How to Handle a Prenuptial Agreement

So you've met your soulmate, and you've decided to become married as soon as possible. But now all your friends and family are telling you to get a prenuptial agreement in order to protect everything you've built up to this point. While a prenuptial agreement is far from romantic, it is an important legal tool to protect your assets, and if you handle it correctly, both you and your soulmate can be equally protected under the law.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

Deal With Your Prenuptial Agreement Amicably

1. Discuss the possibility of a prenuptial agreement with your future spouse as soon as you know you want to get married. A prenuptial agreement should be discussed over time with sensitivity and an open mind, which may be impossible if you spring it on the other person at the last possible minute. All discussions of a prenuptial agreement should focus on making both partners equally responsible and equally protected.
2. Draw up a list of all of your pre-marriage assets, debts, real estate, property and anything else of value, and ask your future spouse to do the same. Don't forget any future sources of income such as inheritances, trust funds and gifts. Most matrimony lawyers will inform you that full disclosure is the single-most important factor in drawing up a prenup that is legally binding.
3. Seek independent legal counsel for both you and your future spouse. Not only will this ensure that the prenuptial agreement will be fair and reasonable for both parties, but it will ensure that the prenup will stand up in court in case of a legal dispute later on, especially in the case of death.
4. Make provisions in the prenuptial agreement to protect any family businesses or financial partnerships that may affect others. Generations of hard work may be destroyed with the stroke of a pen because one single partner or shareholder was too romantic to handle a prenuptial agreement.
5. Choose the right lawyer to handle and draft your prenuptial agreement. A competent matrimonial lawyer will create a prenuptial agreement that will benefit both parties, rather than place one person at a strategic and financial advantage. A prenup that is not fair and reasonable to everyone involved can be easily overturned.

Tips & Warnings

• Stress the fact that a prenuptial agreement serves to protect each party in cases of death as well as divorce and may save either of you thousands of dollars in legal fees if the prenup is disputed by a family member or business partner.