Postnuptial agreements may be invaluable in helping you and your spouse prepare for your future together. An Orland Park postnuptial agreement lawyer could help you develop one that fits your unique marriage. One of our dedicated family attorneys here at Reidy Law Office LLC could sit down with you to help you decide how you want to handle key marital issues. We could help draft an agreement that addresses these issues in a mutually satisfactory way.

Basic Information on Postnuptial Agreements

A postnuptial agreement is a contract between two married individuals that typically contains provisions regarding what would happen during and after a legal separation or divorce. In many situations, couples use postnuptial agreements to decide on the distribution of marital property, spousal support, childcare responsibilities, and other issues.

As a couple, you and your spouse could tailor your agreement to your unique needs based on your financial circumstances, lifestyle, and personal preferences. To that end, a skilled Orland Park attorney could help you draft a postnuptial agreement that meets your mutual goals for your relationship without sacrificing too many personal desires.

Distribution of Property

Postnuptial agreements often contain provisions dividing up a couple’s marital property, which may include joint bank accounts, residences, and personal property such as jewelry. While you and your spouse may divide your property in any way you see fit using a postnuptial agreement, a skilled lawyer could help you ensure a family court does not declare any such divisions to be unfair or inequitable.

Financial Support Agreements

You and your spouse may also use your postnuptial agreement to decide whether either of you should receive alimony in the event of a divorce, as well as how much the support payments would be. While courts have the final say on whether predetermined alimony payments are appropriate, couples may typically make this decision between themselves by using a postnuptial agreement.

If you decide spousal support is appropriate, you and your spouse may also decide whether it should be a one-time payment or a periodic payment and, if applicable, the length of time for any periodic payments. You may decide that one party would pay alimony to the other only for the first year after your separation or divorce.

Childcare Responsibilities

If your marriage produced children, you and your spouse could use a postnuptial agreement to decide which of you would be responsible for certain parenting responsibilities. You may decide whether you would be separately or jointly responsible for taking your child to school or for making decisions regarding religion and upbringing.

Such childcare provisions may be especially helpful for non-traditional families or those that have children with special needs. In these situations, you may prefer to decide on childcare issues privately rather than risk a court making potentially problematic decisions for you and your family.

Certain elements of childcare and custody still fall to the court to decide in the event of a divorce in Orland Park. A well-practiced attorney could provide further information about specifically how your postnuptial agreement could address these kinds of matters.

Speak with an Orland Park Postnuptial Agreement Attorney

If you would like more information about postnuptial agreements, or if you are wondering how such an agreement could help you and your spouse, call an Orland Park postnuptial agreement lawyer. The Reidy Law Office LLC legal team has a great deal of experience working on postnuptial agreements that fit a variety of lifestyles and could help you draft an agreement that protects your interests as much as possible and would hold up in court. Call (708)942-8428 today to schedule an initial appointment with a member of our firm.