Prenuptial agreements are, at the same time, among the most important yet misunderstood topics in all of family law. From movies and television shows, you may have a belief that prenuptial agreements apply only to the rich and powerful. In our own experiences, the attorneys with the Law Office of Bryan Fagan have heard from different clients that prenuptial agreements are not for people “like them.” This leads us to believe that there are certain negative connotations associated with prenuptial agreements. On top of that, it worrisome that your prenuptial agreement could be voidable in Texas if drafted incorrectly.
This should not be the case. Prenuptial agreements are among the most helpful types of agreements that two people can enter. That they are fairly straightforward to negotiate is yet another example of why prenuptial agreements should be considered relevant to more families. We hope that today’s blog post from the Law Office of Bryan Fagan provides you with an overview of prenuptial agreements. Specifically, what they are and how they may be relevant to your life.
Additionally, we would like to discuss with you how a prenuptial agreement may be voided in Texas. Has strong as a well-drafted prenuptial agreement may be there are also situations where your prenuptial agreement could be voided. Understanding the criteria for voiding a pre-nuptial agreement will be the focus of today’s blog post from the Law Office of Bryan Fagan. Any questions you have regarding this topic may be addressed to the attorneys with the Law Office of Bryan Fagan. We offer free-of-charge consultations six days a week in person, over the phone, and via video.
What is a prenuptial agreement?
Before we discuss how to potentially void a prenuptial agreement, we need to have a firm understanding of what a prenuptial agreement is. As the name indicates, a prenuptial agreement is a type of agreement that is arrived at prior to a marriage beginning. In this case, two people who plan to marry can create a contract between themselves which determines how property will be divided in the event of a divorce.
Prenuptial agreements offer persons engaged to be married an opportunity to negotiate on these sometimes complex subjects before a divorce. You and your fiancé can discuss these topics while you are still on good terms rather than while you are during a heated divorce. Many people struggle with thinking clearly during a difficult divorce. This is understandable. What a prenuptial agreement allows you to do is consider these topics while you are thinking clearly and not pressured during a divorce.
Being able to enforce a prenuptial agreement during a divorce is critical. After all, the reason why you create a prenuptial agreement is to have it enforceable during the divorce. Working with an experienced family law attorney at the Law Office of Bryan Fagan is a great way to help ensure that your prenuptial agreement is not voided later. Contact our office today for a free-of-charge consultation to discuss prenuptial agreements and how we can help you draft one.
What a valid prenuptial agreement accomplishes for the parties who create them
A valid prenuptial agreement allows you and your fiancé to create a firm set of expectations for future property division. Prenuptial agreements are not overly beneficial for some segments of the population.
For instance, consider a situation where you and your fiancé have never been married before. Neither of you has much wealth to either of your names. Debt is limited. Both of you work stable jobs but are not entrepreneurs. In this type of situation, a prenuptial agreement may not be overly helpful for you or your fiancé.
On the other hand, being able to negotiate a prenuptial agreement can be incredibly helpful if you are coming into the marriage with a significant amount of personal wealth. This may mean that you have property that you would like to see handed down to your children or another person. In that case, you can protect these assets from being divided and awarded to your spouse in a divorce.
Additionally, if you have any amount of debt to your name then it may be important for you to shield your fiancé from that debt liability in a divorce. This is another reason why prenuptial agreements may be essential to your premarital planning. There is no better time than the present to learn more about the benefits of a prenuptial agreement. The earlier you can negotiate for a prenuptial agreement oftentimes the better the result for your family.
A type of premarital counseling
For many people, premarital counseling offers an opportunity to get to know your fiancé on a much better level. Even if the two of you have been dating for some time there may be topics that we’ve simply never discussed or brought up. Premarital counseling forced the two of you to acknowledge difficult areas of your lives and to step into them through negotiation. These matters could be completely removed from anything having to do with finances. Simply put, negotiation on these subjects allows the two of you to figure out potential problem areas in the marriage before they begin to cause problems in your relationship.
