Real estate purchase, baby, illness… A lawyer specializing in family law explains to us why it is crucial to take stock of your marriage at each major stage of life, even when you are not considering divorce.
In a relationship, the word “lawyer” has something terrifying: it necessarily implies divorce, which is even more conflictual. No one imagines spending a romantic afternoon in a law firm, when everything is going well and separation is not even considered. However, this is what Maître Chloé Belloy recommends. “Many people procrastinate because they think it’s a way of assuming the worst, that it’s not romantic. But it’s precisely when everything is going well that we need to think about these questions. When you take out home insurance, it’s not so your house burns down, it’s to protect you.”explains the lawyer specializing in family law.
The observation is simple: nearly 8 out of 10 couples ignore the marriage contract, and find themselves under the default regime without necessarily knowing the details. Moreover, almost a third of married couples do not even know their own matrimonial regime, and therefore what it legally implies. And even among couples who made an informed choice, the vast majority never reread the contract after having signed it at the notary years earlier. In the event of divorce or death, it is often a cold shower: we discover the rules that apply when it is already too late to change them. However, Chloé Belloy teaches us that it is possible to modify your matrimonial regime “at any time” over the course of his life, to best adapt to the couple’s current situation. This is why she advises consulting a lawyer at every major step, “as long as there is still a dialogue possible”.
“The acquisition of real estate, expatriation, stopping work, the birth of children, illness, accident, loss of job… It is during these major life situations that things must be reviewed.” Indeed, a relationship is made up of many changes, and it is essential to ask yourself each time: “Is our marital regime still fair compared to what we planned?” Chloé Belloy gives us several examples of situations, for which the “heritage strategy” is different each time, and needs to be discussed with a professional: “Imagine a couple who have been separated from their property all their lives, but they are 60 years old, their children are grown up, there is still a high probability that they will end their lives together… Perhaps they would have an interest in moving to a community regime to protect the other a little more.”
But the opposite is also possible: “Let’s take a couple where one of them sets up their own company, with fairly risky loans. If they were in community, perhaps it would be better to move to a regime of separation of property to protect the spouse’s assets?suggests the lawyer, recalling however that there are some legal subtleties to take into account. For example, to liquidate the community, it is then necessary to pay a sharing fee to the State. A heavy compulsory tax, which many discover precisely at the time of divorce.
Concretely, the lawyer will look “what you have, your situation today, your assets, your income, your income differences, your investments, how you manage things, what are each of your rights and duties, what are your desires, and what can we do to ensure that everyone is safe and not frustrated”. Then, it’s a matter of rebalancing everything so that the couple’s desires correspond to the legal possibilities: “It’s really an area in which we can be totally tailor-made.”
Of course, this audit of the marriage contract has a cost. Fees depend on the lawyers and the needs of the couple in question: “It can be very simple, in a single appointment to understand the risks and functioning of your plan, or very personalized and in-depth in several stages” if there are changes and other legal maneuvers to be expected. At Me Belloy, the hourly rate is 450 euros excluding tax. A budget which is of course not within everyone’s reach, but which allows you to avoid potential unpleasant surprises at the worst time: “Even for us, it’s frustrating to have to break bad news to people at a time in their lives when it’s already complicated.”underlines the lawyer.
