Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce have taken the NFL and the world by storm this fall.  Their romance is the highest profile one since Princess Di and then Prince Charles.  Right now, theirs looks like a great Love Story.

However, high profile and high asset romances come with many less romantic complications.  What happens if their romance turns to Bad Blood, and Taylor has to tell Travis, “We are never, ever, ever getting back together?” There’s a number of questions these two New Romantics should be asking each other now even in through Lavender Haze:

• Whose house or houses are we living in?
• Will we have children?
• When and where will we get married to accommodate a concert schedule or an NFL season?
• What happens when the bloom on the rose fades and the relationship does not last?
• Who gets to keep the one-of-a-kind engagement ring?

Whether Taylor and Travis tie the knot or simply continue with their whirlwind romance, these are just some of the many legal complications that they will need to navigate.  While your relationship may not dominate the tabloids, many of these questions are based on the same concerns many couples face when they write their Story of Us.

A cohabitation agreement can address many of these issues prior to marriage, like where you are going to reside and under what terms is a common issue dealt with. In addition, the sharing of expenses and commingling of funds can also be addressed by these agreements.

If Taylor and Travis do tie the knot in what would be the wedding of the century, you can guarantee there would be a lengthy premarital agreement. A Premarital Agreement, popularly referred to as a “pre-nup”, can address such issues as individual property, joint property, support obligations, and other matters. 

The one issue that neither a cohabitation Agreement or premarital Agreement could address would be child support or child custody. As is often seen in the headlines, celebrity child custody and support issues are often played out in court with high stakes drama. Regardless of whether you are Taylor and Travis or simply Lois and Peter, once you have a child with another person, either biologically or via adoption, there are life long legal obligations and rights that need to be addressed.

We all hope for the storybook ending for Taylor and Travis. However, it is good to be prepared for the realization that You Know They Were Trouble and be ready to Shake it Off and move on.

When you finally receive your Divorce Decree, it is only natural that you breathe  a huge sigh of relief and finality. The path from separation to final divorce is often  emotionally taxing, lengthy, and time consuming. After what seems like endless  discovery and tough negotiations, your initial reaction upon receipt of your Decree is relief and an opportunity for a much-needed break. However, life continues to move on,  and there are some critical steps you should take as soon as possible to make sure  your affairs are together and in order. In this article, we will try to provide a simple checklist to help you work through the much-needed post-divorce steps. 

Step 1, Employment: Meet with your HR Director to complete new beneficiary forms for  all your work-related benefits. These include your 401(k), life insurance, and disability.  

Step 2, Property Settlement Agreement: Carefully read your Property Settlement  Agreement. You need to make sure you understand your obligations and complete  them in a timely manner. Do you need to refinance, transfer retirement accounts, redo  beneficiary forms? Are you expecting payments in a certain time frame from your  former spouse?  

Step 3, Estate Planning: Meet with a good estate planning attorney in order to update  your Wills and Powers of Attorney. Most people will think of updating their Wills once  divorced. It is actually more important to update your Powers of Attorney both your  Durable Power of Attorney as well as your Medical Power of Attorney.  

Step 4, Bank Accounts: You need to make sure that you have updated all of the  information with your financial institutions. Often times, a bank account does have a  death beneficiary.  

Step 5, Investment Accounts: Similarly, you need to make sure all of your information  with any third-party investment advisors is updated and all of the beneficiary  designations are also updated.  

Step 6, Life Insurance: Any private life insurance you have outside of your employment  needs to be updated as well. Please made sure that all of your beneficiary designations  are as you wish them to be post-divorce.  

Step 7, Disability Insurance: Many kinds of private disability insurance have death  benefits attached to them. You need to make sure your beneficiary is as you wish it to be. 

Step 8, Car Titles: Often times, people do not think about how they purchased their car  many years ago. If your car is titled jointly, you will need to redo the title to the car so it  does not become an issue down the road.  

This may seem like a daunting list, especially after going through the long divorce  process. However, if you take your time and go through the list item by item, you will  save your loved ones a lot of anxiety down the road and eliminate any surprises or  unintended consequences. At MacElree Harvey, we help our clients navigate through  this list and have excellent estate planning attorneys that can help with those issues as  well. Please do not hesitate to reach out to us with any questions.