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Eugene Louis Boudin, Coucher de Soleil (detail)
Laurie Israel has been engaged by clients in Massachusetts and in the U.S. nationwide to help them formulate a plan for their prenuptial agreement. This will require review of all assets and interests, and a discussion of the dynamics of the relationship and the goals for the future marriage. Laurie’s consulting services can help the client define the pitfalls that might befall them when entering into a prenup, and to work towards a plan that will eliminate those pitfalls, thus increasing the potential of leading to a financially healthy marriage.
Laurie Israel works as a consultant in Massachusetts and nationwide to prepare people who are thinking about entering into prenuptial agreements. These individuals often have complex interests in assets and have questions about these assets and also about the prenuptial agreement process.
Some of the assets that people entering into a prenuptial agreement might need a clearer understanding about include interests in LLCs or ongoing active businesses, and estate planning that includes sophisticated trusts. Or they might be current or future beneficiaries of complex family trusts, many of them irrevocable. Laurie Israel can consult with her clients, review these interests and financial documents, and explain them in plain English so that clients will have a better understanding of what assets and future interests they might have.
Sometimes people who are already married wish to obtain a more informed understanding of their assets or the assets they might in the future inherit from family members. Laurie can provide the explanation needed, and will screen share documents (such as trusts) in real time, so that clients can obtain a better understanding of their situation, and can better make informed decisions regarding these interests and assets.
Laurie works with clients who, as of yet, may not be formally engaged to a partner, but who are wondering about the implications of asking a significant other about entering into a prenup should the time come. Laurie gives guidance with regard to possible terms and provisions that can be incorporated into prenuptial agreements, should the time come when the client wishes to marry.
Laurie is frequently called upon to consult with the parents who have wealth and who have heard from their advisors that prenups are an important requisite to their child’s marriage. Laurie and the parents will discuss the pros and cons of prenups in their circumstances, possible provisions that might enhance marital happiness, and alternatives to asking a child to have one before marriage. The consult includes the best approaches to their child and his or her intended if a prenup is appropriate in their circumstances. That discussion can include possible effects on the relationship between the child and his or her future spouse, the future spouse and his or her in-laws, and also on family relationships between the soon-to-be two blended families-of-origin.
Laurie Israel regularly provides consulting to attorneys and advisors who are working with clients that are negotiating and drafting prenuptial agreements. Laurie provides assistance, guidance and functions as a resource for them during the process, as well as answering specific prenuptial agreement planning questions. She may also work in tandem with a prenup client and his or her attorney in consultation regarding the many aspects of formulating the actual prenuptial agreement and strategies they may employ in the negotiation process.
Laurie has been engaged on a number of occasions to provide guidance and advice to clients whose engagement ended due to a prenuptial agreement that was deemed unacceptable to a future spouse. Laurie will prepare a complete document review and provide feedback about what terms might have caused the negative reception, and what might be a better approach regarding the terms of a prenup if the future spouse who terminated the engagement reconsiders marrying, or if there arises another opportunity to marry in the future.
Laurie Israel has been called upon by people entering into prenups (sometimes by their parents) to provide second opinions on the contents of a drafted prenup. She then reviews and provide her assessment of the terms and input as to the effects of the prenuptial agreement that has been presented to them for signing. Laurie can give the individual (or the individual and their family) an assessment of the strong points and weaknesses of the agreement in terms of creating or nurturing marital financial health, and can identify red flags which might interfere with marital happiness later.
Choosing an attorney is one of the most important steps you and your future spouse will take as you embark on the prenup process. Attorneys vary greatly in their attitude towards prenups as well as their attitude towards marriage. An attorney’s approach can have a great impact on your prenup and on your relationship.
Attorney input is critical in the prenup process. That is why choosing a suitable, knowledgeable, “marriage-friendly” attorney for your situation is important. It’s a crucial component to keeping the peace in your relationship as you work through the financial terms of your upcoming marriage.
In her capacity as a consultant, Laurie Israel is often asked to identify attorneys who will be able to represent them in the negotiation and drafting of prenuptial and postnuptial agreements.
Finding an attorney that will reflect your wishes and keep in mind provisions that will enhance the health and happiness of your marriage is a very important aspect of the overall process when entering into a prenuptial agreement. One-sided agreements and starkly stingy prenups can be powerful forces that change a loving relationship into a not-so-loving one. The corrosive negativity may carry itself right into the marriage.
Laurie Israel will help you choose appropriate attorneys through a screening and review process in which you (or you and your future spouse if you are working with Laurie in mediation) will be active participants.
Sometimes people in long-term marriages begin to have financial upheavals that can disrupt the harmony and good will they had previously enjoyed in their marriage. People in this situation may begin to explore the possibility of entering into a postnuptial agreement to address this new dilemma.
A postnuptial agreement is a written agreement, similar to a prenuptial agreement, but is negotiated and written after the couple has already married. A postnuptial agreement can reflect changes in their financial situation that is disturbing their marriage and can provide solutions that will alleviate resultant stresses, with the aim of helping the couple keep their marriage intact.
Laurie Israel can assist you by answering your specific postnuptial planning questions and hopefully help you find a beneficial solution to restoring harmony and trust in your marriage.
Laurie Israel began her practice of law as a tax lawyer over 35 years ago. She is admitted to the bar in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and is also admitted to practice in Federal courts, including the Supreme Court of the United States. She is a Martindale-Hubbell AV Preeminent Attorney®.
Over the years, her practice of estate planning and divorce led her to an interest and concentration in prenuptial agreements. She has become one of the preeminent national experts on prenuptial agreements, and has been a presenter to conferences on the topic of prenuptial agreements and mediating prenuptial agreements nationwide.
Laurie has written a comprehensive book on prenups, “The Generous Prenup: How to Support Your Marriage and Avoid the Pitfalls” (Amazon). This book was written with the laperson in mind, but is also used by attorneys and mediators as a comprehensive and fair-minded guide to this often thorny topic.
Laurie now confines her practice to prenuptial and postnuptial agreements. She helps people by mediating and consulting about prenups all over the country, as well as representing clients in Massachusetts.
To contact Laurie Israel, email her at laurie@laurieisrael.com, or use the contact page.