What would happen if he refused to pay?
As I understand it, a judge will decide which assets you are allowed to keep, as well as how much a man must pay in monthly "child support" (which is not based upon the child as much as the income and assets of the dad) and if you are married for a certain number of years, an additional amount of "wife support" / alimony. If you do not pay, once the amount owed reaches a certain amount, the government will instruct US banks to freeze your accounts and confiscate the money. Since Ronald Reagan instituted "no fault divorce" I don't really think there is an option to fight or oppose this. If you did not participate, the wife's lawyer would present info on what your income or assets are, and the judge would decide how much of that you must give to the wife.
Your only option would be to leave the country.
But you must already have a passport in hand. One friend in this situation is prevented from obtaining a passport (?!?) until he satisfies this debt.
Edit:
@TrainedLogosmotion You can TRY signing a document prior to the marriage where your wife agrees that she doesn't feel entitled to your assets, and that if things go poorly, you will each go your separate ways. Commonly called a prenuptual asset agreement. But a) these are increasingly ignored b) it is all up to the judge, which more and more is going to be a woman (often a black woman in my area) c) Who knows what the legal situation may be 15 years down the line if she decides to split and d) if there is any argument that this was your idea and she just signed it only to marry you, it will be ignored.
If you want to try this, you should give your fiance some money, tell her to find a lawyer to help her, and you do the same, and have the 2 lawyers agree on a prenuptual agreement. That is the only situation that has a good chance of standing up in court. But no guarantee. And not the way I would want to enter a marriage anyway.
At the end of the day, it all comes down to the woman's feelings, because she can say that the agreement "wasn't negotiated to her satisfaction" and that is one of the 5 reasons the agreement may be thrown out. Maybe if you spent tens of thousands of dollars and years in court you could debate this.
Also, and perhaps most importantly, the prenuptual agreement
doesn't apply to children, only to the wife herself (alimony / assets). Child support is already the largest way the wife benefits financially, and you get zero protection at all from this with a pre-nup. IF you have kids, and
IF you jump through all the hoops and get a fair judge, At best it MIGHT let you keep your house, but not your money.
. He has a mediocre job but apparently he has family money and she is asking for the house plus a million dollars cash. One. Million. Dollars.
