Important Things to Know Before Entering a Marriage Contract, Accordin

While it may sound counterintuitive to get advice from an expert who helps people end their marriage, but many couples have started to meet with divorce lawyers before getting married. In fact, they can tell you a lot about your relationship, as well as important questions you need to ask before you can say your vows.

Most couples getting married make the same mistakes in not doing their effective due diligence or not understanding that its still a legal contract. It’s one of the biggest contracts that people can get into, since it can greatly dictate the course of their life. Therefore, here are a few important things you should know and questions you should ask before getting married, according to a Las Vegas Divorce Attorney.

How Does My State Recognize the Date of Separation?

When dividing property, one of the first thing that courts will look into is the date of separation. Simply put, the date of separation is when either one of the spouse decides to end the marriage. And depending on your state, your local court can recognize it very differently.

Any asset acquired by a spouse following the date of separation will belong to that spouse specifically. That could be a car, house, or even shares in a company. The real nuance comes in with how each state recognizes it.

In the state of California, it can be when one spouse communicates to the other that they wanta divorce. On the other hand, North Carolina only recognizes it when both partners start living in separate residences. The latter can be a little complicated, since some couples still choose to live together even when they are getting a divorce. So, you need to look into your state’s date of separation laws.

Are We Going to Have Children?

One of the most important things that you need to consider before you want to get married is children. More specifically, do you want children? Or are you just going along with it because your partner wants them. An experienced divorce lawyer will often tell couples that they should have an honest conversation about having children.

How many children do you want? When do we want to have children? Will we be hiring nanny or are is one of us taking time off work?

These are just some of the questions that you need to ask your spouse before getting married. You don’t want to be in a situation where you have to balance your career and taking care of the children or feel pressured to have more children than you want.

What Are My State’s Spousal Support Laws?

A court will consider ovarious factors when looking into how much spousal support an individual is entitled to after a marriage. Age, earning potential, health, and income are just some of the factors that they are likely to consider. However, this can also change from state to state.

For instance, in Texas, spousal support cannot exceed $5,000 or 20% of a spouse’s average monthly income. However, spouses married for over 20 years in New Jersey can be entitled to permanent perusal support.

Understanding spousal support laws is essential regardless of whether you’re paying spousal support or receiving it. If you’re having a hard time finding information about the topic, you can contact a local family law lawyer to give you a brief summary. This ensures that you don’t rush into a marriage and consider your options carefully.

How Much Do You Earn?

Trust is one of the core foundations of any long lasting marriage, and that extends to finances too. Not being open about finances in the relationship can lead to one spouse spending more than the other spouse makes. Or in some cases, a spouse hiding away assets from their significant other.

If you’re looking to get serious with your relationship and are considering marriage, Las Vegas Divorce Lawyers recommend having an open conversation about financials. Along with being honest about how much each individual makes, you should also look to set boundaries around spending. Even if both spouses in the relationship earn, one spending more than their means can put pressure on the other.

Therefore, having an open conversation about finances and future plans can help set realistic expectations for everyone involved.

Did You Take Out the Trash?

While this might be a simple, and relatively harmless in the grand scheme of things, it is also important to consider if your spouse is willing to pick up their share of responsibilities. If you have to regularly ask them if they’ve completed their tasks, it will likely lead to frustration in the future. Along with their house chores, this can include responsibilities towards your children, such as picking them up from school or helping them with homework.

If you’ve lived with your soon-to-be spouse for some time and have noticed a pattern of them not doing their fair share of work, experienced family lawyers suggest that this problem is likely to get worse in the future.

Am I In An Equitable Distribution State or A Community Property One?

Finally, you should also consider if you’re living in a community property state or equitable distribution one. States have different law when it comes to dstributing assets among both parties in a divorce.

An expeirence divorce lawyer will tell you that an equitable distribution state does not split all of the asset 50/50. Instead, debts, property, and assets will be divided among parties based on what the judge thinks is fair.

Community property states allow the judge to dictate which items each spouse gets to keep and which ones they will have to split. Anything that the couple accumulates during their marriage will count as community property, which means that both spouses have an equal right to it.

Family lawyers will usually explain it as if one spouse buys a house during the marriage, at the time of divorce, the other spouse will have an equal right to it.

Getting Advice from an Expert Divorce Lawyer

A marriage isn’t just a union of two people who love each other, it’s also a legal contract. And if you keep both of those things in mind, you can ask yourself the important questions that can make your marriage better. You can also speak to an experienced divorce attorney to help you decide on what quetions you should ask.