For more information on changing the rights and obligations between concubine partners or domestic partners, please see: New Jersey Cohabitation and Domestic Partnership Agreements. The marriage contract laid down various provisions – which largely underlined the desire for financial independence of the parties – on the consequences of maintenance and equitable distribution if a party applied for divorce. In the event of divorce, the maintenance rules required the husband to pay the wife increasing alimony on the basis of a higher number of years of marriage. Maintenance was therefore formally justified and both parties waived the right to claim maintenance on the basis of the marital standard of living. A prenup is an agreement between potential spouses that is concluded taking into account the marriage and is valid for the marriage itself.