Families with a married mother and father, who have never been married to anyone else before, along with their pure biological children make up less than a quarter of the households in America.
Ideally, blended families would all live together in peace, harmony, and stability, just like the Brady Bunch. However, as most of us have found out the hard way, there’s a significant gap between TV sitcom families and real-life families.
A Marietta family law attorney cannot do anything to address the peace and harmony elements, at least not directly. But several legal interventions are available that make blended families much more stable.
Subsequent Marriage Prenuptial Agreement
Blended family stability begins before Mom and Dad tie the knot. Prenups address financial and emotional matters.
Premarital agreements are more common today, but they still haven’t lost the “divorce insurance” label. This label might be accurate, but it’s not necessarily a bad thing. People don’t want or expect to die early, but they still buy life insurance policies. These policies help them be prepared for the unexpected and, in the meantime, give them peace of mind.
Financially, when people get married for a second time, many of their assets, such as retirement accounts, have been divided once already. Prenups usually include provisions about the division of these assets, if the need arises. There’s a peace of mind element to financial provisions in a prenup. Money squabbles break up more marriages than anything else, except adultery.
Emotionally, a divorce cuts off inheritance and succession rights. This often-unintended consequence of divorce often wreaks havoc with plans for passing on a family business. Provisions in a premarital agreement override this effect. To cement things, a Marietta family law attorney usually prepares wills, trusts, and other executory documents.
Georgia hasn’t adopted the Uniform Marital and Premarital Agreements Act. Therefore, the law in this area is still rather complex. Generally, prenups are enforceable if:
- Signed, written agreement (the four corners rule usually applies),
- Two witnesses, including one notary, that saw the spouses sign the document,
- No coercion, intimidation, or deceit,
- The document was signed a reasonable amount of time prior to the wedding, and
- Both parties fully disclosed all financial information.
Most of these rules are subjective. So, a spouse has an excellent chance to overturn unfavorable provisions in court.
Name Change Petition
A name change petition is often a good alternative to a stepparent adoption, which is discussed below. These petitions don’t affect parenting time, support matters, or any other substantive issues. However, they give everyone in a blended household the same last name. That simple change has a powerful emotional effect on a family.
Procedurally, the petitioner must serve the other parent with legal paperwork. Furthermore, a name change is only available if the petitioner has pure motives. Some courts require additional evidence on this point. A judge won’t grant a name change petition if the requested name change would frustrate creditors or affect a criminal record.
Stepparent Adoption
We’ll spend most of our time on this last point, because it is pretty much the Holy Grail of blended family stability in Georgia.
In the old days, the adopting stepparent had to be at least ten years older than the adoptive stepchildren. Additionally, a six-month waiting period applied. The legislature tore down these roadblocks in 2018. Now, any new spouse may adopt a stepchild, even if the marriage occurred earlier that day.
In Cobb County, stepparent adoption is two procedures in one, a termination of parental rights and a streamlined private adoption.
Children can have a maximum of two parents. So, before a new spouse can step into mom or dad’s shoes, the biological mom or dad must take off those shoes. A judge will terminate parental rights if the termination is in the best interest of the child and the to-be-terminated parent:
- Agrees to the termination in writing (voluntary termination),
- Willfully failed to pay child support for at least a year,
- Abandoned the child,
- Killed the child’s other parent, or
- Has demonstrated “misconduct or inability.”
Some best interest factors include the child’s preference, the parent’s preference, as evidenced by the consent, and the emotional relationship between the parent and child.
Termination is a very big step for a parent. This order forevermore severs the legal parent-child bond. Terminated parents have no visitation rights whatsoever. The biological parent may allow and cut off visitation at any time.
Because it’s such a big step, the petitioner often needs Plan B, which is an involuntary termination, or Plan C, which is a name change.
Involuntary termination petitions are difficult to prove and rarely settle out of court. Blended families are fragile enough. The last thing they need is an expensive legal battle that usually ends in an emotional courtroom showdown. So, a name change is a much better fallback option.
Private adoptions usually require extensive pre-placement studies. A social worker often digs deep into the family’s affairs and conducts an extensive background check. All that government scrutiny could open a can of worms, especially if someone in the family has immigration or other legal issues.
Most Cobb County judges waive the pre-placement study in stepparent adoption cases, especially if the new spouses have been married for more than a few months. Each court has its own, unwritten rules about the length of this waiting period.
A stitch in time saves nine. A well-planned stepparent adoption helmed by an experienced Marietta family law attorney is little more than filing voluntary termination and adoption paperwork, followed by a brief hearing.
We should briefly discuss a dark cloud on the horizon. Two-thirds of second marriages end in divorce. The third and subsequent marriage divorce rate is even higher. If a stepparent adopts a stepchild and the marriage ends in divorce, the stepparent is financially responsible for the stepchild. In other words, once you go down the stepparent adoption path, there’s no turning back.
Blended families face many challenges. For a free consultation with an experienced Marietta family law attorney, contact The Phillips Law Firm, LLC. We routinely handle matters in Cobb County and nearby jurisdictions.
