Marriage is about sacrificing and giving for the one you love. It is about surrendering the whole of you to the person whom you are going to spend your whole life with, well that is with hopeful sense attached to it of course because in reality, not all marriages end with a happy ending. Any marriage can end abruptly with the causes vary accordingly. And in Thailand, it can prove to be among the most practical things to do before marriage.
Some may consider a Thai prenuptial agreement as a sign of greed on the part of the one who is going for it. For the skeptics on the real purpose of a prenup, it is as if the person wants to keep his properties and other assets for himself and has no intention to share these with his future spouse.
But, a Thai prenuptial contract is intended to secure the assets and properties of a person before he marries someone. It is preparing for your own future in case your Thai marriage with a Thai or someone with other nationality will not work out.
Of course, sharing what you have with your spouse is a fundamental element in marriage but looking ahead for something that can happen is being practical.
You may or not know it that before your marriage; your spouse has incurred a lot of debts in her acquisition of properties and other assets. A Thai prenuptial agreement can shield you off from sharing the responsibility to pay during or after the dissolution of marriage. This is possible if you will include within the agreement a clause that will give emphasis about payment of incurred debts.
Anyhow, you can choose to help your wife in paying these debts. You just do not have to continue doing it if the two of you opt for a divorce.
See Divorce in Thailand.
During or after a painful divorce, the question “who rightfully owns what” can be a major problem for you.
If you will did not entered a prenuptial agreement, the divorce proceeding may become lengthy, costly and utterly agonizing for you because the court has to determine who actually owns which property or asset.
A prenup helps set the lines of ownership thereby reducing the possibility of a dragging and stressful litigation process.
Your Thai marriage did not go well already and skirmishes between you and your soon-to-be ex-wife may even lead you to more stress if indeed all the problems leads you to a divorce.
Fighting over assets and pieces of properties can do more damage to you and your wife as a long divorce battle added with litigation expenses and exerting your rights over these can bring you a lot of stress and it can also be emotionally exhaustive which in turn can lead to a turmoil in your civil relationship with your former wife.
A prenuptial agreement has the potential to maintain such civility between you and her because you do not have to go to litigation or you do not have to pay the debt you did not incur before and during your marriage with her.
There is always a possibility that executing a prenuptial agreement in Thailand may be frowned upon by some even if it is already widely used in the country and among those skeptics may be your future wife.
But, you must also think about yourself and your welfare over your assets and properties in case your marriage will be a failure.
Just weigh your options carefully.
