January 27, 2012

Premarital Financial Counseling: If a groom brings debt into the marriage, can the wife be sued?

By admin in Money Before Marriage Lesson

The second show yesterday was with Allie Theiss. One of the questions she asked was such a good premarital financial counseling question that I decided to share that here. The question was: If a husband brings debt into a marriage, after he and his current wife have been married for five years let's say the company sues him because he didn't keep up with the loan payments. When the company sues him, they also go after the wife. Is she liable? This was such a good question. The original loan did not contain the wife's name and the company should not be able to add her to the lawsuit. She can prove that she was not a part of the original loan and should ask that she is removed. This is another reason it is so important to talk prior to getting married and discussing what financial obligations are being brought into the marriage on behalf of both people. There's nothing like a new husband or a wife not knowing about certain financial obligations; then one day when they are at work they get the mail and see the notices. Or they are answering the home phone and it's a collector on the other end WHICH surprises you, because you thought the bills were being paid on time. It is also rather difficult to clean up when the money manager is not paying the bills on time. I invite you to listen to the complete interview that I had with Allie Theiss - the chatroom was also jumping at the same time. Be sure to leave your comments.

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