Premarital Contract: What It Is and When to Do It

Marriage is a special time of celebration of love, full of preparations and in great need of planning, but it is important to understand that legal issues are also involved in this process and should be discussed before going to the altar.

One of the somewhat delicate legal issues for the couple to consider is the prenuptial contract, which is a document that has the function of regulating all the couple's property issues.

Thinking about discussing future financial issues with your partner may not seem very pleasant, but the couple should take the situation seriously, understanding that evaluating these issues is a way of protecting their future.


It's not inelegant. It is very important to prevent conflicts and also have the opportunity to conclude a prenuptial agreement that reflects the intent of the couple about the goods that will be acquired during the marriage ?, says lawyer Ana Luiza Nevares, specialist in Family Law.

Why make a prenuptial contract

When this document is not made, Brazilian law provides that the property regime applied in the event of divorce will be that of partial separation, when only property acquired after marriage is divided between the couple.

But other options of property regimes that may be preferable to the future couple, such as the regime of total communion, in which all goods, including those which each had before marriage, will be the property of both; and total separation, which allows the same married spouses to continue to have individual assets.


In order to adopt a property regime other than the standard partial separation, the couple must go to a lawyer and draw up the prenuptial agreement so that this document can be presented at the time the marriage process begins at the notary's office.

Prenuptial Contract Rules

The prenuptial agreement, in addition to determining the property regime, can be used to create rules on the administration of financial investments, who will bear what expenses, what is the limit on the amount of money the future couple can give to the marriage. family of origin of each person, or even the division of property, the furniture of the house and who will pay what kind of expenses related to the children in case of divorce.

Fabiana Domingues Cardoso, lawyer, professor at PUC-SP and author of the book Regime of goods and Prenuptial Agreement, states that in the last three years people have been trying to establish more rules for two's life and with this the profile of prenuptial agreements has changed. .


Some rules that are also being established in prenuptial agreements, but which are still controversial are: maintenance or exchange of surnames, religion of children, division of household chores, indemnity for infidelity or determination of an open relationship.

But who prepares a prenuptial pact that talks about issues other than property issues may risk not finding a registry office that accepts to perform the marriage because the subject is not explicit in the law, warns Eduardo Tomasevicius, professor of civil law at the University of São Paulo.

An important rule when drafting a prenuptial contract is not to create clauses that violate the country's largest law. Brazilian law states that fidelity is mandatory in marriage, so a pact between a couple should not provide for the acceptance of extramarital affairs. Amounts of indemnity in the event of betrayal are also not legal, as this decision is up to a judge when the judgment of moral damages provided for by law is made.

Drafting a prenuptial contract is a demonstration of the couple's maturity, who can quietly decide on their future planning and demonstrate their affinity for projects and their ability to have a happy, agreed-upon life together.

A Divorce Attorney Explains What's In a Prenuptial Agreement (May 2024)


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