Getting Married? Whoo-hoo! Now, Read How to Protect Your Dough
Love and money – what you need to know:
So you are getting hitched! Congrats, now here’s how to safeguard your dough.
So you independent ladies out there, you found a nice partner, who treats you well, makes you laugh and listens to you, he/she is the full package. Now you are thinking about joining lives. Do you know, I mean, do you really know about his/her finances? Sure discussing money is not uber romantic, BUT we ladies need to take care of business.
Full disclosure here, I am getting married in 2018. My manfriend is 2 years older than me, fun, tall (I’m 5’9 so this was very important to me) and is financially independent – this is VERY sexy.
So as we are looking to join our lives I started to think about the top things that we need to be aware of when it comes to getting married. I spoke with Josee Deschamps, Notary to get some answers:
How do people protect their assets before they tie the knot?
It all depends on where you live, since we are in the Province of Quebec, there are 2 types of matrimonial regimes :
Partnership of Acquests
Separation as to Property
How are these similar or different from each other?
Partnership of Acquests
In this regime, this is applied automatically to all marriages in Quebec since July 1st 1970 if the couple did not choose a matrimonial regime in a notarized marriage contract.
Everything that you acquire from the day of your marriage to the end of the marriage is 50-50 , this is 50% of all assets and 50% of all debts that is related to the marriage.
Separation as to Property
This is a marriage contract. Usually this is done before getting married. This regime is like the saying what’s mine is mine, what’s yours is yours.
This marriage contract needs to be completed 3-6 months before the wedding.
Each person in the marriage is seen as independent and responsible for themselves and their own property. The main item is that each spouse can manage, use and dispose of their property without the spouses consent and each spouse is responsible for their own debts.
Unlike the Partnership of Acquests or Community of Property the property accumulated during this marriage is NOT partitioned or divided under this regime.
All of their assets that they had before the wedding (property – stock, retirement plan, fully paid houses, etc…) is their own. All of the assets that they acquire during the marriage is divided.
The only exception is the value of the Family Property. If the couple breaks up, each spouse takes back their own property. Any property owned by both spouses is divided in equal share, unless there is proof that there is another arrangement.
When it comes to the family property, this is called Family Patrimony. Items include in Family Patrimony include The Family Home(s), Objects furnishing or decorate the family House, Family Car(s), money saved in a Retirement Plan during the marriage.
(source: EducaLoi)
Are there items that are not included in Family Patrimony?
There certainly is, items like a stock portfolio or a TFSA these are not included. Neither is gifts or inherited property.
What are the steps that people need to do before they get married?
The first thing that people should do is connect with a notary before the wedding. I recommend that people reach out 6 months before the wedding so that we can speak about their needs, review their assets and discuss which matrimonial regime they would like to choose.
Once this meeting is completed, we will create a list of items that the couple will need to provide to the notary, ie: evaluation of house, documentation of each asset, financial statements, etc.
Once the notary has all of these documents he/she will draw up the papers and then meet with the couple again to review and have the documents signed.
Summary
So there you have it, a few things to think about before tying the knot; yes I know that it’s not very romantic but it’s necessary.