Word: postnups
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Couples who missed the chance to negotiate their divorce ahead of time can now develop property settlements after their wedding day. It's done with a "postnup"--a legal agreement that spells out how assets will be divided in case of divorce or death. Those who most often pursue postnups do so as the result of a major change in their financial picture, such as the arrival of an inheritance. With more couples blending families, a postnup can mandate that a mother's assets pass directly to her biological children, not the stepkids. Or a husband can cap the total...
...substantial unforeseen wealth, that is going to give them the opportunity to examine their relationship," says John Mayoue, an Atlanta lawyer who says the proliferation of Internet millionaires--though they are a little scarcer after this month's market plunge--has had a "huge" influence on his firm's postnup business. These contracts are worked out with personal attorneys and don't usually have to be filed in court, so it's impossible to determine exactly how widespread they are. But veteran lawyers say the number of mid-marriage agreements has exploded in the past five years, perhaps as much...
That standard has also been upheld in New Jersey, where Francesca and Antonio Pacelli battled over the validity of their postnuptial agreement. They had been married 10 years in 1985, when, she says, he told her to choose between divorce and signing a postnup. Under the agreement, she was to be awarded $500,000 and half of a $1 million summer home if they divorced. But when Pacelli, a developer, filed for divorce in 1996, his wife argued that she was entitled to more of his fortune, which had increased from $5 million to $11 million, and she sued...
...voluntary is a postnuptial agreement? A person whose betrothed proposes an unfair prenuptial agreement can walk away from the engagement. But the spouse who is asked to sign a postnup has invested financially and emotionally in the union and may have children to think about. Francesca Pacelli says she signed the postnup agreement "because I didn't want my sons to grow up without a father." McCaughey Ross has claimed that her husband forced her to sign the postnuptial agreement in return for a financial contribution to keep her campaign for Governor afloat. "My reaction was utter disbelief," she says...
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