The marital regime establishes the rules that apply between the spouses, both during the marriage and afterwards, in the event of separation, divorce or death. To whom does the house belong? Who needs to maintain it? Or sell it? Who should pay the debts? If either spouse dies, will the children be able to claim their share? During a divorce, how will the assets be divided? For all these questions, French law allows you to choose from among a wide range of options. You can either agree to the fixed menu, so to speak, or you can pay a slight surcharge and dine à la carte. If you decide to go with the menu, there are no choices to make and nothing to plan for. Your marriage will be governed by the basic marital regime in French law: communauté de biens réduite aux acquêts, which means that everything you purchase after the marriage is jointly owned, even if you paid for it yourself. This is not a bad system, but it may prove unsuitable or incomplete in your case. When you dine à la carte, on the other hand, you decide on the marital regime you want and adapt it to your needs. A notaire, a member of the only profession authorised to prepare pre-nuptial agreements, will explain the various options available to you. He or she can draw up a customised marital regime based on the decisions you make. French law provides for great flexibility in property arrangements within marriage. For example, if you choose complete separation of property (séparation de biens) as your marital regime, nothing is held jointly. It's each spouse for him- or herself – almost like being single again! Neither your opportunities nor your risks are shared. But you can add a small degree of joint ownership (to cover your car or certain pieces of furniture, for example). Or you can go further and choose a regime with much broader joint ownership. You can even choose to place all of your assets under joint ownership. Another option is to adopt for what is known as participation aux acquêts, which combines separation of property and joint ownership. Under this arrangement, any assets purchased during the marriage remain separate but become jointly owned once the marriage ends. Regardless of the regime you choose, you can have personalised provisions inserted in the pre-nuptial settlement. For example, if one spouse dies, the surviving spouse can be authorised to select one asset in preference to the other heirs. We often forget that pre-nuptial agreements are not reserved for the wealthy. They simplify our daily lives and make it easier to manage important business. They allay our anxieties during those inevitable times in the life of every family. And under French law you have the option of changing your agreement in the future if need be. Find out more from your notaire.