Marriage Contracts

All property that spouses acquire over the course of their marriage is legally regarded as jointly owned. When common property is divided up between spouses, each of them is recognized as having equal rights to it, regardless of the person whose income was actually used to acquire it. This spousal property regimen is ratified in the Family Code of the Russian Federation and is recognized as the legal framework for spouse joint ownership.

However, the Family Code of the Russian Federation gives people the option of concluding a marriage contract as well.  Most often, when two partners do choose to conclude it, the joint ownership framework is switched in favor of a separate spouse ownership regimen.

A marriage contract can establish:

• that the property two spouses acquire over the course of their marriage is (will be) the property of the spouse in whose name it was acquired;
• a separate regimen with respect to the yet-to-be-acquired property;
• a separate regimen for each individual property type, instead of a single regimen extending to everything.

A marriage contract can be concluded both during a marriage and at any point after the marriage has been consummated. In the case that the marriage contract is concluded before the marriage, it goes into effect as of the moment of the marriage's state registration.

Marriage contracts require notarization.

Having a marriage contract signed will help you reduce the likelihood that both spouses will have to undergo an enduring and emotionally painful court process in dividing up their jointly acquired property in the case that they end up divorcing. But the same also mitigates business risks in the case that a separate property regimen is established for a commercial organization’s shares/stock.

Nevertheless, the terms of a marriage contract must not put either one of the spouses in an extremely unfavorable material state, since in that case, a court may end up throwing out the marriage contract.

Our lawyers provide support for marriage contracts, including those that involve a foreign spouse, as well as developing and ironing out all the individual terms. Get in touch with us today!