However, in recent years premarital counseling has become less popular. For whatever reason, it seems that fewer people are taking advantage of the benefits of premarital counseling. As a result, you and your fiancé may be entering into a marriage that you have not discussed or thought about. This is not to say that you cannot have a successful marriage. What it does present is a series of challenges geared towards several different areas in your life.
You can certainly look at the negotiation process associated with a prenuptial agreement as a type of premarital counseling. In many ways, premarital counseling involves many of the same topics. If you and your fiancé can agree on money, children, each other’s families, and religion your chances of avoiding divorce increase dramatically. Even if formal counseling is not something you are interested in then at least consider the benefits of premarital counseling through a prenuptial agreement. The attorneys with the Law Office of Bryan Fagan can help you a great deal in this regard.
How an attorney can help negotiate a prenuptial agreement
When it comes to potentially finding a prenuptial agreement voidable, one of the 1st areas a judge will look to is whether you were represented during the negotiation process. If only one party, or neither, was represented by counsel then the chances of your prenuptial agreement being found void are much greater. You should seek to reduce the likelihood of having your prenuptial agreement voided in the future. A major way to do this is to work with an experienced family law attorney. Those with the Law Office of Bryan Fagan are especially adept at helping people in your situation.
You and your fiancé should both have your attorneys. Even though the two of you are getting married there are going to be situations where your interests are not the same. By having separate attorneys each of you can receive personalized advice and information geared towards your circumstances. This allows you to approach the case from your unique perspective. That way, you can be sure you are looking at the case from the correct vantage point.
Another benefit of working with an experienced family law attorney is that an attorney knows how to approach negotiations. Sometimes it can be difficult to initiate discussions with your fiancé. This is especially true if neither of you has brought up subjects like this with one another previously. With that in mind, an attorney with the Law Office of Bryan Fagan can help you negotiate a fair prenuptial agreement. Avoiding the possibility of a prenuptial agreement being voided in Texas is a worthwhile goal to have during the negotiation process.
How not to negotiate an agreement with your spouse-to-be
One of the main circumstances that a court would look to in terms of determining whether a prenuptial agreement is valid or not is whether it was entered into without fraud or duress. Neither you nor your fiancé could have forced the other person to negotiate or sign the agreement.
A court could be concerned over the negotiation of the document is involved with the timing of it. Specifically, was the document completed immediately before your wedding? If so, then this may lead to some suspicion that the agreement was not freely entered. In turn this means your prenuptial agreements may be void in Texas.
When it comes to freely entering into a prenuptial agreement it is important to consider whether you had representation. Having advocates for both of you involved in the process makes it so that fraud or duress is less relevant. This would make it less likely to have a voidable prenuptial agreement in Texas.
This is besides being able to receive advice and perspective on the case that you otherwise would not have received. Many times, an attorney can help you identify factors and issues throughout the negotiation process that would otherwise have passed you by. The attorneys with the Law Office of Bryan Fagan have been able to represent clients in prenuptial agreement negotiations for many years. We know how to help you and your family no matter what stage in the process you are in. Avoiding a voidable prenuptial agreement is a great goal to have.
Unconscionability as a reason to void a Texas prenuptial agreement
When it comes to prenuptial agreements, unconscionability ranks high on the list of reasons why an agreement may be voided in Texas. Unconscionability refers to a court viewing the agreement as unfair and must be unenforceable in the future. Oftentimes, not only are the terms of the agreement unfair but how they were produced is also unfair.
Consider a situation where you and your fiancé decide to negotiate over a prenuptial agreement. Your spouse decides to hire an attorney to represent himself. However, he does this only immediately before you arrive at a specific negotiation location. You were led to believe that he was not going to hire an attorney. He specifically said that you all should not involve lawyers. Taking him at his word you decided to not have a lawyer represent you.
Once you arrived at the location to negotiate your prenuptial agreement it became obvious to you that this was not going to be a fair process. Although you did your best to negotiate with your interests in mind the result was not what you thought it would be. However, not wanting to upset your spouse, you decided to sign the document anyway. The thought that this prenuptial agreement may be voidable crossed your mind.
