Marriage contract

What happens to your record collection if you unexpectedly break up? Or to your car?

Until recently, if future spouses didn't make any arrangements with a notary before getting married, they were automatically married in full community of property. This meant that all assets and debts from before the marriage, as well as all assets and debts incurred during the marriage, became jointly owned. Upon divorce, everything had to be divided equally. This is no longer the case. If you marry in the Netherlands after January 1, 2018, and you don't make any arrangements with a notary, you are automatically married in limited community of property. Everything that was private property before the marriage remains private property during the marriage. Assets acquired by spouses during the marriage are jointly owned and will be divided upon divorce.

Reasons for entering into a prenuptial agreement are if one of the two has debts, if one of the two has or is expected to have significant assets, if one of the two or both are entrepreneurs or otherwise run financial risks.

If you want to marry in community of property (together out, together home) or if you want to agree on other prenuptial agreements (for example, the ice-cold exclusion, also known as the Jägermeister variant, where everything remains private and nothing is shared), then take a look at this video.