On behalf of The Marks Law Firm, L.L.C. posted in Divorce on Wednesday, June 6, 2012
Most St. Louis couples getting married are focused on love and happiness. Many believe it would be crass to discuss with their fiancé the financial impact of marriage and bad luck to talk about how their property should be divided in case the marriage ends in divorce.
Increasingly, couples are overcoming these emotional obstacles and creating prenuptial agreements that can minimize fights over property division should the marriage come to an end.
Reuters recently interviewed a family law attorney about emerging trends in prenup agreements.
She noted that prenups are contracts between the two people getting married and that they’re becoming more common across the nation.
“The reality is that 50 percent of the time, these marriages end in divorce,” she said. “People need some downside protection.”
That protection makes a lot of sense for folks who bring children, businesses or property to a marriage.
She described a typical prenuptial as containing language that essentially says that “Everything in my name is mine, and everything in your name is yours. You will receive X dollars for every year we are married.” She noted that the agreements often also contain language about the children who might be born during a marriage.
For most people, the wealth they have acquired through business or inheritance or other means is their top priority when negotiating a prenup, though for some people in some professions, other considerations come into play as well. Think of an author, for instance, who might want to keep control of intellectual property such as characters, titles, plots, etc.
She said in one agreement she helped a couple create, a “very nice wine collection” was an item its owner wanted to protect in case of divorce.
Source: Reuters, “The power of the prenup,” Lauren Young, June 5, 2012