Within popular culture, prenuptial agreements often get presented as a hurdle to true love or marriage. In the 2003 romantic screwball comedy movie, Intolerable Cruelty, George Clooney and Catherin Zeta-Jones’s characters dramatically rip apart prenuptial agreements as a sign of their love. But this is an overly simplistic view of what can be an essential tool in protecting a hard-built business and its assets.
Far from complicating love, a well-structured prenuptial agreement can protect a business owner from bad actors like those depicted in Intolerable Cruelty and the many real-life examples from celebrity culture to regular Americans. Prenuptial agreements aren’t just for the lifestyles of the rich and famous; they can benefit anyone who needs a protective hedge when complicated emotions like love are involved.
This article will walk through the basics of prenuptial agreements in Texas, how they function, and common pitfalls people make with them. As always, the best way to ensure proper asset and business protection through vehicles like a prenuptial agreement is to get an experienced attorney in Texas, or whatever state you reside.
What is a Texas Prenuptial Agreement?
A prenuptial agreement (prenup for short) is a contractual arrangement signed before marriage, which meets all the requirements under the Texas Family Law Code. These agreements “establish the property and financial rights of each spouse in the event of a divorce.” While divorce may not ever occur, a prenuptial agreement covers one’s bases, similar to putting in place legal backstops to protect a business from the unexpected.
Texas additionally provides a way to enter into the equivalent of a prenup after marriage. This kind of agreement performs all the same functions as a prenuptial agreement. However, the law calls them “marital property agreements.”
Generally speaking, everything in this article that applies to a prenuptial agreement also pertains to a marital property agreement. The only difference is whether the parties sign the contract before or after signing the marriage license. One caveat to that, courts often look at “attempting to defraud creditors by converting community property to separate property. The Texas Family Code provides that this is something that allows for a marital property to be invalidated.”
But in a nutshell, if you’re looking to protect assets before marriage, a prenuptial agreement is the way to go. If you’re already in a marriage, you can still protect those assets via a marital property agreement.
Prenuptial Agreement versus Cohabitation Agreements
One new type of contractual arrangement that’s grown in popularity is the cohabitation agreement. Whereas prenuptial and marital property agreements focus on the assets and status of two individuals within the bounds of marriage, cohabitation agreements function outside marriage. Cohabitation agreements to set forth asset and property rights, and instructions on who pays for bills, groceries, and other expenses when two people are living together, but not married.
In Texas, Family Law attorneys recommend cohabitation agreements, especially when “one of the partners has a significantly higher net worth or annual earnings than the other.” Breakups can happen in a cohabitation relationship too. Setting things out in writing can “safeguard assets, avoid contentious, costly litigation, and clarify other wishes should they decide to split up.”
One of the primary reasons for setting out a cohabitation agreement is to avoid falling under the legal definition of common-law marriage. Even if marriage is not on the radar, you can’t presume assets are protected in a cohabitation relationship, or just “living together.”
As an example, a judge in Tennessee decided to treat a cohabitating couple like a business. They lived together for six years, entered several business ventures, but ultimately broke up. The court ended up agreeing with the woman’s argument that their relationship functioned like a business partnership, and the judge divided the property accordingly. If protecting assets or business is essential to you, it’s vital to set it out in contractual language. One cannot presume that protection exists by simply avoiding marriage or prenups altogether.
Common-law marriage in Texas
Another possibility mentioned briefly is that a couple living together can unknowingly fall into the legal definition of common law marriage. This situation arises when a couple lives together, never gets formally married, but represents themselves as married to the world. It’s important to note: “Texas is one of the few states that recognize common law marriage.” Chapter 2.401, the Texas Family Code, lays out three elements for a common-law marriage:
- The couple has agreed to be married;
- The couple has agreed to live together as husband and wife;
- The couple has represented themselves as a married couple to others.
Aside from that, the couple must have the legal ability to enter into marriage. This fact means that the people involved must be above the legal age of 18, not related, and not married to another person.
The critical part here is that if you’re living together and representing yourselves as a married couple, it increases the odds a court will treat you as a married couple. In the event of a breakup, that means the court can apply all traditional forms of family law to divvy up assets.
Traditionally, a common-law marriage gets ascertained upon breakup or “divorce.” But theoretically, you can form a common-law marriage and then on the backside, draft a marital property agreement to protect assets, as you would in a post-nuptial contract.
