Cohabitation and Marriage Agreements  

Did you know that even if you don’t marry your partner, if you live together for more than two years, you have support and property obligations to each other under the Family Law Act?  Did you know you can choose to enter an agreement where YOU decide together how your money will be divided or not divided instead?  Did you also know such an agreement does not need to be signed before a marriage (even though people think of them as prenups)?

We offer a package to help you get started.

Designing Our Future Together is a workbook created for couples who want a positive, future-focused approach to working out the legal and financial complexities of choosing to do life together. We combine the workbook with an 1 hour consultation to help you determine what you need in order to approach the future with confidence. 

Our Resource Package provides you with the Designing Our Future Together workbook so you can prepare together for the consultation with me. At that consultation, we will discuss what role I can play in supporting you – whether as mediator for both of you, or lawyer/advisor to one of you.  We can then make a plan for what needs to be done and I can give you an informed prediction on the costs to complete everything, including flat fee options.

For more information on the workbook, click here

Contact us for more information or to schedule a phone call

Drafting agreements for common law spouses and married couples can:

  • create financial certainty for both parties

  • reduce future stress and conflict if separation occurs

  • ensure that property is divided or not divided according to your wishes as a couple, not just the law in place at the time, if separation occurs

  • outline specific agreements if one or both of you is entering the relationship with substantial assets or debts

  • protect substantial assets that either party expects to acquire during the marriage, through a family business, an inheritance, a settlement or court award, or a gift

Discussing and making these decisions in advance can help both of you avoid some of the anger, animosity and expense that can come during and after separation. These agreements are particularly important for clients who are embarking on a second or third marriage, entering a relationship later in life or who have significantly more assets than their partner. 

Any signed agreement is binding as a legal contract and may be enforced by the courts.  But most of all, such an agreement brings peace of mind to both of you and provides a context for important financial conversations.