In the past year, various marriage and love issues have fermented in the field of Internet public opinion, and the confrontation between different genders runs throughout. That's why we've launched a New Year's series that we hope to continue exploring "marriage, sexuality, and intimacy" through three topics.
Some time ago, the divorce incident of Wang Lihong and Li Lianglei attracted the attention of many people. Li Lianglei said in a statement issued on Weibo that before getting married, Wang Lihong signed a prenuptial agreement with himself, and during the divorce period, Wang Lihong also transferred the marital property such as cars and houses.
In addition to gossip, the division of property has become a topic that cannot be bypassed in contemporary marriage.
Domestically, signing a prenuptial agreement is becoming an increasingly common and popular thing.
At the end of 2020, the All-China Women's Federation conducted a large-scale poll on 4,000 people in 10 provinces (autonomous regions) and municipalities in China on "whether it is necessary to notarize the property of both parties before marriage", 48.1% of the respondents were men and 51.9% were women, and the survey results showed that 42.6% of people chose to support and 57.4% chose to oppose.
When dealing with marriage-related cases on a daily basis, Liu Hui of Beijing Zhenbang Law Firm found that more people have consulted her for prenuptial and intranuptial agreements in recent years. This is mainly because of two reasons: one is because the divorce rate and the infidelity rate are rising year by year, and the other is because everyone often looks at some popular law information and has become smarter.
"Feelings belong to feelings, property belongs to property, and prenuptial property agreements are still quite protective for both parties." Now this kind of marriage, it is unstable, and people's emotions are very diverse. Everyone pays attention to the protection of personal property, which is understandable. ”
"Protecting prenuptial property" is the main reason why many people sign prenuptial agreements.
Little K and his fiancée met when they were students, starting as friends, and both knew each other very well. Before deciding to enter into marriage, based on the financial situation of both families, the fiancée proposed to Little K to sign a prenuptial agreement.
"Because of the failure of her family's business in recent years, there have been many debts, and the situation is very unstable." The situation on my side is better, after returning to China, my family will transfer all the pocket money reserved for me in recent years to my name, adding up to about half or sixty thousand; the part of the property in my family under my name, there are three sets in the north, and there is an apartment and a villa in a tourist city in the south. ”
In K's view, in addition to protecting his own property, prenuptial agreements can also minimize the interference and influence of the family. Although he has 5 properties in his name, because they are all gifts from home, his parents have always had a strong intervention in his life and marriage.
For example, when he first returned to China, Little K's father wanted him to settle down in a southern tourist city, because the family had already bought him a house there. "It took me a lot of effort and many arguments with my family to convince them to let me arrange my own life after returning home."
The agreement between Little K and his fiancée mainly stipulates that the property under his name that belongs to this part of the parents will increase in value or income after marriage, hoping to separate this part of the property from the marriage relationship between the two people. "We're thinking, if we sign this agreement, we won't have to listen to our family anymore."
Most couples who choose to marry will also sign a prenuptial agreement before obtaining the license to avoid disputes when choosing divorce. H and his own shape marriage partner met in a Douban group, because both of them have the need to buy a house or change houses, the two hit it off and decided to get married.
He has always been willing to buy a house, but since he is not a native of Shanghai, the other party is only eligible to buy property in Shanghai after officially getting married. And my family will only naturally change me to a better house until I am married. ”
Due to the large difference in economic conditions between men and women, the total price of the house that Xiao H plans to buy is more than 15 million yuan, while the assets that the south can take out for real estate purchases are only 5 million. In this case, Little H's parents, although they did not know that they were married, acquiesced in the purchase of a house and the signing of a prenuptial agreement between the two.
On the day of signing the agreement, Xiao H found that the lawyer in charge had a secretive expression, "May be a little bit of gossip about who advocated signing this agreement, but we didn't talk too much, and quickly signed it and left." ”
Although whether or not to sign a prenuptial agreement is a personal choice for each couple, it points to the fact that the protection of prenuptial property is becoming increasingly important.
When it comes to premarital property protection, many people worry about whether talking about money before marriage will affect the trust and feelings between partners, creating an irreparable rift.
Interestingly, we found in interviews that many people become more willing to enter into marriage after signing an agreement or notarizing their property, and those who have already entered a marriage have more confidence in the relationship.
The IB's choice to sign a property agreement was a bit of a coincidence: the husband wanted to pay his sister a down payment to buy a house, which was only one-sixth of his annual income. While IB happily agreed, it also put forward its own appeal to her husband: both parties should sign an agreement on the financial rules in the future marriage and agree on the principles of financial use at home.
This agreement mainly involves the rules of financial use in marriage, such as how to deal with the annual balance, how to save money to the children each year, how much money to spend on financial management, how much flexible money to keep, how much money to give to both parents, how much money to spend on a daily basis must obtain the consent of the other party, and who keeps the money mentioned above.
After signing this agreement, IB did not feel that there was much change in life, nor did it really strictly implement it in daily life, "mainly to provide a sense of rules in the marriage relationship, and the property arrangements in the future have rules to follow, to avoid disputes, I think it is really good." ”
Million, who is 28 years old, and her boyfriend have been in a different mode, and when they get together, they are mostly AA in terms of expenses. She didn't have a strong desire to marry her boyfriend, but under the pressure of her parents' urging, she began to understand some of the details of signing a prenuptial agreement.
In the view of millions, the marriage relationship can not provide protection for themselves, but may have a negative impact on their rights and interests, so signing a prenuptial agreement is to protect themselves as much as possible.
