a crash course in prenups

[iambusto]

Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer, a law student, a paralegal. None of that. My knowledge is solely by research and consultation with 2 different lawyers and finally getting a prenup done by a lawyer.
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so i am getting married in october and just finalized our prenups day before yesterday. when i saw that cheating thread I wanted to make this post.

Its very important to have a prenup. I dont care if you dont have any money, or you make same as your fiancee, or whatever. its still a great idea to have a prenup.

What can you have in a prenup?
Anything that you aquire during marriage (with the exception of gifts from your family) is community property (in the 9 states where there is community property law). As for other states, you will have to research further.

You will need to designate your holdings/assets as "separate property" before your marriage in your prenup if you want to keep them as yours should you separate.

eg: your salary during marriage, your retirement plan contributions, apreciation of the house during marriage that only has your name in the deed, can all become community property come divorce time.

How to prevent that?
In your prenup, your lawyer will designate your house, your 401 (k), your salary all as separate property. Meaning that even if contributions are made during marriage, that will not change the characterisation of the property which is stated to be "separate property".


this is just a tip of the iceberg. If you guys are interested in learning further, i can add secondary posts to this initial posts, some tips, some flags etc. If this is a boring topic based on replies, i wont post further on this thread