Draft Marital Settlement Agreement

Skill: Draft Marital Settlement Agreement — Property Division, Custody, and Support

1. Subject-matter triage (only if applicable)

• Treat the mediated term sheet as the operative instruction set, but not as presumptively complete or internally consistent.
• Identify every party, child, asset class, liability class, support stream, parenting issue, tax issue, and implementation step that appears in the source set.
• If the source materials contain multiple valuations, dates, account balances, title records, or payment terms, enumerate them before drafting and resolve the conflict in the issues memo rather than silently choosing one.
• Draft the agreement only after the core economic and custody terms are reconciled enough to make the document executable.

2. Failure modes the skill is correcting

• Treating the term sheet as fully integrated without reconciling it against financial declarations, valuation reports, and account records.
• Drafting property division that omits transfer mechanics, cooperation obligations, or timing for implementation.
• Leaving retirement transfers, beneficiary changes, QDRO-style mechanics, or account-split logistics to implication.
• Failing to address support duration, modification, termination, tax treatment, and security for payment.
• Drafting parenting provisions that conflict with the agreed custody structure or any separate parenting plan.
• Ignoring joint debts, refinancing, indemnity, or hold-harmless protections.
• Omitting post-separation tax allocation language for income, gains, deductions, or liabilities arising after the cutoff date.
• Missing the interaction between this agreement and any pre-existing marital property agreement, separation agreement, or related contract.
• Producing an issues memo that identifies inconsistencies without stating why they matter and how to fix them.
• Drafting a memo that describes issues abstractly instead of tying each one to the affected provision and implementation consequence.

3. Legal frameworks / domain conventions that apply

• Marital settlement agreements are contracts: use clear, self-executing language, define operative dates, and avoid unresolved placeholders.
• Property division should allocate each asset and liability expressly, with transfer timing, signatures, releases, and cooperation covenants.
• Retirement assets typically require plan-compliant implementation paperwork; the agreement should contain enough detail to support that step, including the intended account, recipient, percentage or amount, valuation date, and survivorship or beneficiary treatment if relevant.
• Support provisions should state amount, commencement, duration, tax characterization if relevant, modification standard, and automatic termination events.
• Parenting terms should align with the governing custody framework and any separately filed parenting plan, schedule, exchange logistics, decision-making allocation, and travel/relocation restrictions if applicable.
• Debt allocation should include indemnity and hold-harmless language, refinancing requirements for secured obligations, and default consequences if a transfer or refinance does not occur.
• Tax clauses should allocate post-separation tax consequences tied to income, gains, distributions, deductions, credits, withholding, audits, and amended filings.
• If a pre-existing marital property agreement or similar instrument exists, state whether it is confirmed, superseded, modified, or preserved.
• If a valuation issue is material, specify the valuation source, valuation date, and operative methodology in the agreement or identify the unresolved point in the memo.
• Use controlling authority where the agreement or memo relies on legal conclusions; cite the governing statute, rule, or recognized doctrine that supports the proposition.
• For the issues memo, use a uniform severity scale and apply it consistently across entries.
• Every issue analysis should identify the source conflict, the affected clause or document, and the practical consequence for drafting or enforcement.
• Every advisory point should end with a concrete recommended action and the responsible role, tied to the current drafting milestone.

4. Analytical scaffolds

1. Inventory the source set.

   • List the parties, children, assets, debts, income items, valuation reports, account statements, and any separate governing agreements.
   • If more than one scale, date, scenario, party, or account is implicated, enumerate each item before analysis.

2. Reconcile the economic record.

   • Compare the term sheet to the financial declarations, valuations, and account records.
   • Flag mismatches in ownership, balance, valuation date, titling, beneficiary designations, debt balance, and cash-flow assumptions.
   • For each mismatch, identify the implicated document and the downstream drafting consequence.

3. Draft the operative agreement by topic.

   • Recitals and definitions.
   • Custody and parenting terms.
   • Child support and related expense allocation.
   • Spousal support, if any.
   • Property division by asset class.
   • Debt allocation, indemnity, and refinance mechanics.
   • Tax allocation and return-filing cooperation.
   • Enforcement, attorney-fee, and breach provisions.
   • Miscellaneous provisions, integration, governing law, counterparts, and execution blocks.

4. Build implementation mechanics into the agreement.

   • Include title transfers, deeds, account instructions, signature cooperation, and timing triggers.
   • Include retirement-transfer language sufficient for later implementation paperwork.
   • Include insurance, beneficiary, and security provisions when support or debt exposure warrants them.

5. Draft the issues memorandum separately.

   • Use a numbered list of inconsistencies, drafting decisions, and open points.
   • For each item, state the severity, the conflict, the source documents involved, the consequence, and the recommended resolution.
   • If the source set supports only one reasonable interpretation, state that affirmatively and explain why.

6. Close the drafting loop.

   • Confirm the agreement contains operative provisions, not just summaries.
   • Confirm the memo identifies each inconsistency with a practical fix.
   • Confirm both files are complete and non-empty before finishing.

5. Vertical / structural / temporal relationships (only if applicable)

• Distinguish pre-separation from post-separation obligations, especially for income, taxes, account activity, and debt service.
• Distinguish temporary arrangements from permanent allocations if the source set uses both.
• Track timing across signing, entry of judgment, transfer deadlines, refinance deadlines, support start dates, parenting transitions, and filing obligations.
• Distinguish individual assets from jointly titled assets, and secured debt from unsecured debt.
• Distinguish current account values from valuation-date values when the sources differ.
• If custody, support, and property provisions interact, draft them so that a change in one does not inadvertently defeat another.
• If a separate parent-time instrument exists, keep the MSA consistent with it rather than duplicating conflicting language.

6. Output structure conventions

• Produce the marital settlement agreement as the primary deliverable first, with complete operative provisions and signature blocks.
• Produce the issues memorandum as a separate secondary deliverable only after the agreement is complete.
• The agreement should read like a finalized contract, not a drafting note or outline.
• The memorandum should read like a concise advisory document, not a narrative summary.
• Use conventional agreement headings rather than a rubric-like checklist.
• In the agreement, write in enforceable clauses, not commentary.
• In the memo, use:
  • a brief severity legend at the top,
  • a numbered list of issues,
  • for each issue: severity, source conflict, affected provision, consequence, and recommended resolution,
  • a short concluding recommended-actions section naming the drafting owner and next step.
• When a legal rule is invoked in either document, identify the controlling authority by name and section, rule, or recognized doctrine.
• Before concluding, verify by name that marital-settlement-agreement.docx contains the operative agreement and issues-memorandum.docx contains the issue analysis and recommendations.