Prenuptial Agreement

Why should you have a prenuptial agreement? After all, you should love and trust the person you are about to marry, right? Prenuptial agreements take the romance out of getting married. Besides, you are not millionaires; you do not need a prenuptial agreement. Or do you?

Marriage is a contract. Like it or not - romance aside - when you get married, you are entering into an agreement. There is an entire range of rights and responsibilities imposed upon you and your spouse by the state when you enter into a marriage. In other words, unless you write your own marital agreement, the law of your state will write your agreement for you.

Anticipation of possible divorce is not the only reason to have a prenuptial agreement. Many people today are entering into second marriages. They may wish to protect the inheritance of their children from a previous marriage. You may trust your spouse but do you want to trust his or her children? As you or your spouse become older you may tend to rely more on your children. You or your spouse may become incompetent; you may be no longer able to ensure that the promises you made in good faith are carried out. One spouse's children may not feel the same sense of obligation to the other spouse's children as the spouse did. A prenuptial agreement can be part of a plan to provide support for the surviving spouse until his or her death while protecting the inheritance of the deceased spouse's children.

Like it or not, about half of all marriages will end in divorce. Unfortunately, the love and trust the couple once felt for each other quickly dissolves into the hurt, guilt and resentment that the parties experience as they go through the divorce process. Ask anyone who has been through a divorce and they will generally tell you that it took years and thousands of dollars in attorney fees to resolve. A prenuptial agreement could resolve at least some of the issues of divorce and help bring a miserable situation to an end more expeditiously.

People are getting married later in life and may wish to protect assets they have accumulated prior to marriage. Or they may wish to agree upon a division of assets they acquire together during the marriage. Perhaps, one party sells his or her home to live with the other or gives up a rent-controlled apartment. The death of the other spouse, separation or divorce could be financially devastating in such circumstances.

A prenuptial agreement may be worth considering in the context of your financial and estate planning.