A marriage contract is a prudent and valuable planning tool for protecting certain property in the event of separation or divorce. Some reasons to enter into one include the following:
- To divide property brought into the marriage and property earned throughout the marriage in a manner which differs from that of the statutory regime of equal division;
- To protect one party’s substantial wealth or asset from division with the other party on separation or divorce, or to avoid the complicated exercise of accounting for the increase in the value of existing property, excluding it from equalization; or
- To establish, reduce or otherwise limit the duration of spousal support, provided the agreement does not do away with payment of any spousal support in the first place.
