owned before you were married.

Under the law, marriage is considered to be a contract between the marrying couple, and with that contract comes certain automatic property rights for each spouse. For example, in the absence of a prenup stating otherwise, a spouse usually has the right to:

• share ownership of property acquired during marriage, with the expectation that the property will be divided between the spouses in the event of a divorce or at death
• incur debts during marriage that the other spouse may have to pay for, and
• share in the management and control of any marital or community property, sometimes including the right to sell it or give it away.

If these laws—called marital property, divorce, and probate laws—aren't to your liking, it's time to think about a prenup, which in most cases lets you decide for yourselves how your property should be handled.

Adapted from NOLO Law for All

 

  Signs of a Valid Prenup

Perhaps the most important ingredient of a solid prenuptial agreement is honesty. Both parties must FULLY disclose their assets. If it turns out either person has hidden something, a judge can toss out the contract.

An ironclad agreement also must be signed well in advance of the wedding. You can't present your honey with a prenup two days before the big day and say, "Uh, by the way, I need your signature on this."

The document should be signed as early before the nuptials as possible to avoid the appearance of coercion, another key reason why some agreements are rendered null and void.

A valid prenup also is "fair" and will not leave one of the parties destitute. No matter what state you're in, the state will look for equity to make sure one spouse is not being taken advantage of.

Prenups can include responsibilities that don't deal with money, but you should avoid making demands that might seem frivolous, such as requiring that your spouse not gain weight, or that he or she quit smoking and take out the garbage three times a week. A judge could look askance upon terms that are less serious than, say, stipulating what religion your children will observe if you and your betrothed are of different faiths.

It's dangerous to do that, and you're flirting with having the whole thing set aside.

Adapted from Bankrate.com