Signed,
Sealed, Delivered Story from I Do I Do Creations Magazine Issue 1
In
all the excitement and anticipation of preparing your wedding the devastation of separation
and divorce is quite rightly far from your mind.
It is important to remember
though that when you exchange vows and your priest,
minister or celebrant makes the declaration that you
are now married, you have undergone a legal process
and you and your partner are now viewed differently
in the eyes of the law.
You should take some time during
your wedding preparations to think about those legal
changes and add to your 'to do list' any legal steps
that need to be taken.
'Pre-Nup' Agreement
Common in the USA , these agreements
only became part of Australian law recently; here they
are called 'Binding Financial Agreements' (BFA). A BFA
is where a couple enters into a contract pursuant to
the Family Law Act before they marry which sets out
how their assets will be divided if they separate. If
there is no BFA any division of assets (which includes
superannuation) upon separation will occur in accordance
with the Family Law Act. Therefore a BFA gives a couple
the opportunity to agree on a more flexible approach
or take into consideration factors which might not be
considered by a family court.
A Pre-nup is useful where
there is considerable difference in the assets a couple
each bring to their marriage or where the marriage is
a second one with one or both parties having children
from previous marriages. As the arrangements are quite
technical, it is important that you have a specialist
prepare it for you to ensure that it will be valid and
enforceable if your marriage does not work.
Wills
As you and your
fiancé will
be forming this new legal union and becoming a family,
it is important to review your legal affairs. The most
obvious of these is your will.
Once you have the ceremony out of that way it will be straight to the
reception and soon after that the honeymoon- clearly
no time to pop into your lawyer to make a new will.
It is possible that you and your fiancé can make
wills prior to your marriage 'in contemplation of your
marriage'. When that vital phrase is appropriately included
your Will is valid both before and after the big day.
Before my recent marriage, my then fiancé and I found sitting down together
and thinking about what we wanted to provide in our
Wills to be a meaningful part of our pre-wedding plans.
It gave us the opportunity
to think way into the future and to discuss what family,
friends and organisations were important to us to the
extent we would want them to receive something under
our Wills. It also made us think about how each other
would be able to financially survive if the other passed
away.
Superannuation
It is important at the time of your marriage to ensure that you alter the name of the beneficiary
of your superannuation to that of your new spouse.
Power of Attourney
As
you are committing to each other in marriage,
it is also a good idea to consider appointing each other
as Attorneys under Powers or Attorney. A simple Power
of Attorney can be useful to allow one person to execute
documents if the other is unavailable to do so.
So, while you may or may not need a 'pre-nup' there
are still legal matters that you should turn your minds
to before your wedding, it will be great to know all
is in order before you take off on your honeymoon.
Marika
McMahon Accredited Specialist in Family Law.
