pre nuptial agreements?

Question

Me and my fiancé plan to get married in 2009. The other day she asked if I knew about pre nuptial agreements and whether we should have made before the big day.

So can some one explain to me in simple terms what exactly a pre nuptial agreement is and what are the advantages and dis advantages to having one.

Just to let pople know im 23 just out of University so I am not loaded in any way shape or form. She does earn more money than me but she hasnt got lots of money either.

Answer 1

its like a contract between the two of you, which sets out what each of you own as assets.
if you split up and divorce, you have no claim on whats hers, and she has no claim on whats yours.

advantages:
makes divorce easier
you can protect what you own
good if one of you is absolutely loaded.

disadvantages:
it says you dont trust each other
can make marriage seem like a business arrangement rather than a commitment of love

Answer 2

pre-nups vary by couple. They can say pretty much whatever you want them to say. again state laws would come into play here. some states do not recognize pre-nups and in those cases a pre-nup would be a waste of money to pay the lawyers to draw them up. some states have time limits on how long a prenup is valid. That's why all those actors in Cali divorce before their 10 year anniversary. Your best bet would be to start your research with a lawyer who specializes in PAs or divorce in your state and then to do a bit more research to find the state that has the necessary laws for your story to go in the direction you want. FWIW: when a PA is involved BOTH people should have a lawyer and NO lawyer would advise their client, male or female, to sign a prenup that states they get nothing in a divorce. They would most likely send the PA back to the original lawyer with amendments. It's called negotiating. Draw up a rough draft of your plot, do a little research on PAs and divorce since that's the focus of your story, and don't insult your reader by being too simplistic or inaccurate in your details. Good luck.

Answer 3

A prenup helps you know how the money will be divided
when you divorce. If neither of you have a lot of assets, then
it seems pointless, unless one of you has rich relatives, and a trust fund. Maybe you should have a clause that if either of you win the lottery, the one who bought the ticket owns the proceeds in case of divorce! My dad and his second wife had a prenup; each had grown children and grandchildren, and they did that to protect assets that their first spouses (they were each widowed) had expected would go to their own children. Basically anything they owned separately before the marriage went to their own children, and anything they acquired together, the other spouse had life rights to, and when the second spouse died, then their combined assets woudl be evenly divided among the 4 children ( they each had 2 .) They were not wealthy people, but wanted all
the children to feel their marriage did not change our inheritance. It made sense at the time.

Answer 4

Are we talking about the USA or the UK ?
I don't know about that in the USA but in the UK you can enter into a prenuptial agreement PROVIDED THAT IN DOING SO THE AGREEMENT DOES NOT EXCLUDE THE AUTHORITY OF THE COURTS. In other words, it could not exclude court intervention., In other words, whatever the agreement said, the final word is still the court's
Prenuptial agreement are contracts made before the big day in which each party agree that what belongs to one party can or cannot be shared d y the other on break up of the marriage. It is used by the very rich to limit access of the poorer party to the property of the richer party. In the case of Paul McCartney, you sill se that the courts ave the final decision of how much Macca's ex is to receive..
It is basically a way of saying "we're getting married but you have no right to a share of my property if we file for divorce one day !"
Should you enter into one ? It is up to you but have a draft of the agreement seen by a lawyer working on your side.

Answer 5

A pre nup is a legal agreement setting out rules in the event that you divorce. It is normally something people with a lot of money, bussiness or assets has to stop someone marrying them then running off with half of all their wealth. Unless you have a lot of money or have assets that you do not want to loose half of in a divorce, most people dont have a prenup. Hope this helps

Answer 6

Pre-nuptial agreements are essential if you have something you want to protect. For instance, have you inherited property from a relative? If so, if you were to divorce the property would be sold and the value split - or you would have to pay her half of it's worth. If you have nothing, they hold no benefit unless you want to make sure that if you were to divorce there would be no alimony.

