Pre-marital Agreement
Cook County Attorneys Draft Your Solid Premarital Agreements
Skokie and Chicago divorce attorneys providing legal protection for your property and assets
Illinois has enacted the Uniform Premarital Agreement Act. The Skokie family lawyers at Gordon & Perlut, LLC are experienced in drafting premarital agreements protecting our clients’ rights and their fair share of marital property.
Prospective spouses may have a premarital agreement prepared to address the following issues:
- each party’s rights and obligations regarding any property belonging to either or both of them, regardless of when it was acquired or where it is located;
- the right to buy, sell, use, transfer, exchange, abandon, lease, consume, expend, assign, create a security interest in, mortgage, encumber, dispose of or otherwise manage and control property, such as the marital residence;
- property division upon separation, marital dissolution, death or the occurrence or nonoccurrence of any other event;
- the modification or elimination of spousal support;
- the making of a will, trust, or other arrangement to carry out the provisions of the agreement;
- the ownership rights to and disposition of the death benefit from a life insurance policy;
- the choice of law governing the construction of the agreement, and
- any other matter, including the parties’ personal rights and obligations, not in violation of public policy or a statute imposing a criminal penalty.
Specific guidelines apply to Illinois premarital agreements, and if one spouse ignores the agreement, it may be unenforceable in court. Premarital agreements are not enforceable if the other party can prove that:
- the agreement was not entered into voluntarily;
- the agreement is “unconscionable”;
- fair and reasonable disclosure of the property or financial obligations of the other party was not provided before the agreement was entered into (or the right to such disclosure was not voluntarily and expressly waived in writing);
- the objecting spouse did not have or reasonably could not have had adequate knowledge of the property or financial obligations of the other party.
Sometimes, parties attempt to craft their own premarital agreements without the assistance of an attorney. We strongly advise each party to have an independent Cook County divorce attorney review the premarital agreement. Otherwise, it is very likely to be unenforceable.
Contact a Skokie family lawyer for your premarital agreement needs
For more information about what is needed for a premarital agreement, email our Chicago divorce attorneys at Gordon & Perlut, LLC or call our office in Chicago at 847.329.0101 or our Skokie office at 847.329.0101 to help you. Our firm serves Chicago, Evanston, Skokie, Northbrook, Niles, Glenview, and the Cook County area.