Kelly Stafford has been in the news lately. She is the spouse of Los Angeles Rams star player Matthew Stafford. Aside from being the mother of the couple’s four daughters, twins Sawyer and Chandler (8), Hunter (6) and Tyler (5), she has made many other contributions to the marriage including financial ones.
Recently, Kelly openly discussed the existence of her prenup with Matthew on her “The Morning After” podcast. While not divulging any of the terms of her prenup, in the July 7 podcast, she shared her evolving feelings about the idea of having one, which was presumably initiated by Matthew Stafford’s financial advisors and attorneys. The Stafford marriage fit into the “fact pattern” for having a prenup: high (very high) earner spouse, accumulation of significant assets prior to the marriage (“premarital property”), and a desire to set financial terms, so that if the marriage ends in divorce, protracted and ugly litigation is avoided.
Prenups are not always necessary but can provide clarity and protection. They should be designed to promote and strengthen a marriage, not to make it an adversarial connection. In other words, they should be generous.
In that July 7 interview, Kelly described her prenup as “very fair” and that Matthew was “generous in it all.” She felt uncomfortable at first “planning our divorce before getting married.” But ultimately, she came to the conclusion that having a prenup was a sensible thing to do.
So, what is a “generous prenup” for the Kelly and Matthew Stafford marriage? Kelly didn’t share what the actual terms were so I’m going to make an educated guess, based on the facts of their situation.
The media estimates Matthew’s current net worth at $150 million. At the time of the couple’s marriage in 2015, Matthew’s net worth was about $30 million. His overall career earnings are estimated to be about $364 million. This number for his total net worth makes sense, since his overall tax rate is about 50%, and the couple did have some living expenses.
In general, in all states, post-marriage earnings (and assets accumulated from them) are divided 50/50 in a divorce.
Professional athletes usually are subject to short playing careers. Peak performance is typically attributed to be between the athlete’s mid-20s through their early 30s. Football players might peak later, but Tom Brady’s retirement at the age of 45, after a 23-year career, is an outlier. The fact that Matthew is a star player (and is still playing) bodes well for his earning potential after he retires from his athletic career.
Because of that truncated time window, financial planning during the peak earning years of a professional football player is critical. For star players like Matthew, it is important to retain and invest their pre-retirement nest egg for future security. He would need to make sound financial decisions for the assets accumulated post-marriage, as well as saving and investing their premarital assets for a rainy day when they can no longer earn money on the playing field.
There is another factor to consider. NFL players at Matthew Stafford’s level of success have significant earning power after their retirement from playing. They may buy, own and operate businesses. They may engage in real estate development. Like Tom Brady, they may become sports analysts or broadcasters. (Tom Brady is now a Fox Sports NFL analyst, earning $37.5 million a year.)
There are several possibilities fo the Stafford prenup terms. There is the the “snapshot” approach. Here’s how it works: At the time of the marriage, a “snapshot” is calculated of all the asset values of the premarital property. This amount becomes the separate property of the spouse who owns it. But any gain in this property, plus all other property accumulated during the marriage, will constitute marital property (called “community property” in California and the several other community property states).
Under this scenario, for the Staffords, Matthew’s $30 million property at the time of the marriage will remain his separate property, All the rest of the couple’s property (about $120 million of the present $150 million net worth) will be marital (community) property, no matter whose name it’s titled in. This $30 million seems adequate for compensating Matthew for a possible short athletic career if the marriage ends in divorce, even if (however unlikely) Matthew decides not to engage in future money-making endeavors.
Another way to structure a prenup is the “separate property plus accumulations” approach. In that approach, the premarital property of a spouse is valued at the time of the marriage just like the snapshot approach except that all market growth and accrued earnings derived from it would continue to be separate property of the spouse who owns it. All property accumulated during the marriage attributable to the spouses’ earnings, would be marital (community) property.
This approach might have made sense for the Staffords, because their post-marital wealth was based on their new earnings (mostly Matthew’s) which have been significant. Under this approach, Matthew’s assets on date of marriage, $30 million, plus all gains and earnings on it would be separate property, and the remainder of the present $150 net worth (about $100 million) would be marital (community property).
There is a third possibility. Many couples now have vesting timetables for gradually changing separate property into marital property in their prenups. This is called a separate property vesting plan.Under this approach, there is a gradual vesting of all separate property (or part of it) into marital (community) property over a period of years. Under this plan, say, 15 years after the marriage, all property – including premarital property – becomes marital property. This option has the benefit of reflecting the longevity and strength of a marriage.
If there’s enough money to secure both parties in the marriage, as in the case of the Staffords, the full vesting of premarital property into marital (community) property could happen in 10 years. Since the Staffords have been married for 10 years, that would mean the entire $150 million in current net worth (and any future growth) would be equally divided in a divorce. For a couple in a good marriage with four children having been together since college, that seems to be a logical provision in their prenup.
For the Staffords, the result would be that the $150 million in current assets (probably closer to $200 million in 5 more years) and all future assets would be equally divided in case of a divorce. At present, $75 million for each seems adequate for Kelly and Mark to have a secure financial future in the lifestyle they enjoyed if they divorce, especially since it is likely both of them have significant earning capacities in the future.
So, there are several options that the Staffords might have chosen to create their “generous prenup.” They may have chosen the snapshot plan, the separate property plus accumulations approach, or separate asset vesting plan in their prenuptial agreement.
If the Staffords find they are dissatisfied with any of the terms of their existing prenup, they can change them afterwards by drawing up a subsequent contract called a postnuptial agreement. At any rate, it is wonderful news that Kelly and Matthew Stafford are happy with their generous prenup and content in their marriage!
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