Collaborative Marriage Planning

I see so many couples who do not or cannot talk about money, have fights and disagreements about money and end up even divorcing over money!

That is why I am so excited about Collaborative Marriage Planning. The question of whether to enter into a prenuptial agreement is a difficult conversation to have with a fiance and many young couples don’t know what they don’t know about budgeting, differing spending styles, building wealth, and so much more. Collaborative Marriage Planning is one way to do what is never easy.

Collaborative marriage planning is not focused on divorce. Rather, it is focused on married life. A neutral facilitator (usually with a family dynamics background) will help the parties engage in difficult conversations (such as spending philosophy and value judgments about money) to explore each of their interests. The facilitator will also help the parties learn communication and conflict resolution techniques around financial decisions or disagreements, so that fights in the future are less likely to result in divorce.

Further, a neutral financial professional will help ensure that each spouse knows everything about the other spouse’s income, assets, and debts. He or she might help with a valuation of a business. The financial professional will also help the parties determine whether they want to have joint or separate accounts (or combination thereof) once they are married, as well as help them create individual and family budgets to ensure future financial success.

In collaborative marriage planning, each client is represented by an attorney, and the attorneys agree that they will never engage in litigation on behalf of one spouse against the other. Unlike attorneys who draft traditional prenuptial or postnuptial agreements, this takes away incentive from the attorneys to stoke conflict between the spouses or spouses-to-be.

Though collaborative marriage planning is not focused on divorce, one of its side benefits could be the drafting of an enforceable prenuptial or postnuptial agreement that protects the business in the event of divorce.
For more information about how Collaborative Marriage Planning can help you, call today to set up a consultation.