This very thing happened in a Texas case where a couple got married and then divorced after 15 years of marriage. The court found that the man and woman immediately entered a common-law marriage on the day of their divorce. They divorced only to allow their daughters to become US citizens and receive favorable admissions and scholarship opportunities in college. They maintained they were married and entered into several marital contracts. The result was Texas granting the lower judge’s decision to split up the man’s business, to divide all marital property rightly.
Theoretically, it’s possible to enter into a prenuptial agreement before establishing a common-law marriage. It is unlikely any attorney would recommend such a setup because not all states recognize common-law marriage. And so if you end up moving to such a state, without the legal status of a common-law marriage, a judge in these states could ignore a prenuptial agreement divide property by other means.
The overarching point here is that courts have a litany of ways to deal with a couple that breaks up inside or outside the confines of marriage. If protecting your business or assets is vital in a relationship, it’s best to set out those protections in contractual language. A prenuptial agreement is the most straightforward means of doing that, especially the parties, desire a long-term relationship.
The Texas prenuptial agreement versus other states
In 1983, the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws put together the Uniform Premarital Agreement Act (UPAA). It set forth a recommended set of uniform standards for states to follow. In 2012, they updated this act to form the Uniform Premarital and Marital Agreements Act (UPMAA) to reflect developments over 30 years. Texas is one of 28 states that has enacted either the UPAA or UPMAA.
The other 22 states, while not following theses uniform acts, do allow for premarital agreements. However, the requirements will differ from that of Texas and the majority of other states. The effect of these uniform acts has been to create nationalized standards for the same kinds of forms nationwide. The critical part for non-lawyers is that it shifts the burden from worrying about different agreement standards to occasionally updating the forms to reflect new assets. This shift makes these agreements similar to updating an estate plan.
Federal laws that apply to all prenuptial agreements, regardless of the state
Before jumping into the specific requirements of a prenuptial agreement, there are two crucial federal law points. In general, while most prenuptial agreements and family law issues get overseen by state law, federal law can intersect or preempt prenuptial agreements. These federal laws preempt state law.
ERISA
The most important of this is the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA). ERISA “sets minimum standards for most voluntarily established retirement and health plans in private industry to provide protection for individuals in these plans.” For our purposes, the critical part is the section of ERISA that deals with premarital agreements. ERISA “does not permit a premarital waiver of a survivor annuity or lump-sum death benefit under a qualified plan.”
ERISA becomes more critical with people who have “sizable pension plans,” though it can apply in any ERISA claim. As an example, a 2006 case out of Kentucky shows how ERISA can complicate a prenuptial agreement even for attorneys:
David Sandler died, and even though he was an attorney whose own firm drew up the contracts, his prenuptial agreement didn’t work out as planned. Although he thought that he had arranged his affairs so that, after his death, his company retirement plan would go to the children of his first marriage and not his new wife, it didn’t work out that way, because his prenuptial agreement wasn’t valid to eliminate his new wife’s interest in his pension plan.
His new wife got it all, even though she signed a prenuptial agreement waiving her future pension rights as a spouse.
Prenuptial agreements waiving spousal pension rights don’t work, because only a spouse can waive pension rights on a company plan under ERISA. A spouse doesn’t sign a prenuptial agreement. It is signed by a fiancé who isn’t a spouse, even if it is signed one second before the wedding. Only a spouse can waive ERISA rights, not a non-spouse.
Because ERISA creates rights for a spouse, that only a spouse can waive, a standard prenuptial agreement can be rendered ineffective. In an article for the American Bar Association, one attorney suggests that “[a]dditional steps are required after marriage to make a premarital agreement waiver effective. The premarital agreement should include an obligation on the part of the spouse to take these steps, and the participant should be advised about what he or she must do after marriage.”
The many steps required to handle an ERISA situation in a prenuptial agreement requires more space than an article like this one. If this is a situation you may encounter, it’s best to talk with a Texas attorney with experience handling ERISA cases. Because it’s a federal law, the ERISA benefits will apply in any state, regardless of whether its a UPAA/UPMAA jurisdiction or not.
Department of Homeland Security Visas and Prenuptial Agreements
A second less common, but no less serious situation is when immigration law intersects with prenuptial agreements. If an American citizen plans to marry a non-citizen, and the goal is for a non-citizen to become a legal US resident, federal law can preempt a prenuptial agreement between the parties.
