The divorce of a marriage entails legal consequences. Besides the child’s welfare, it is predominantly about finances. A divorce settlement agreement can help avoid disputes.
To the emotional burden of a divorce, lengthy legal disputes often add. In addition to custody or visitation rights, it regularly involves the division of the couple’s assets, equalization of gains, pension equalization, or spousal maintenance. Many consequences can be individually arranged in a prenuptial agreement. If the couple has not concluded a prenuptial agreement, a divorce settlement agreement is also advisable. This can avoid disturbing and lengthy legal disputes, says the law firm MTR Rechtsanwälte.
Without a prenuptial agreement, a couple automatically lives under the statutory property regime of community of gains. If the marriage is dissolved, the partners are entitled to equalization of gains. To calculate the claim for equalization, the initial assets of the partners at the time of marriage and their final assets at the time of service of the divorce petition are determined separately. The difference between these amounts represents the gain acquired during the marriage. In this process, one partner regularly achieves a higher gain than the other because he or she, for example, pursued a career and earned a higher income, while the other only worked part-time and took care of the children.
The equalization of gains is intended to restore balance here. If one spouse has achieved a higher gain, half of it is entitled to the partner. Disputes frequently arise, for example, over the amount of the assets.
Those who worked full-time during the marriage, while the other stood back, have also earned higher pension or retirement entitlements. This imbalance is to be eliminated by the pension equalization. Here, the acquired entitlements to old-age pension from statutory, professional, or private insurance are divided in half.
Even though divorced spouses are generally supposed to provide for their own maintenance, there may be claims to post-marital maintenance or spousal support.
These financial aspects can be amicably regulated with a divorce settlement agreement before the courts decide. This way, in addition to private assets, business assets can also be protected. Besides the financial points, many other legal consequences of a divorce can be clarified with a divorce settlement agreement.
Experienced lawyers in family law provide advice.