Answer 7

A prenuptial agreement, antenuptial agreement, or premarital agreement, commonly abbreviated to prenup or prenupt, is a contract entered into by two people prior to marriage or civil union. The content of a prenuptial agreement can vary widely, but commonly includes provisions for the division of property should the couple divorce and any rights to spousal support during or after the dissolution of marriage.


I myself disagree with them. If you are getting married it should be forever. Marriage lasts forever.
If you want a pre-nup it's like your expecting to get divorced after marriage. It's like you don't believe in your future, your partner, or your marriage, you don't trust the other person and you expect to be divorced. You are setting yourself up for failure when you want a pre-nup before marriage. A pre-nup says you don't think it will last.

Answer 8

wow! A pre-nuptial is a legal written document stating everything that you own is yours and if case of a divorce she is not entitled to any of that. Now if you buy things while your married I don't believe that falls under the pre-nupitals. Advantages the things you have now you could never lose to her. Disadvantages your getting married your going to be sharing everything, including your things. It goes both ways.

Answer 9

a pre-nup protects both parties. I know of many couples who have loads of money or loads of debts that do this. I think it's a wise decision if there are millions of dollars involved. Alot of people who re-marry have their prospective spouses sign a pre-nup so that they can NOT have access to the money or assets they had prior to marriage. I can give you a really good example:

A friend of mine almost married a man from Australia. She came into alot of money as a result of her grandmother's estate prior to marriage (were talking several million dollars). Her fiancee disagreed with the pre-nup, because he didn't think it was "respectful" of her to keep all of that money to herself. It was HER money and assets prior to the engagement. She went to a very prestigious college, has a doctorate in medicine, and is doing very well for herself as an ob/gyn. She bought a house, drove a nice car (bmw). She lived very modestly. Took trips with her family etc. Well he was VERY jealous of her money, and wanted access to it for HIS benefit, HIS business, HIS clients. Well she ended the engagement. Two years later she married someone and is very very happy. She had her husband sign a pre-nup, and he was happy to do it. He came from the same type of background (Money, family, trust fund). And she signed a pre-nup from as well. So it protects both parties.

An older man married a lady from the phillipines (He was 62 she was 31). They were married for about 8 years and had one child. He had adult children from his prior marriage. When he died, he didn't change his will, and EVERYTHING that he had worked for (successful family business) was sold because he didn't have a pre-nup agreement. The children got NOTHING from their late fathers estate but the trust funds, that were set up for them in the will. No pictures, momentos nothing.. So it goes to show you what a pre-nup can do.

I hope this helps.

FYI: If I were to become a widow ,and wanted to marry again. I WILL make my future intended spouse sign a pre-nup to protect my children (Their future), assets, business. It only makes sense.

Answer 10

a prenup is where you decide rules on who gets what if you split up - for example, if she's minted she may have something drawn up to say that if you split up after marrige then she keeps all what she brought into the marrige and you get nothing. or you could say if you split up because she cheated she'd have to give you a certain amount of money.
i think they are crap - if you get married make it work and it should be for life. it's too eay to get divorced these days.
also, it show's that there is little trust and you cant really be that in love if you have one. guess the advantage is you dont get golddiggers?? pointless having one though unless your totally loaded so i guess you are if your fiance wants a prenup!!!!

Answer 11

a prenup can be about more than money. for example, catherine zeta jones and michael douglas have a prenup about her weight. she can't gain more than 15 lbs during the marriage, unless it is during pregnancy. you can have stipulations about the repercussions if a spouse cheats. you can have a clause about future earnings. like, you can agree that if you ever divorce, all of your earnings will remain yours rather than having to be split during a divorce settlement. you can also state custody arrangements for any future children should you divorce. typically, a prenup is designed to protect your assets and to avoid the ugliness of a divorce should one occur because all of the tough decisions about who gets what are already decided. i have also heard of prenups that stipulate that both spouses agree that they will undergo a year of marriage counseling with a trained therapist prior to any divorce proceedings in an attempt to see if the marriage can be saved.