Marriage is an exciting time. And even if a marriage fails, many are able to find love and enter into another marriage. Since the chances of a new divorce are quite high for the second time, it is important that these spouses take the time to understand how they can protect themselves and their future, especially when it comes to their wealth and retirement. Under the ERISA, a married person`s benefits must be paid to the person`s surviving spouse under an employer`s pension plan, including a plan 401 (k), unless the person receives a waiver from his or her spouse to another beneficiary. The Tribunal found that the absence of a valid waiver of ERISA only affects those who are required to receive benefits from a pension plan. It does not exclude a breach of the contractual remedy against a spouse receiving benefits if the spouse has agreed to take measures that would have allowed the payment of benefits to another person. A post-nuptial iron agreement may be invalidated (unenforceable) for one of the following reasons: not voluntarily signed and notarized by spouses (not only lawyers), predicts predicting custody or assistance to children, to promote divorce, to prevent the filing of domestic violence restriction orders, unacceptably unilateral, assets and debts are not fully disclosed and transferred clearly (reissued) a spouse did not have the mental capacity to enter into the marriage contract and more. If you do not have a pre-marriage contract with your spouse (Tex. Fam.
Code 4.001 (1)) on your retirement accounts, it is likely that in the event of divorce, at least some of these pension accounts would be classified as a collective asset, and therefore below the distribution. According to Chapter 3 of the Texas Family Code, any property held by one of the spouses at the time of the divorce is considered joint property. Community property or marriage property is distributed in divorce. The only property that is not subject to division is a separate property which, as a rule, includes only property belonging to one of the spouses prior to the breakdown of the marriage, property acquired by one of the spouses by a separate gift or heir during the marriage, or that acquired by one of the spouses through a settlement of the claims or a judgment during the marriage.