Family Law

Five Situations When a Prenuptial Agreement is Necessary

By Ben Stevens

The following Guest Post is from Kat Sanders:

With over 50 percent of marriages that are solemnized ending in divorce, probably the best thing you could do before tying the knot is to finalize a prenuptial agreement. Just because you and your future spouse decide to reach a consensus on how you're going to manage a split, if it does happen, there's no need to feel guilty about sucking the romance out of your relationship. In fact, there are many situations in which it makes sense to think with your head rather than just blindly follow your heart and end up being the loser because of it.

It's not just the super rich who need prenups to protect their enormous wealth and vast assets; you need one too if you're considering tying the knot and:

• Have children from a previous marriage: If you have kids from previous marriages and want to protect their rights and the inheritance you would like to give them, you need more than just the word of your new spouse in order to do so. A well-written prenuptial agreement could ink out the terms of what your children are entitled to in the event of your untimely passing or in the event of a divorce.
• Are paying child support and alimony: Again, you do not want your new relationship interfering with your responsibilities to your former spouse and children. If your new spouse gets it into their head to create a ruckus about the money you are paying to your other family, things could get out of hand and you end up losing your peace of mind.
• Own a part of a family business or are in a partnership: If you're a part owner of any business or asset, it's best to decide how ownership issues are going to be decided in the event of a split. You don't want a messy legal battle on your hand for property or business that is not completely yours and over which you do not have total control.
• Are extremely practical: If you're the kind who's very practical and are able to face the realities of life, you know that agreeing on a prenup is just like writing your will. You are prepared for anything that may or may not happen, and if it does, it saves a whole lot of trouble for everyone else concerned too.
• Are considering buying property together with your new spouse: Depending on how much money each of you contribute, you could decide on how this property will be split in case you both decide to go your separate ways. There are some assets that cannot be split evenly unless they are liquidated, so you can decide how to divide such property in a prenup to save you both the trouble of a long drawn out court battle in the future.

This article is written by Kat Sanders, who regularly blogs on the topic of online court reporter schools at her blog Court Reporter Schools. She welcomes your comments and questions at her email address: katsanders25@gmail.com.

Full post as published by SC Family Law Blog on July 31, 2009 (boomark / email).