What to include in a prenup

Every solid agreement starts with schedules listing each partner's assets and debts with honest values: property, vehicles, savings, KiwiSaver balances, business interests, trust interests, student loans and other debts. Full disclosure is protective, not intrusive. An agreement signed on incomplete information is one of the easiest for a court to set aside later.

Under the Act, the family home is generally relationship property shared equally regardless of who bought it or whose name is on the title. If one of you owns the house you will both live in, or is contributing a much larger deposit, say exactly what happens to the house and its value: does it stay separate, is the deposit ringfenced with growth shared, or does it become shared on a timeline? This single clause is why many de facto couples sign an agreement before moving in.

The part of KiwiSaver earned during the relationship is generally relationship property, as are wages and what they buy. Decide whether pre-relationship balances stay separate (usual), and whether contributions during the relationship are shared or separate. The same logic applies to savings accounts and investments: pick a rule you can actually live by, because an agreement that says separate while you pool everything in practice invites argument later.

A business or farm needs rules for ownership, income drawn from it, and any increase in its value during the relationship, which can otherwise become relationship property. Interests in a family trust need specific drafting, because trust property has its own rules and an agreement that ignores the trust protects less than people assume. Expected inheritances and family gifts are usually classified as separate property, including what they are converted into.

Classify debts as clearly as assets: whose student loan, whose credit card, what happens to debt secured on a separate asset. Then say what happens in the two end scenarios. On separation: who keeps what, how anything shared is valued and divided, and any time-based adjustments you have agreed. On death: how the agreement interacts with your wills, because the Act gives a surviving partner choices a will cannot override on its own.

Care arrangements for children and child support cannot be locked in by a contracting out agreement; they are governed by their own legislation and always subject to the children's welfare. Lifestyle clauses common in American pop culture have no place in a NZ agreement. And terms so one-sided they leave a partner with nothing invite a court to find serious injustice and set the agreement aside, so drafting for fairness is drafting for durability.