Wexford Pennsylvania Family Law Blog

When individuals in Pennsylvania marry early in life, they often expect to stay married for decades. Because divorce is not readily on their minds, they might not think about drafting prenuptial agreements. However, drafting a prenuptial agreement may especially be expedient if two people with significant assets are getting married later in life.

In a late-in-life prenuptial agreement, two soon-to-be spouses can explain how they intend to financially support themselves going forward. In addition, they can highlight how they plan to withdraw their retirement assets according to their personal wealth levels. As an example, one person might have a big retirement plan, whereas the other person has a small one. They might agree to use the larger of the plans and just use the smaller plan for taking out small distributions.

The marital breakup process in many cases is inevitable, and it is often painful for those involved. For this reason, it may not come as a surprise that more millennials in Pennsylvania and elsewhere are opting to develop prenuptial agreements, or prenups, before they get married. In fact, new research indicates that more than 50 percent of attorneys recently saw a rise in these types of agreements among millennials, as members of this generation are increasingly interested in protecting themselves in the event of divorce.

In millennials' prenuptial agreements, they often cite their main reason for creating the agreements as the desire to protect their separate property. Other reasons for putting together these types of agreements include property division and alimony. Young adults value prenuptial agreements because they are generally settling down much later in life than previous generations did, so by the time they get married, they often have more assets to bring into the marriage than their parents did.

Sometimes, getting divorced is inevitable if two married individuals have irreconcilable differences. However, the divorce process does not necessarily need to destroy the family members' relationships. Here are a couple of steps that divorcing spouses can take to minimize the hostility often associated with divorce in Pennsylvania and elsewhere.

First, before tackling property division, if the two spouses have minor children, they may want to sort out their custody matters first. Being on the same page in this area may, in turn, make their financial discussions much easier later on. Regarding custody, the two parents will need to discuss how to handle legal and physical custody. A parent who has legal custody can make decisions about the children's upbringing and welfare -- for instance, what religion they will be taught and what type of medical care they can receive. As far as physical custody, the children will live primarily with the parent to whom it is granted.

Many Pennsylvania parents will request a child custody modification due to changing life circumstances and -- depending on the situation -- a family law judge may or may not award such a request. That being said, there is one circumstance in which a court will always agree to the modification: when your child is in serious danger.

Ultimately, a family law court will always intervene when the best interests, health and well-being of your child are at risk. Therefore, if your child's life or health are in jeopardy, it's important to start gathering evidence and building a request for modification immediately.