In the process of sponsoring a non-citizen, the American citizen of the couple is required to file what is known as an “I-864 Affidavit of Support.” As part of filing that affidavit, a contract forms “between the Sponsor of an Immigrant Visa and the US Government that requires the sponsor promise to provide whatever amount of financial support is needed to ensure that the immigrant is financially taken care of by the Sponsor and that the Immigrant will not require government support.” And as one attorney notes:
[I]f the sponsor fails to support the Immigrant as required and the Immigrant incurs debt or seeks financial assistance from the government, the sponsor can be held liable for the debt or the government’s assistance. In other words, the government can sue the sponsor for reimbursement of any funds or expenses it incurs on behalf of the Immigrant.
Because the I-864 Affidavit of Support is an agreement between a person and the government, the terms under it cannot get waived by a prenuptial agreement. Even if the couple divorces, the government can demand or sue for that support. There is also a chance an I-864 could impact how a prenuptial agreement gets structured. However, any analysis would be heavily fact dependant and require an immigration attorney versed in the process.
The requirements, including fees, for an I-864 Affidavit of Support, can be found on the US Customs and Immigration Services website.
How to Form a Texas Prenuptial Agreement
The Texas Uniform Premarital Agreement Act governs all prenuptial agreements. Section 4.203 covers the basic requirements of a prenuptial agreement:
FORMALITIES OF AGREEMENT. (a) An agreement to convert separate property to community property:
(1) must be in writing and:
(A) be signed by the spouses;
(B) identify the property being converted; and
(C) specify that the property is being converted to the spouses’ community property; and
(2) is enforceable without consideration.
(b) The mere transfer of a spouse’s separate property to the name of the other spouse or to the name of both spouses is not sufficient to convert the property to community property under this subchapter.
Those requirements are fundamental, but they do mean that there can be no verbal/oral or handshake agreements. Everything must get agreed to by both parties in writing. Specificity is vital, both parties need to identify assets that get protection under the contract.
What Can I put in a Prenuptial Agreement in Texas?
Those are the requirements for the form of the agreement. The content has a separate section. Section 4.003 governs the content of these agreements:
Sec. 4.003. CONTENT. (a) The parties to a premarital agreement may contract with respect to:
(1) the rights and obligations of each of the parties in any of the property of either or both of them whenever and wherever acquired or located;
(2) the right to buy, sell, use, transfer, exchange, abandon, lease, consume, expend, assign, create a security interest in, mortgage, encumber, dispose of, or otherwise manage and control property;
(3) the disposition of property on separation, marital dissolution, death, or the occurrence or nonoccurrence of any other event;
(4) the modification or elimination of spousal support;
(5) the making of a will, trust, or other arrangement to carry out the provisions of the agreement;
(6) the ownership rights in and disposition of the death benefit from a life insurance policy;
(7) the choice of law governing the construction of the agreement; and
(8) any other matter, including their personal rights and obligations, not in violation of public policy or a statute imposing a criminal penalty.
(b) The right of a child to support may not be adversely affected by a premarital agreement.
The last point is crucial because it is a critical restriction to the wide latitude given in prenuptial agreements. Child support is not something that can get contracted away. While a prenuptial agreement cannot contract away child support, it can protect a new spouse from the old spouses’ obligations.
In the case, In Re Knott, 118 S.W.3d 899 (Tex. App. 2003), a Texas court ruled that lower courts erred, including a new spouse’s income and properties, into consideration of her husband’s child support obligations from a prior marriage. Before marrying, the new wife had signed a prenuptial agreement that kept her income and property and income separate from the husband, which meant the old wife couldn’t use the marriage as a basis for extra child support income.
Sub-section (8) is the catchall provision and effectively allows the parties to stipulate to any measure they so desire that’s not illegal or against the law.
The catchall provision is where we get crazy stories about the prenuptial clauses of celebrities. Charlie Sheen and Denise Richards “signed a prenup that awards a spouse $4 million if the other one cheats.” How that provision got proven would be a litigation point. Keith Urban and Nicole Kidman’s “prenup allegedly nets Urban about $640,000 for every year that he is with Kidman. There is reportedly a clause in the prenup that states if Urban, a former cocaine addict, uses illegal drugs he will not receive a cent of Kidman’s fortune that is estimated at around $150 million. The agreement also states that if the couple has any children together that they are to have joint custody.”
