Marriage Contract Explainer

Plenty of half-truths circulate about marriage contracts: that they are only for the rich, a bad omen, or that you can regulate anything in them. None of that is quite right. A marriage contract is simply the option to adapt the statutory property regime to your life situation - especially sensible when self-employment, a business, a large wealth gap, or children from earlier relationships are involved. The marriage contract explainer takes the fear out of the topic and makes it graspable.

The starting point is the property regime. Without a contract you automatically live in the community of accrued gains: each keeps their own assets, but the growth earned during the marriage is equalised on divorce. The alternatives are separation of property, where there is no equalisation, and the modified community of accrued gains, which builds a middle path - for example by taking the business out of the equalisation while everything else stays shared. The tool explains the three models with their consequences for divorce and inheritance.

An interactive quiz helps with the honest question: do you even need a marriage contract? For many couples the statutory regime is entirely sufficient and a contract would be needless effort. For others - business owners, very unequal assets, blended-family constellations - it can bring tangible advantages. The explainer walks you through the criteria instead of forcing a blanket answer on you.

With the clauses comes the most important warning: unconscionability. A marriage contract may not one-sidedly and unreasonably disadvantage one partner. Waivers of pension equalisation or maintenance, for instance, can be void if they leave the weaker party unprotected, especially where childcare is involved. The explainer marks critical clauses so you do not draft a contract a court later strikes down.

Because a marriage contract must be notarised, the notary costs are part of it. They follow the GNotKG and depend on the transaction value, essentially the spouses' assets. The built-in calculator gives you a realistic estimate so you know what you are getting into before the notary appointment.

Finally there is a checklist for exactly that appointment: which documents to bring, which points to have discussed beforehand, and which questions to ask the notary. The tool replaces neither notary nor lawyer - both are indispensable for a marriage contract - but it ensures you enter the conversation informed and on equal footing. Everything runs in your browser without your wealth data being stored.