Marriage in the US and Puerto Rico

[Ladylethal 12]

I've been looking for the laws on what's the legal agreement in a marriage when there's no prenup.

What I am wondering is if we don't make a prenup, what assets will communicate in case of a divorce, everything we have or only what was acquired together after the marriage takes place? The thing is, we want to share everything that is ours, but we don't want to include what we'll gain in case of inheritance from our parents, since that would make them happy.

In Brasil the legal regimen for a marriage is exactly partial communion of assets, meaning that what we had before doesn't count, but I wonder how these things work in US and Puerto Rico, to know if we'll need a prenup or not.

[Mew 0]

* Community property. In Alaska, Arizona, California, Idaho, Louisiana, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, Washington,Wisconsin and Puerto Rico, all property of a married person is classified as either community property (owned equally by both spouses) or the separate property of one spouse. At divorce, community property is generally divided equally between the spouses, while each spouse keeps his or her separate property.

* Equitable distribution. Assets and earnings accumulated during marriage are divided equitably (fairly). In practice, often two-thirds of the assets go to the higher wage earner and one-third to the other spouse. Equitable distribution principles are followed everywhere except the community property states listed above.

http://www.taylorlawfirm.net/CM/Custom/Family-Law-FAQs.asp

A husband and wife may own property together during the marriage. This occurs automatically in community property states. Ten states: Alaska, Arizona, California, Idaho, Louisiana, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, Washington, and Wisconsin, as well as Puerto Rico, use the community property system. These jurisdictions hold that each spouse shares equally the income earned and property acquired during a marriage. This is true even if one spouse supplied all the income. In the other states, spouses generally share property under one of the following three forms of co-ownership:...

http://family.findlaw.com/marriage/marriag...-basics(1).html

[Ladylethal 12]

Thanks Mew, we've decided to use the legal marriage regimen anyway.

We just thought of a prenup to include any inheritance we might one day get from our families, 'cus we want ours to be what we gain together, since both of us are starting with nothing. But it will take time, money and it's trouble so we gave up on the idea.