Prenuptial Agreement for German Engineer
- Applicant: Mr. Warner
- Nationality: German & Vietnamese
- Service: Prenuptial Agreement
- Age: 40s
- Socioeconomic status: Upper Middle Class
BACKGROUND
Mr. Warner was an engineer for a Fortune 500 company and had dual-citizenship in the United States and Germany. He also had a good sense of humor. Mr. Warner would chuckle when people said his being German and an engineer made him doubly meticulous. Mr. Warner was also a romantic and he’d been courting a beautiful woman from Vietnam, named May. After a ten-year courtship they decided to get married. They were both in their 40s and brought an extensive financial history to their upcoming nuptials. Upon the advice of a marriage counselor, they decided to have a prenuptial agreement drawn up. Tsang and Associates is proud to offer those services.
KEYS TO SUCCESS
Mr. Warner had concerns about what friends and family might think about his creating a prenuptial agreement before marrying May. Would they believe it unromantic? Did a legal agreement start the marriage in such bad terms? Tsang and Associates reassured Mr. Warner that a prenuptial agreement can be one of the most romantic choices he could make. It is basically making their vow—legally binding. Or else, words are just words. We would ensure each partner in the marriage would be taken care of should they decide to divorce in the future. More often than not, relationships become highly acrimonious during divorce proceedings, and a prenuptial agreement ensures decisions made when they’re in love hold true even if a less supportive version of them arises later.
Once Mr. Warner and May had been reassured their decision was both practical and loving, Tsang and Associates set to work defining the parameters of their agreement. A prenuptial agreement is a legally binding written contract executed before a couple gets married, or has entered into a civil union, to settle the couple’s affairs and assets in the event of separation or divorce. It allows couples to determine how much income each spouse will receive upon separation; it specifies who shall be responsible for debts accrued before and during the marriage, and it articulates how property will be divided and distributed in the case of divorce or death.
Often couples will file a prenuptial agreement online with boilerplate documents. Mr. Warner and his fiancée May understood the importance of having a professional law firm like Tsang and Associates draw up a bespoke agreement to fit their unique needs and concerns. In their case, each of them brought an extensive financial life history to the marriage. The first order of business was to have each of them make financial disclosures with the intent to present a full, fair and reasonable accounting of assets, debts and personal expenses. In their particular case, Mr. Warner had $1 million in assets and May $50,000. They had to make a decision about those assets and how they would pay for living expenses. Tsang and Associates provided them with a range of options on how to carry their desires forward. The couple elected to establish that all premarital assets and property remain separate. Each person would also be solely responsible for premarital and post-marital debts.
Additionally, a separate property could not be used to pay the debts without written consent. Each marriage partner would indemnify and hold the other party harmless from any proceeding to collect on the other party’s debts and would not be responsible for any expenses such as attorney fees. The above would also apply to any premarital and post-marital business debts.
The next consideration was how to move forward with day-to-day costs. The agreement stated that household expenses would be paid from their joint bank accounts where the account would be established under each of their names, and both would have access.
Finally, there was the most delicate issue, what to do in the event the relationship ends. Tsang and Associates listened carefully to the couple’s desires and drafted the following guidelines for alimony and spousal support: 1) If they are each working full-time, both parties waive and release rights or claims to receive spousal support or alimony from each other; 2) If one party is on a leave of absence or on maternity leave, spousal support would be paid for a period no longer than half of the marriage’s duration.
OUTCOME
Mr. Warner and May were pleased the prenuptial agreement was tailored to their specific needs and concerns. It even met Mr. Warner’s meticulous standards. The agreement afforded them the peace of mind that each of them would be taken care of in a loving way no matter the length of their marriage. The couple is now enjoying married life after 10 years of courtship. Tsang and Associates wish them good health and a happy journey together in matrimony.