“Sometimes The Questions Are Complicated And The Answers Are Simple.”

– Dr. Seuss

Should a prenuptial agreement be part of your wedding plans?

On Behalf of | May 15, 2015 | Prenuptial Agreements

When planning a wedding, the bride- and groom-to-be must meet with a host of people from the florist, the jeweler and the event planner to the caterer, the travel agent and the musicians. In fact, many betrothed couples are now adding a meeting with another person to their already crowded agenda: the attorney.

The reason, as you might have already guessed, is to execute a prenuptial agreement. In the next few posts, we’ll provide some more background information on this phenomenon, as well as the legal document itself.

What exactly is a prenuptial agreement?

It is a legally binding document that couples execute before walking down the aisle that sets forth what each side will or won’t receive in the event of a divorce. While a prenuptial agreement, or prenup, can address a host of issues, it’s most typically used as a mechanism to establish expectations concerning thing like property division, alimony and child custody.

Who needs a prenuptial agreement?

While opinions on this certainly vary, the prevailing view is that anyone entering a marriage with substantial assets and/or the likelihood of accumulating substantial assets during the course of a marriage is a good candidate for a prenup. Similarly, those with children from a prior marriage are also good candidates for a prenup.

What about younger couples?

Many legal experts would indicate that a prenup is generally unnecessary in the absence of the circumstances described above. As such, they would say that those younger couples tying the knot for the first time with little assets to their name and an expectation that they will work together to increase the value of their marital estate may not be prime candidates for this step.

Still other experts, however, would argue that any couple could actually benefit from a prenup due to its other advantages, something we’ll explore in our next post.