Marriage can provide many beautiful and worthwhile benefits to spouse’s lives, but also presents many conflicts and great potential for destruction. No matter how sure of their relationship two spouses may be, it is never legally advisable to enter into marriage without proper legal protections for both sides. Those who think they do not need a prenuptial agreement may find they are sadly mistaken.
Prenuptial agreements are tools spouses can use in a number of ways. With professional legal counsel, spouses can carefully assess each others’ finances and financial expectations, leaving them ample information to create a fair agreement that protects both parties’ interests. Even if spouse’s do not have significant assets when they marry, it is unlikely that they will never grow their estate. If, for instance, a couple is considering marriage and one of them plans to start a business at some point in the future, the couple may use the prenuptial agreement to make sure that the business does not depend on the strength of the marriage to survive.
Premarital agreements can be very personal, loving documents, far from the constrictive arrangements that most people associate with them. Of course, this is only possible if the spouses themselves commit to creating an agreement that truly protects the other’s interests. Spouses can choose to set aside certain assets for one spouse or another, or can even use the agreement to protect the spouses from each other’s personal debt.
If you believe your future marriage may benefit from a prenuptial agreement, don’t wait to begin researching and building on of your own. Once the marriage is official, it is no longer legally possible to create a prenuptial agreement, denying users many important protections. An experienced estate planning attorney can help you examine your needs and build a prenuptial agreement that respects and protects you marriage for many years to come.
Source: FindLaw, “Pros and Cons: Premarital Agreements (“Prenuptials”),” accessed Feb. 23, 2018