You know that you want to use a prenuptial agreement before you get married. Maybe you have substantial assets and you want to make sure that they’re not at risk. You know that divorce happens with a fair amount of frequency in the United States. You hope it doesn’t happen to you, but you also know that a prenup could help you to set expectations for your marriage and protect your interests in the event that things do not turn out in the way that you hope and believe that they will.
However, like many people, you’re afraid to tell your partner that you’d like to use one. You worry that they will think you don’t believe in the strength of your relationship and the importance of your impending marriage. They may accuse you of already planning to get divorced before you have even tied the knot. Is this what you would be signifying to them?
No, this absolutely doesn’t mean that you don’t think the marriage will last. You’re not getting a prenuptial agreement because you think you’re going to get divorced. If you thought that, you simply wouldn’t get married to begin with.
Safeguarding your interests doesn’t mean that you don’t believe in your union
If you entered into business with someone else, you would use a partnership agreement to do it. You would understand the importance of protecting your business, even though you fully believed the other business partner had your best interests at heart. You could trust them and would have every reason to believe that working with them was going to be a successful endeavor. But you’d still want a business contract so that all of your rights were well defined from the beginning.
You can take that same perspective into a marriage. You don’t want to get divorced and you don’t think you will. But you do want to have the framework in place so that you can protect important financial interests if that should happen. Ideally, you will never use the prenup at all. You’re not suggesting to your spouse that you want to get divorced and you’re not more likely to do so. You just want to be prepared – which is wise.
Getting paperwork in place
Once you and your future spouse have determined that you are going to use a prenuptial agreement, you will need to take the time to look into all of the proper legal steps. It’s important to get the paperwork done well in advance to ensure that it can be executed effectively and in an enforceable way. Seeking legal guidance is a good place to start.