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As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing Thai Prenuptial Agreements. So with respect to this, premarital agreements generally they are signed prior to marriage; they require the signature and transparency of both parties. They can be a major benefit to those who are getting into a new marital relationship because it does provide full transparency at the outset and it creates a framework of terms and conditions under which assets will be divided in the event of a marital estate dissolution. This can provide a great deal of certainty from the outset of a given relationship as to what would be the outcome of a dissolution and for many different reasons this can be a major benefit. 

Now that said, I have talked to a number of folks in the last couple of weeks about prenuptial agreements and I have noticed that there seems to be a great deal of frustration on the other end of the conversation because folks don't seem to take into account notions of what we call conflict of laws and multi-jurisdictional issues. So for example, Family Law in Thailand has different provisions as well as different formalities associated with not only marriage, but possibly dissolution of marriage and the law pertaining thereto whereas jurisdictions in the United States tend to be relatively uniform from one state to another but the overall framework for Family Law, especially in the context of divorce, dissolution and prenuptial agreements, the body of law regarding that type of thing can be very much, in some instances different, from what operates here in Thailand and these conflicts, these differences between the laws of the two jurisdictions can cause issues down the road. This is why when you are talking to an Attorney regarding prenuptial agreement drafting, you want to speak to someone who has a pretty firm knowledge of how these things play out especially in the context of sort of a Thai - American relationship for example, because you want to talk to somebody who has actually seen how this works.

Look one of the biggest problems I see out there for potential clients and things is getting "Yessed" to death. This is especially true when you get outside of US jurisdictions, physically outside of US jurisdictions because unfortunately, over here in Southeast Asia, there are a number of people who are even just pretending to be lawyers. They are not even real lawyers, they have no qualifications, they have done no studying, they have done no for lack of a better term sort of apprenticeship under other lawyers where they actually learn the way the law works. They are just somebody who basically got on the internet and said "I am a Lawyer". And they oftentimes will make very simplistic assertions regarding how prenuptial agreements will play out in actual practice; how it will play out in the event of an actual divorce and they don't know what they are talking about sometimes. And again, they will often, where I run into real frustration from folks is where they have been told something that they really want to believe and they are just being "Yessed" to death. They are just being told what they want to hear so that basically, I think that basically that practitioner, you can't even call them that, that person who is trying to get their money can get their money, give them a piece of paper that really isn't worth much of anything to them but that person got their money, that "fly by night" operator got their money and they may feel good, it may give them peace of mind that they have this piece of paper but when it really hits the fan for lack of a better term, you are going to want something that actually has some strength behind it in terms of a document that is going to be recognized by a relevant Court and going to be recognized in the context of the multiple jurisdictions that may be at play with regard to the document itself as well as the conflict of Law Doctrines that may come into play when that document is being adjudicated by a Court and being reviewed by a Judge. 

So again, these are things you have got to keep in mind and it is a really good reason why you want to deal with somebody, with legal professionals that have a good understanding of how International Family Law operates in practice.