The thought of the agreement began to bother you in time. Now that you are getting a divorce may be appropriate to talk to the attorney representing you to try and have the prenuptial agreement voided. The court would look at the circumstances of your case and determine whether it is likely that the prenuptial agreement is voidable based on the circumstances under which it was negotiated. Make sure to be clear with your attorney about what those circumstances were.
An example of a situation where a prenuptial agreement may be unenforceable in Texas
The following is a situation where a prenuptial agreement may be voided in Texas. Let’s say that you and your fiancée have been together for two years. Now you are getting closer to your wedding date. You have concerns going into the wedding is that you do not know much about the business of your fiancé. You know that he is a successful business owner, but you have no idea about those businesses. The type of work that he does and the way that he earns a living is a mystery to you. As a result, you try to reach out to him about this.
Surprisingly, he suggests that the two of you negotiate a prenuptial agreement. Prenuptial agreements are admittedly not something that you know very much about. You have heard about prenuptial agreements in movies and television shows but that’s about it. However, you trust your fiancé and his intentions. As a result, you agree to the idea of negotiating a prenuptial agreement. Thinking that it might be a good idea, you ask whether you should hire an attorney. He dissuades you from doing so. Your fiancé even assures you that he will not be hiring a lawyer to represent him.
Thinking nothing of it, you show up at his office on the day you agreed to negotiate a prenuptial agreement. Again, you are someone of modest means who works a traditional, salary job. Your fiancé is a business owner who has multiple streams of income. This was a motivating factor for you to negotiate a prenuptial agreement in the first place.
What happens in a circumstance involving an unenforceable prenuptial agreement?
When it comes to a situation where your prenuptial agreement may be declared voidable you need to strongly consider your options. In a situation like the one we just described, it is not in your best interest to sign anything or even to engage in negotiations. You are at a disadvantage as far as representation and information. As a result, the likelihood of you being able to fairly negotiate a prenuptial agreement for yourself is very low.
On top of that, marrying a person that you do not trust is a terrible way to start that relationship. It is extremely unlikely that you will have a successful marriage when you do not trust that other person. You could not be blamed for always having one eye out looking to see if your spouse is trying to do something that is against your best interests. If your spouse took advantage of you in one setting he is likely to do so in another. This make may your prenuptial agreement void.
Eventually, were you to file for divorce it is likely that this prenuptial agreement would be voidable. The timing, unconscionability, and lack of representation are all factors that could lead the document to be declared voidable. In a situation like this, you can hope that a court declares your prenuptial agreement void. You can choose to have an attorney by your side when you negotiate your prenuptial agreement in the first place. We recommend contacting the attorneys with the Law Office of Bryan Fagan.
Questions about the material contained in today’s blog post? Contact the Law Office of Bryan Fagan
Concerned about your prenuptial agreement being void? The attorneys with the Law Office of Bryan Fagan offer free of charge consultations six days a week in person, over the phone, and via video. These consultations are a great way for you to learn more about the world of Texas family law. Before signing a document or negotiating on a subject you do not know well, contact our office. We look forward to the opportunity of serving you during an important part of your life. The Law Office of Bryan Fagan is on your side. We work with clients each day to minimize any risk that their prenuptial agreement is void.
Evan Hochschild was raised in Houston, TX and graduated from Cypress Creek High School. He went on to graduate from Southwestern University in Georgetown, TX with an undergraduate degree in Political Science. While in college, Evan was a four-year letterman on the Cross Country team.
Following in the footsteps of his grandfather and uncle before him, Evan attended law school after he completed in his undergraduate studies. He graduated from St. Mary’s University School of Law and has practiced in a variety of areas in the law- including family law.
Mr. Hochschild is guided by principles which place the interests of clients first. Additionally, Evan seeks to provide information and support for his clients with the heart of a teacher.
Evan and his wife have four small children together. He enjoys afternoons out and about with his family, teaching Sunday school at his church and exercising. A veteran attorney of fourteen years, Mr. Hochschild excels in communicating complex ideas in family law simply and directly.