Third parties can also come up in prenuptial agreements. One woman “limited her husband to watching one Sunday football game with friends.” In-laws are also a popular topic. One lawyer drafted a prenuptial agreement, “barring the mother-in-law from sleepover visits. Another prenuptial agreement encouraged one husband to curb his tongue around the in-laws. The consequences? He has to pony up $10,000 each time he’s rude to his wife’s parents.” Couples can also decide how to raise children on everything from vegetarianism to what religion the child gets raised.
The point of these kinds of stories is that state law gives wide latitude to couples and their attorneys to draw up creative solutions to potential marriage problems. These clauses can do everything from dictating a spouse’s weight to the cheating clauses mentioned above.
One lawyer claimed to have written a phrase that said, “Husband’s weight should not exceed 180 pounds, and if it does, he must pay the wife $5,000 for every additional pound annually until back to target weight.” Other lawyers have written clauses on the wife’s baby weight, saying, “Wife must lose all her baby weight in 10 months after having the baby on a schedule.” You can find clauses where couples plan out weekly a sex schedule too.
The Texas Homestead
A Texas prenuptial agreement can also include provisions relating to one of the most sacred of Texas property rights, the Texas homestead. One Texas lawyer shared advice to a woman who was specifically concerned about the Texas homestead right:
Much of the time, when a prenup eliminates all community property from the marriage, it also states that both spouses waive any right to live in a homestead owned by the other spouse. If your agreement does not address this issue, then he would have the right to live in your home rent-free, for the rest of his life, since that is the default Texas rule.
If your agreement is silent, you may now be able to convince your husband to modify the prenup so that he waives that right. But if he is unwilling to sign an amendment, and if the homestead issue is important enough to you, there’s still one sure way to deny him the homestead right: a divorce.
The only restrictions on the kinds of things covered by a prenuptial agreement are legality and child support on non-property related clauses. If both sides agree to the requirement, the court will likely accept whatever restrictions, payouts, or provisions put in the contract. This general rule is subject to several caveats, which we will get into below. However, even with those caveats, this is still an area of wide latitude.
Best practices in drafting a prenuptial agreement in Texas
There are some key points to keep in mind when negotiating and signing a prenuptial agreement in Texas.
No coercion or false inducement
The first point is you cannot spring a prenuptial agreement on anyone, or use pressure to get them to sign. The fictional movie setting where the bride-to-be gets forced into signing a last-minute prenuptial agreement wouldn’t fly in court. As one attorney says, “courts will throw out a prenuptial agreement if a spouse can prove that someone coerced him or her into signing the document.”
A prenuptial agreement is like any other contract in this respect. Both parties have to come to it and agree—coercion cuts against that mutual negotiation of terms. False inducement is wrong as well; you cannot use lies and deceptions to get an agreement signed. If a court sniffs this out, they’ll invalidate the entire contract. If you’re caught in coercing or inducing an agreement, you could false penalties with the court and receive a worse result than not having an agreement at all.
Get separate lawyers
Because a prenuptial agreement is a mutual negotiation between two parties, it’s best for both parties to have independent attorneys representing each person. While one attorney can represent both spouses, courts will look intently for evidence that the attorney favors one spouse over another. Having separate attorneys helps prove that both sides agreed willingly and both eyes open to all the pros and cons of the prenuptial agreement.
Understand what a prenuptial agreement does and doesn’t do
One attorney says the biggest misconception they find with prenuptial agreements in Texas is that parties don’t understand the limitations. “Assets gained as a couple are not protected in a prenup. In other words, you are still required to potentially pay alimony, child support, and any other related fees during separation, regardless of the prenuptial agreement.” It’s also worth remembering that a prenuptial agreement only protects the property both parties bring into the relationship. And if you don’t list the property in the prenuptial agreement, it will be considered marital property in the event of a separation. Specificity is critical in listing out property and requirements.
Do not procrastinate or make emotional decisions
The most important aspect is that you have to bring it up and have a difficult conversion. Prenuptial agreements cut against the grain of societal expectations of romance in marriage and relationships. One Texas attorney has sound advice on this front:
[N]o one wants to start a marriage with talks of how it might end. That said, there are plenty of practical reasons that would encourage an individual to initiate a prenuptial agreement discussion, including concerns over the ownership of a business, support/custody of children from a prior marriage, inheritance issues, property ownership, and other financial issues. If you know that you’re interested in a prenup, best to bring it up sooner rather than later.
