How to divide up future real estate purchases in a prenup?

[jncournot]

What is the name of your state? DE

Hi all, I plan on entering into a prenup before my wedding next year. I plan on having an attorney review my prenup before signing, but just curious if you all had any experience with this...

We plan to buy a house together once we're married. Most likely, I'll be contributing ~ 80% of the funds toward this house, but I don't want to hard code an ownership percentage into the prenup in case our financial situation changes. But how can I draft the prenup to delineate our contributions of separate property?

In practice, I envision us setting up a joint checking account specifically for the property we buy (e.g. 123 Main Street Joint Account). We would each make contributions into the joint account from our individual accounts to pay the down payment, closing costs, mortgage payments, real estate taxes, home improvements, etc. In the event of divorce, we would have the monthly bank statements detailing the amounts each party contributed from their individual accounts, and we could determine our ownership percentage base on that.

Based on my prenup book, you're able to add a section where you state "Contributions of Separate Property to Community Property: Ownership Will Be Apportioned". In this section could I specify that we will follow the procedure mentioned in the above paragraph? Would this hold up in court?

Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks for your help!

[LdiJ]

Originally Posted by jncournot

What is the name of your state? DE

Hi all, I plan on entering into a prenup before my wedding next year. I plan on having an attorney review my prenup before signing, but just curious if you all had any experience with this...

We plan to buy a house together once we're married. Most likely, I'll be contributing ~ 80% of the funds toward this house, but I don't want to hard code an ownership percentage into the prenup in case our financial situation changes. But how can I draft the prenup to delineate our contributions of separate property?

In practice, I envision us setting up a joint checking account specifically for the property we buy (e.g. 123 Main Street Joint Account). We would each make contributions into the joint account from our individual accounts to pay the down payment, closing costs, mortgage payments, real estate taxes, home improvements, etc. In the event of divorce, we would have the monthly bank statements detailing the amounts each party contributed from their individual accounts, and we could determine our ownership percentage base on that.

Based on my prenup book, you're able to add a section where you state "Contributions of Separate Property to Community Property: Ownership Will Be Apportioned". In this section could I specify that we will follow the procedure mentioned in the above paragraph? Would this hold up in court?

Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks for your help!

Its not going to fly....sorry. If you make a prenup that tries to state that jointly purchased and owned property will NOT be divided 50/50 in the event of a divorce, your prenup will get overturned so quickly it will make your head spin.

The purpose of a prenup is to protect property owned prior to the marriage...not property that accrues during the marriage.