"I wouldn't choose to get married unless it was very necessary. But if you get married, a prenuptial agreement is still necessary. ”
From a legal point of view, Liu Hui believes that the prenuptial property agreement is a kind of contract between the two parties. Marriage is a small company, and a prenuptial property agreement can frame the rights and obligations of two people.
"Many people after marriage I, said that before getting married, I wanted to write a prenuptial property agreement, I didn't have the good sense to write, and now I regret it very much." Many people will also say, if I had written at that time, would the other party still marry me? But if you know that you will now be given half of your property, it is better not to get married. When you make trouble when you divorce, it actually hurts your feelings even more. ”
Cao Huaining, a national second-level psychological counselor, mentioned that in addition to protecting everyone's premarital property and the interests of marriage, the prenuptial agreement can also prompt the couple to sit down and seriously "talk about money". "The essence of human beings is difficult to change, so before getting married, you need to talk about property, but the purpose of talking is to better understand whether the three views of two people are compatible."
A prenuptial agreement may seem like just a piece of paper, but the protection of prenuptial property is far more complicated than signing an agreement.
Gao Jinding, a lawyer at Beijing Kangda Law Firm, mentioned that in modern society, everyone's property forms are becoming more and more complex, involving real estate, cars, land, equity, bonds and so on. When protecting premarital property, there are also some legally unclear issues.
In his view, the "bride price" is a vague area. In the current Marriage Act, there is only one provision that refers to matters relating to the bride price, but it is not explicitly stated.
"This shows that lawmakers are deliberately avoiding this matter." Because the bride price may originate from the concept of buying and selling marriage in feudal society, and further on, it is the whole family marriage system in the past, which is not suitable in the institutional system of today's society."
However, in reality, when a marriage reaches the step of divorce, the ownership of the "bride price" and whether it belongs to premarital property often become a matter of endless debate between the two parties. "If you ask a lawyer or a magistrate in family matters, he may have to go through the legal provisions himself, because the current regulations are very complicated, and there are many situations and details."
Signing agreements before marriage and notarizing property can also protect the interests of the weak in the marital relationship – in reality, most of the time it is to protect women.
Liu Hui mentioned that in the modern marriage system, women are indeed the weaker party. The wife pays more for childbirth and family, and even sacrifices her career for this reason. In the event of divorce, a prenuptial agreement can help them legally and reasonably protect themselves and secure more property.
"As a female lawyer, I speak to women. Because I saw too many of these things, the woman gave birth to a child, cried and came to me, said she wanted a divorce, and then cried and took the child back to her parents' house, and there was no financial security. ”
Therefore, Liu Hui suggested that women must complete their studies, become an economically independent person, and have certain economic reserves before deciding to marry and have children. Before marriage, I also need to sit down with my other half to talk seriously, "Having children, women must pay more, so we must negotiate with the man: If I want to leave the workplace for a few years, does the man need to give me certain protection?" ”
In the relevant case handled by Liu Hui, there was a woman who received a huge amount of property in divorce because she signed a detailed prenuptial agreement.
The client works in the media, and her husband works as a manager at an Internet company, earning millions a year. Before the marriage, the man had purchased two or three apartments and held some shares in the company. When they got married, the girl asked to sign a prenuptial agreement, and when divorced, the two people's property was half of one person's. The man felt that "marriage is a lifetime", and he readily agreed.
After five or six years of marriage, the man wanted children, but the woman did not want to, and the two had a cold war for a year and finally decided to divorce. At the time of divorce, the man only wanted to give the woman two or three million assets, but in fact, his assets were tens of millions.
"The woman kept the signed property agreements, and in court, when we made copies of these things for the man to see, he was dumbfounded. At that time, I was a little distressed about the man, he watched for half a day, especially regretted, said how can I sign such an agreement? In the end, the case was resolved through mediation and did not come exactly as agreed, but the woman finally received several times more property than the normal division of marital property. ”
But signing an agreement is not once and for all, or more accurately, in this battle for premarital property defense, it is difficult to find a complete winner: winning both the property and avoiding psychological harm.
Cao Huaining mentioned that some people will feel that signing a prenuptial agreement can "save trouble", but from the perspective of emotional development, it cannot help many women solve problems, improve relationships, and continue to maintain marriage, which is an important demand of many women when their marriage relationship is in crisis.
In Cao Huaining's view, the current situation in China is that divorced women often face greater pressure and difficulties in their emotional lives than men, and women in the second marriage market are actually quite passive. Prenuptial property agreements protect their financial rights, but they do not guarantee a happy marriage.
"What really gives protection is your understanding of the person's character and character before marriage, and the prenuptial agreement can only protect your personal property in the event of divorce, but there is no guarantee for your feelings, which is the embarrassment in marriage."
Regarding the precautions for signing prenuptial agreements and notarizing prenuptial property, Gao Jinding and Liu Hui both gave their own suggestions:
In the field of marriage and family, agreements take effect as soon as the name is signed. If you are worried that the other party will not approve or play tricks, you can record, video and go to the notary office to testify to the authenticity of the agreement through evidence preservation.
When signing an agreement, the two people should agree on all the terms, discuss with each other, and write each one clearly. For example, is the income after marriage counted as the joint property of the husband and wife? Should the legal estate be written in?
Although the prenuptial agreement has a legal effect, in the event of divorce, one party can still file a lawsuit, and the court will rule and mediate according to the actual situation.
Interview: Kong Mingming & Potted Plants
Edit: Echo
Some of the image sources come from Visual China