If asset protection is essential, then having the conversation is vital. Dave Ramsey begins discussions about marriage and finances by pointing out that money is the number one topic of disagreements in marriages. Avoiding the problem will only make it harder to deal with down the road. It’s an uncomfortable conversation, but one worth having if this issue is important to you.
Emotions play a role in these kinds of decisions. But those emotions can be costly too. As an example, “Roseanne Barr was so in love with Tom Arnold before their 1990 wedding that she fired her attorney for suggesting she sign a prenup. When the couple divorced four years later, Arnold left with $50 million.” An attorney in this area is trying to mitigate the risks involved in a relationship. If you’re already reading an article like this one, it’s probably best to talk with an attorney about whether you need to arrange for a prenuptial agreement.
How couples can override the intent of or clauses in a prenuptial agreement
Although prenuptial agreements get signed before marriage, they are not set in stone. A prenuptial agreement is like any other contract. It can get amended if both parties agree. In this way, a well-structured prenuptial agreement can function as a part of an overall estate or asset plan, accounting for all variables.
If some property goes unlisted in the agreement, or the couple purchases the property as a married couple, this property won’t get included in the prenuptial agreement. Not listing individual property owned beforehand can also change that property into marital property. These issues can get fixed by an amendment. And not just a revision, both couples can choose to void the entire agreement if they so choose.
How judges can get past prenuptial agreements
Sometimes judges can look at prenuptial agreements and find ways to overrule them. Keeping best practices in mind can help avoid these situations. There are some significant areas where judges are known to step in and invalidate a prenuptial agreement.
Bad timing or duress
Time can be crucial in deciding whether or not both parties had enough chance to consider all portions of the agreement. One lawyer notes, “If a couple signs a prenup a week before the wedding, for example, the contract is easier to break. One party could argue that they didn’t have enough time to completely grasp the terms of the agreement.”
A judge can look at the timing and determine either that the parties didn’t have enough time to consider all provisions of the contract. Or the judge could look at the calendar and say that parties were under duress when signing the agreement. The classic example of duress and lousy timing is springing a prenuptial agreement on the bride on her wedding day. The odds of a judge upholding that kind of deal is extremely low.
Lack of disclosure, shady practices, or lopsided provisions
A prenuptial agreement is a contract. And in all arrangements, there’s supposed to be a “meeting of the minds.” Everyone is expected to disclose all things to the other party in a prenuptial agreement. If one of the spouses fails to disclose all assets heading into marriage, that can lead to the contract getting overturned or voided. To prove this, generally speaking, a spouse would have to show three things to the court:
- A confidential relationship existed between you and your partner,
- The relationship gave rise to a duty to fully and fairly disclose each of your assets, and
- One of you breached the duty to disclose.
Failure to disclose falls under a broader umbrella of dishonest dealing in the negotiation process. They’ll also look for unfair provisions in the contract. Although parties can include a wide variety of clauses, if those demands are widely disproportionate or have the possibility of leaving one spouse destitute in the event of a divorce, the judge can set aside the prenuptial agreement on the grounds of fairness.
Unclear language
Specificity is vital in any contract. Prenuptial agreements get included here. Any agreement should avoid ambiguous or vague wording. “The enforceability of any legal document depends on the wording of the agreement. Do not expect the courts to enforce a term of your agreement if the meaning is unclear or ambiguous.”
Bad representation
One of the key reasons to have separate attorneys for each spouse is to avoid these situations. If both spouses use the same attorney, that can create problems. One example is, “If you signed something that your wealthy fiancé or his family arranged to be drawn up for you to agree to in order to marry him, be aware that this may not be an ironclad agreement if, years later, he wants out of the marriage. Signing a contract without legal representation is never a good idea! But if that’s how you signed your prenup, there may be a chance of invalidating it.”
Marriage annulment
A marriage that gets annulled, for any reason, can affect a premarital agreement. Texas Family Code states:
Sec. 4.007. ENFORCEMENT: VOID MARRIAGE. If a marriage is determined to be void, an agreement that would otherwise have been a premarital agreement is enforceable only to the extent necessary to avoid an inequitable result.
The effect of that statute is that a judge has free reign to toss an entire agreement out the window. In the case, In re JA.D.Y. (Tex. App. 2018), that’s precisely what happened. In that case, the wife was able to get the marriage annulled after it was revealed the husband lied and fraudulently represented himself before the marriage. The court agreed with these facts and the description, annulled the marriage, voided the prenuptial agreement, and awarded damages of $45,045.11 from the truck’s sale.
