[Entheo]

hello,

i have recently become engaged; it will be my second marriage (first ended in divorce). i have considerable assets whereas my fiancee does not have any. my question is this: my concern is protecting my assets in case of a 'catastrophic event' (i.e. divorce; not death!) and my fiancee wants some assurance that if we are married many years and i get the '70 year itch' and divorce her [shocked] that she won't be financially destitute. we wondered if there is something like a vesting structure, or other phased approach. i have not seen pre-nups that support this type of thinking. might anyone have any suggestions?

also, is it true (in Illinois in particular) that pre-existing assets our not liable in a divorce? does one need to document that (pre-nup or other vehicle) prior to marriage?

thanks in advance for any advice.

[M. Giordano]

You and your fiance should sit down and agree on the terms each of you would like to incorporate into the prenup; you can generally include some type of phased approach -- allowing your fiance a greater property settlement upon divorce depending upon the length of the marriage and can even agree to have the agreement terminate after a certain period of years. After you have the details worked out, each of you should hire your own separate lawyers to represent each of your interests in preparing a clear, valid, binding agreement.

[Entheo]

Thanks for your reply! Regarding a phased, or vesting, approach, might you know of any examples of such to give us some idea of how that phasing might be structured?

Thanks again in advance...

[M. Giordano]

This is something your attorney should provide.