Separation Agreements

A separation agreement is known as a marital separation agreement, property settlement agreement, or just MSA for short. Its primary function is to define the terms of legal separation for both parties. The main guidelines include child support, child custody, child visitation, alimony, and division of assets and debts.

Basically, it outlines all of the guidelines that the couple would define during the actual divorce process. It is often a good idea to get this all out of the way when emotions are not nearly as high as when the final decision to get divorced is made. However, in some cases the marital separation agreement can be written after the couple has filed for divorce.

If the two parties do decide to proceed with a divorce, in many cases the separation agreement can be used as the final divorce settlement agreement.