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The purpose of the marriage contract is to organize the financial and patrimonial framework of each of the spouses. The choice of the type of contract is made according to the couple’s vision of the division of property: separate everything, share everything or a little of both. What are the advantages and disadvantages of each contract?
What is the marriage contract used for?
When a couple gets married without establishing a marriage contract , the legal contract applies. That is to say the community reduced to acquests. This contract may not be suitable for the spouses who could then wish for another matrimonial regime. Very often, the establishment of a marriage contract is done when one of the spouses is much richer than the other, or when a spouse wants to facilitate the transmission of his property to his spouse in the event of the death of the spouse. -this. .
If we want to share all the goods
If the spouses want to share everything, the contract is that of the universal community. All the property of each of the spouses acquired before and after the marriage or the property received as an inheritance or as a gift, de facto belongs to the couple. The spouses are also responsible for all the debts they have contracted jointly or individually.
It is often the elderly who opt for this contract in order to prevent their succession from being opened after the death of the first of them.
If we want to separate the goods
It is then the regime of separation of property. Each spouse retains what belonged to him before the marriage and what he will acquire during the marriage. Current property acquired during the marriage and of which neither spouse can prove that he is the sole owner will be considered as common.
As for the debts, each will answer for those which are his, without the creditors being able to sue his spouse on the property which belongs to him alone.
Sharing but also separating ownership
It is participation in acquisitions. We operate, during marriage, as in a situation of separation of property. But at the dissolution of the marriage, the fruit of the common enrichment is shared equally. This type of contract is little used because it is difficult to implement.
DAMY law firm , Nice, Which marriage contract to choose? 2022
