Experienced Premarital Agreement Attorney In Dallas
A “prenuptial agreement” — or “premarital agreement” — is a contract between couples contemplating marriage that enumerates how a couple with handle the financial part of their marriage. With the help of a premarital agreement attorney in Dallas, you can establish financial expectations and avoid future disputes.
Contemplating a premarital agreement does not mean you are anticipating a divorce. It does mean you want to have a meaningful discussion of your financial matters prior to marriage. It will also inform you if you and your perspective spouse have similar philosophy regarding the handling of your finances.
Texas has adopted the Uniform Premarital Agreement Act, which provides for the circumstances in which agreements are enforceable. Under this law prenuptial agreements are usually considered valid by Texas courts, unless they are obviously unjust such as:
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- tries to enter into a contract to never seek child support because Texas law protects children and parents cannot contract around their duties to care for their offspring;
- hasn’t been signedvoluntarily by both parties;
- is blatantly unfair on financial issues including (1) a party failing to disclose all of his (or her) finances; (2) the other party did not sign an acknowledgment that he (or she) did not care about the other party’s finances (waiver); and (3) this other party did not know about the other party’s finances and could not easily have discovered the unknown assets.
If you and your fiancé are interested in a prenuptial agreement or premarital agreement, then please free to contact the Law Office of Michael Granata for a paid, initial legal consultation in Dallas. We’re here to help you.
Premarital Agreement for a Dallas Business Owner
A client came to us in Dallas a few months before a wedding, with the kind of situation that makes engagements complicated. There was a closely held business built up over years, real estate in the city, retirement accounts funded long before the relationship began, and a fiancé with separate property of their own. The goal was a premarital agreement that would actually hold up — but also one the other side’s counsel could sign off on without souring the months leading up to the ceremony.
We started by mapping every asset and liability on both sides and attaching full schedules to the agreement, so neither party could later claim surprise about what the other owned. From there we negotiated the terms that mattered most: clear separate-property treatment for the business and the income it generates, a set monthly contribution from each spouse toward household expenses, and a negotiated ownership share in the business for the other party — structured so that control of the company stayed intact. For jointly held real estate, we built in a buy-out right and firm deadlines, so that if the marriage ever ended the property would not turn into a second lawsuit. We also added mutual non-disparagement and social media terms with real consequences attached, a protection that matters more every year for business owners.
Before execution, we ran a line-by-line comparison of the final document against our last negotiated draft. That review caught a figures-versus-words inconsistency and a change to one of the negotiated covenants — so our client knew exactly what was being signed. The agreement was executed in Dallas County on the terms actually bargained for.
