Marriage and Cohabitation Contracts in Ontario
If you are preparing to marry or to move in with your partner, it may be wise for you to draft a prenuptial agreement or cohabitation contract. While you may not want to consider the possibility that you will divorce, it does occur sometimes and an agreement can help you protect your interests and assets.
Agreements like these are especially in order if you have significant assets or you have been previously married. Many potential issues can be addressed in a prenuptial agreement or cohabitation contract. You can provide agreements for such things as spousal support and property division. You may not include agreements waiving child support or designating child custody and access rights. You also cannot include an agreement regarding who will get the marital home.
You should be aware that even if your prenuptial agreement is legally sound, it may be disregarded in some cases. Those will include such things as your marriage lasting more than 20 years and your spouse being seriously ill. If your spouse has become ill and the illness will prevent them from being able to work, the court may ignore an agreement in which they waived their right to seek spousal support.
At our firm, our family law attorneys regularly help our clients draft prenuptial and cohabitation agreements. We believe that people benefit by planning ahead, and we work hard to ensure our clients’ rights will be protected. If one of our clients has been presented with a prenuptial agreement by their partner, we review it carefully and then provide advice as to its effects. We also negotiate on our clients’ behalf in order to secure beneficial agreements. If you are interested in learning more about these matters, you are invited to take a look at the additional information on our prenuptial agreement page. Contact Baker and Baker Family Lawyers in Toronto today.
