Love knows no bounds, they say. Thanks to the ease of traveling around the world, there have been plenty of heartwarming stories of love between a local Thai and a foreign expatriate, or even a tourist. So, it’s not far-fetched that you might get married to a local Thai woman after meeting a few during your business and leisure trips to the beautiful Kingdom.
There are, of course, legal processes that need to be met when you’re looking to get married. These apply not only to marriages in Thailand, but even in your home country. One of these processes is acquiring a prenuptial agreement prior to the actual marriage itself.
Prenuptial agreements are actually very important to the couple, probably even more important than most people realize. Here are some reasons why getting a prenuptial agreement inked prior to tying the knot makes sense, in Thailand or everywhere else in the world.
Prenuptial Agreements Delineates Ownership of Properties
The signing of a prenuptial agreement clears the lines of which properties belongs to each couple as an individual and which ones are shared as a couple. This importance might not be apparent at first, but the prenuptial agreement will save you from a lot of arguments over ownership later on as the marriage progresses.
For example, by law, properties that the husband and wife have each acquired before the marriage cannot be considered as conjugal properties. Only those that have been purchased within the marriage period can be considered as shared property, to which both spouses have a claim to. While this is common understanding, ownership can be cemented by signing a prenuptial agreement with a marriage lawyer before the marriage is consummated.
The Agreement Protects Each Spouse from Legal Obligations Occurred Pre-Marriage
As is the case with assets, people can incur liabilities that remain unsettled even until the actual marriage. It’s up to each spouse to decide whether or not they’d help each other with settling those debts. In any case, signing a prenuptial agreement with terms agreed beforehand can help designate the role that the couple’s pre-marriage assets will play in the settlement, as one of the legal protections a prenuptial agreement can cover is keeping creditors from liquidating any assets one of the spouses has acquired before the marriage as part of debt settlement.
It Clears the Terms in Case of Divorce
Every couple works to keep the marriage from crumbling down. However, some marriages just don’t work. In that case, divorce or legal separation is the only path for these couples to go down to. Now, divorce can be a lengthy process, especially in disposing the assets acquired during the marriage. Having a pre-nuptial agreement will shorten that process, especially when non-conjugal properties are involved.
To help ensure that a prenuptial agreement you’re about to sign is legal and in accordance with Thai law, you should enlist the help of an English language legal advisor who is well-versed in both the Thai language and the laws of the land.
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