What not to include in a prenuptial agreement
A good prenuptial agreement avoids all the mistakes listed above, is fairly negotiated, and well represented. Beyond considerations of fairness, accuracy, or illegality, there is more consideration to have in mind.
Sunset clauses
A sunset provision places a time limit on either the entire prenuptial agreement or portions of it. After a specific time passes, agreed to by both parties, the contract can lapse and void. Some people place these clauses into their agreements to prevent predatory marriages, where divorce immediately follows the marriage. Jack Welch, the famous CEO, got burned by one of these provisions after thirteen years of marriage:
Jane and Jack Welch had executed a legal premarital agreement. It had a sunset clause providing for the expiration of the agreement on the couple’s tenth wedding anniversary, three years prior to Jane’s divorce petition. Jack’s property had an estimated value of $900 million. Speculation at the time was that since the prenup by its own terms was no longer valid, Jane was going to walk away from the marriage with a windfall from her much wealthier husband.
Court proceedings were initially public. The news reported that both Welches had a bit of ‘dirty laundry’ they wanted to hide. Neither one of them wanted court hearings open to the public that might reveal their individual extra-marital affairs. Instead of engaging in a “you did this” followed by “but you did it worse” free for all, they settled the case privately between the two of them. By all accounts, the sunset clause in the properly prepared, legally valid premarital agreement, invalidating itself after ten years, worked to the advantage of Jane.
Estimates say that Jane Welch walked away with $150 million in the resulting divorce. The theory of a sunset clause is that the longer a marriage lasts, the more likely it is for the wealthier spouse to share ownership of the overall wealth. That can be true in some cases. But instead of inserting sunset provisions, if a relationship has grown stronger, it would make more strategic sense to simply amend the prenuptial agreement, instead of setting arbitrary deadlines. If a sunset clause occurs during a rocky portion of the marriage, it can unnecessarily expose one spouse to higher liability.
Closing Thoughts
Because Texas is UPAA state, the forms for a prenuptial agreement are mostly standardized. The critical points for these spousal contracts are fair negotiations, explicit language, and fair representation. If everyone is informed and nothing untoward occurs, a Texas prenuptial agreement is a sound tool in estate and asset planning.
Parties have broad leeway to negotiate many thorny issues in marriage. They can decide how to handle pets, who owns specific personal and real property, who is responsible for businesses (from sole proprietorships to c-corporations), make specific demands for individual behavior, and reward marital milestones. Sitting down with an attorney and listing all the needs of both sides can avoid hurdles if done correctly, and both sides are honest.
There are downsides. One attorney warns their clients that “Negotiating a prenuptial agreement may irrevocably corrode your marriage and has the potential to make divorce much more likely.” She continues, “Marriage is a mixture of a complicated set of laws, customs, expectations, and culturally-based understandings. A premarital agreement will upset this balance in unexpected ways and is bound to have unintended consequences.”
A prenuptial agreement is a “break glass in case of emergency” option designed to streamline a divorce. A prenuptial admits the marriage could fail before any vows get exchanged. If people think that far ahead, it can impact everyone involved. But if you have a business and assets which cause anxiety in the event of a divorce, a prenuptial agreement can help assuage those concerns. The best course of action is always to discuss a prenuptial agreement both with potential spouse and an experienced lawyer. Prenuptial agreements are not something to be entered into in the spur of the moment. They require careful thinking and planning. If done smartly, they’re a useful tool for any asset plan.
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LEGAL DISCLAIMER: Information in this article is provided free of charge and purely for informational and educational purposes only and is not offered as legal advice. No attorney-client relationship is created by the offering of this article. [WEBSITE NAME] is not a law firm, does not represent clients, and is not representing you or anyone else. Although every effort is made to keep information up-to-date, laws may change. Retaining legal counsel for your individual case and circumstance is advisable before taking any action that has legal consequences. Consult a tax advisor or financial consultant as well, as this is not offered for any tax or financial service or advice.
Daniel C. Vaughan is an experienced attorney who has worked on or consulted in numerous lawsuits for Fortune 500 companies and the top law firms in the country. He’s worked on multi-state class action lawsuits, government investigations, and more. He leads teams of attorneys to bring new technology to bear on legal problems to reduce legal spend and find innovative solutions. He received a law degree from Regent University School of Law and a Bachelor of Science from Middle Tennessee State University where he graduated from the University Honors College.
