Now that you’ve made your engagement official, you have several tasks ahead of you as you plan your wedding day. As you choose wedding invitations, venues and cakes, you may also be considering whether to ask your future spouse to sign a prenuptial agreement.
You may have heard that their popularity is on the rise. At one time, people considered prenuptial agreements to be for celebrities and rich people, but now, more people realize that they, too, could benefit from these agreements in order to protect their interests in the event of a divorce. The question is whether you would benefit from having one, which may just be a question you need to answer before proposing it to your future spouse.
How do you know you could benefit from a prenup?
If you answer yes to any of the following questions, you may want to ask for a prenup after all:
- Do you make more than $100,000 a year?
- Do you own assets worth $50,000 or more, not counting real estate?
- Do you own real estate?
- Do you have beneficiaries or heirs other than your future spouse?
- Do you have stock options or other profit-sharing benefits through your employment?
- Do you have over a year’s worth of retirement benefits already saved?
- Do you own all or part of one or more businesses?
- Do you or your future spouse intend to pursue a higher degree while the other provides financial support?
In truth, you don’t need to have significant assets to benefit from a prenuptial agreement. If you have assets that you intend to leave to a person other than your spouse after your death or that you want to make sure remain your separate property in the event of a divorce, you may want to consider a prenup.
The most important benefits
Perhaps one of the most important reasons why people decide to enter into prenuptial agreements is that it gets an uncomfortable conversation out of the way prior to the marriage. The topic of money remains a primary source of contention for married couples here in Georgia and elsewhere.
Another advantage is that, if your marriage doesn’t last, you can skip the potentially contentious property division phase of a divorce. Since all of your financial issues (except for child support) are decisions made in your prenuptial agreement, the divorce process should proceed much more smoothly.
As long as it meets all of the legal requirements necessary for your agreement to be considered valid by the court, you and your spouse can rest easy, knowing that your prenuptial agreement will save you time and money if your worst-case scenario happens. In addition, it could also help preserve your parental relationship should you have children and a divorce occurs.