MARITAL PROPERTY AGREEMENTS

Marital Property Agreements

Marital Property Agreements

Introduction

In simple words, marriage can be called an agreement that binds two people together in a relationship and legally allows them to advance their generation and family but if we consider the term marriage from a legal point of view, it incorporates a lot of other elements such as the sharing of property and personal items as well as wealth and finances. Over time, a lot of marital laws have been enacted to defend the finances and property of people who enter a marriage because over the last few decades, there has been a growing rate of divorces leading to distribution of wealth in the absence of a prenuptial agreement. Marital property laws are those laws which have been enacted to defend the property of the two people entering the bond of marriage.

Marriage is a contract between private parties regarding the responsibilities and obligations of family. Those responsibilities and obligations also have to do with finances. As such, the property and contract rights of married partners still need to be spelled out. The proposed revised statute addresses premarital agreements, contracts that alter the ordinary application and presumptions of marriage property law. Because marriage is a contract between private parties, they should have the option of modifying the contract to fit their individual goals. This is what premarital contracts accomplish. This section of the statute defines the scope, application, and treatment of those individual contracts that modify the general marriage contract. In defining the capacity to modify the general marriage contract it also defines the parameters of any separate, non-marital property and its management and control (Young, 1998, 505).

Discussion

Private property, by law, is the property that a person receives legally and has complete ownership over. By law, the following fall under the category of private property:

Personal effects used exclusively for personal use

Property that you own at the time of marriage or inheritance

Claims for compensation for moral damages

Property acquired to replace property



The acquisitions are the properties that you acquired for consideration during:

The earnings from gainful employment,

Damages due to a perceived inability to work,

Amounts paid by pension funds in favor of staff or by insurance institutions or welfare,

Income from own property

Property acquired in lieu of acquisitions

The division of property upon death or divorce

In case of divorce, death or change of matrimonial regime each party has certain rights to a share of acquits, hence the term "participation of acquisitions." This participation is calculated as follows: the debts of each spouse are deducted from their respective acquits, the result of this calculation is called profit. When the amount of debt of one of the spouses exceeds the amount of acquits or when no acquits exist, its profit is zero. The profit made by each spouse is added. The resulting amount is divided equally between the spouses. When the husband or wife dies, it is necessary to determine its succession (inheritance). It is formed by the property's own share for the deceased person and ...