Pennsylvania Family Law Blog

The Huffington Post reports that Elizabeth Hurley and her husband Arun Nayar are divorcing after three years of marriage. However, Hurley disregarded one major precaution most celebrities take before marrying: having a pre-nuptial agreement.

Hurley could potentially lose a significant amount of her fortune because of this oversight. The British actress is said to have over £13 million (over $17 million USD), including a £4.3 million (approximately $5.7 million USD) mansion in South-West England as well as a £2.5 million (about $3.3 million USD) townhouse in London, which her ex-boyfriend Hugh Grant co-owns.

A source close to the soon-to-be divorced couple says that a pre-nuptial agreement would have been a deal breaker for Nayar.

It can be uncomfortable to discuss having a pre-nuptial agreement with your significant other before marriage. However, it can help both you and your future spouse plan ahead for unexpected events in the future, which is a wise thing to do, no matter a person’s social or economic standing, or whether they are a celebrity or not. Besides offering asset protection, a pre-nuptial agreement can also protect one spouse from the other’s separate debts. Additionally, the agreement can protect a spouse’s pension benefits and retirement funds from the other.

In the case of Elizabeth Hurley, when a spouse is wealthier than the other and no pre-nuptial agreement was made prior to the marriage, the spouse that is poorer can make a claim on a portion of the richer spouse’s money, or even demand to receive other assets such as a house.

At The Law Offices of Sheryl R. Rentz, our Pennsylvania family law attorneys can work with you and your future spouse to draft a pre-nuptial agreement that is fair and satisfies both parties. Call us at 610-645-0100 today to schedule a free consultation and to learn more about pre-nuptial agreements in Pennsylvania.

A San Francisco Chronicle article has brought to light the recent increase in the number of pre-marital agreements (also referred to as a pre-nuptial agreement or prenuptial) currently being filed by Americans. Just a few decades ago, pre-marital agreements were adopted almost solely by the wealthy. However, in today’s modern age, more and more middle class couples are choosing to enter in pre-marital agreements prior to officially tying the knot.

Interestingly, a recent poll by the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers (AAML) discovered that women are typically the ones to initiate a pre-marital agreement, doing so about 52% of the time, according to a survey of divorce lawyers in the United States. Speculatively, this could be attributed to the fact that the number of working wives has steadily increased over the years. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, about 46% of the workforce is now comprised of women, with numbers continually rising each year. With a greater number of women working and earning larger salaries than they did in years’ past, women have generally developed an increasingly higher interest in protecting their assets, which a pre-marital agreement offers.

A pre-marital agreement can include more than just asset protection. Such agreements can protect a person from their spouse’s separate debts, and can also protect one spouse’s retirement funds and pension benefits from the other, an very good step to take given today’s dire economic climate. The poll by AAML actually revealed a 36% increase in the number of couples who decided to include clauses dealing with retirement or pension benefits in their pre-marital agreement.

While it can be rather unsettling to discuss pre-marital agreement details with your significant other, an experienced and highly skilled Pennsylvania family law attorney can help you and your future spouse plan ahead for the contingencies of life. No matter your social or economic stratum, it is always a good idea to plan for the future, and signing a Pennsylvania pre-marital agreement can help prevent a costly dispute in the event that your marriage doesn’t work out for the best. The Pennsylvania family law attorneys at The Law Offices of Sheryl R. Rentz can help negotiate a fair pre-marital agreement for you and your spouse. Call our office today at 610-645-0100 for a free consultation and to find out more about Pennsylvania pre-marital agreements.

In any Philadelphia child custody case, every pertinent detail needs to be carefully examined in order to determine what course of action should be taken in order to keep the best interest of the child in mind at all times. However, in cases where parents are members of the armed services, the details surrounding custody arrangements can be especially complicated.

Recent legislature passed in the House, and now in the hands of the Senate, seeks to create a nationwide norm in regard to considerations given to parents who are deployed by the military and how such deployment can affect child custody arrangements.

According to armytimes.com, Rep. Michael Turner, R-Ohio, sponsored the bill, which seeks to assist deployed military personnel in their child custody cases. Specifically, the bill hopes to disallow deployment (past, present, and future) from being negatively used against an individual serving in the military. While fifteen states already have legislation in place to prevent deployment from being used against military personnel, those states do not argue that the federal government should not set a precedent for how state courts must examine child custody cases. It should be noted that the proposed legislature only applies to instances of deployment related to contingency operations. The bill has previously been rejected four times in the past.

There are a variety of factors that need to be taken into account during any Pennsylvania child custody case. For individuals in Pennsylvania seeking to gain custody of their children, or hoping to maintain their current child custody arrangement, the best course of action should involve retaining the services of an experienced Philadelphia child custody attorney. For more information regarding child custody arrangements, please contact the Law Offices of Sheryl R. Rentz today at 610-645-0100 for a free consultation.