To celebrate the Fourth of July, JustPrenups reminds you of our discount for veterans and military members.

JustPrenups offers this discount to service people because we realize that our military makes many sacrifices as part of their job, including the toll on their personal lives. Unfortunately, relationships and marriages are often the sacrificial lambs of protecting our country. We continue to offer this discount in recognition of veterans’ and military personnel’s efforts. We understand that even a vibrant, dynamic, successful relationship or marriage can be tested both during and after service.

The reality is that military members have a higher divorce rate than the average civilian population. Soldiers are more likely than civilians to end up divorced and to experience more challenges when they go through litigation. Soldiers aren’t the only ones to suffer from service-related stress. The same stressors impact their spouses: “According to a study on military spouse mental health, 1 out of 8 military spouses screened positive for a major depressive episode and 1 out of 6 experienced generalized anxiety. These rates are nearly double the general population and are similar to service members after combat.”

A prenuptial agreement can offer unique reassurance to a serviceperson in keeping all or most potential issues in a divorce or annulment out of family court – a court that soldiers may not be able to attend in person if they are on deployment or otherwise engaged in military duties. Attending an alimony hearing on Zoom simply isn’t the same thing as meeting the judge in person to determine one’s future, especially if the situation is soured, leaving spouses-turned-litigants fighting for their property as they leave the marriage.

Additionally, time away from loved ones and other aspects of military life may take a toll on mental health. Add a litigated divorce to the pile, and your emotional wellbeing can hit its breaking point.

Military divorces create unique challenges for the attorney representing the servicemember. Not all family law attorneys are equipped to deal with the particulars of military divorces, such as handling a Thrift Savings Plan (TSP) or a Survivor Benefit Plan (SBP) and dealing with the potential complexities in a military pension. As a result, a soldier may need to hire a far more expensive attorney than a civilian who possesses the usual assets, retirement package, earnings projection, and liabilities, and who will usually be available easily within the country and/or state for hearings.

A pricey attorney is not an inevitable cost for a soldier seeking divorce. There’s a way around divorce litigation costs. The solution is to stop issues from landing in divorce court in the first place through a prenup.

Couples who are married may enter into a postnuptial agreement, which contains largely the same content, function, and effect as a prenup. A postnup is executed at some point after the marriage occurs whereas the prenup is signed before the wedding vows.

In particular, the postnuptial agreement is a good fit for plenty of situations, including not but limited to the scenarios below:

1.    A postnuptial contract may provide an ideal solution for a married couple in which one or both partners feel anxiety over the financial future, whether or not there is conflict in the relationship.

2.    A postnup may augment the couple’s estate planning and memorialize their intentions for future heirs.

3.    A postnuptial agreement can determine the distribution of assets and liabilities as well as cover other relationship grounds, thereby giving the couple time and a structured plan to regroup while they evaluate the future together.

4.    A postnup may address financial planning into the future for a military couple who has experienced, or who anticipates, a change of circumstances (such as a new disability), a change of duty, or a change in pay, etc.

5.    A postnup may allow you to “quiet quit” your marriage, whatever your reasons may be.

May the Fourth be with you as we offer our appreciation for the sacrifices made by our veterans and military servicepeople.

Whether you are in the military or a civilian, you can talk to us about your needs through a free consultation via Zoom.

Not sure if your situation is best suited to a prenup? Need to learn more about a mediated prenup or postnup instead of lawyering up on both sides?

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Warning: All posts on this website contain general information about legal matters for broad educational purposes only. This information is not legal advice and should not be treated as such. This blog post does not create any attorney-client or mediator-client relationship between the reader and JustPrenups.com.