Prenuptial agreements 

Marriage is a wonderful life event, however, we do encourage parties to consider entering into prenuptial agreements to protect themselves from losing assets upon divorce or to protect each other from creditors.  

​Any marriage out of community of property is reached by drawing up an ante-nuptial contract (or ANC) /prenuptial agreement. This marriage contract is not to say that the marriage is set out to fail, it is just designed to assist the couple in the future, regardless of whether the couple divorces or not.

What Types of Prenuptial agreements are there

​There are two types of Marriage Contracts that a couple may agree to:

• An ANC that excludes community of property, community of profit and loss, and the accrual system; or
• An ANC that excludes community of property and community of profit and loss, but includes the accrual system

What is Accrual 

Accrual relates to the extent of increase of the joint wealth between spouses throughout the marriage. Should one spouse have a smaller accrual than the other, then he or she will have a claim against the difference between the two amounts. In others words the calculation entitles both parties to share equally from the growth of the marriage upon divorce.
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Therefore, a couple can opt to either share in the growth of their marriage jointly or remain totally independent of each other. 

Why do you need an attorney

​Only attorneys who are a notary public may execute a prenuptial agreement. It is imperative that both parties consult with the notary public in advance and request clarification of the various marital regimes, and the implications of each on divorce. It is important to properly understand the implications. 

Once the prenup has been drawn up, both parties and the notary public attorney must sign it in prior to the marriage. The agreement will then be forwarded to the deeds office to be registered