Why do spouses sign prenuptial agreements?

From a nuts and bolts perspective, a prenuptial agreement makes a lot of sense. From the traditional view of love and marriage — that implies your marriage partner is “until death do us part” — these agreements go against religious concept of “holy matrimony.”

To be sure, prenuptial agreements are a hot-button issue, but just about every single family law attorney — even those who have litigated countless contentious divorce proceedings — know that no divorcing spouses ever entered marriage thinking that their union would be temporary. Furthermore, considering how many marriages end up in divorce, a prenuptial agreement that makes divorce exponentially faster, easier and cheaper on everyone involved is an excellent idea.

Reasons for creating a prenuptial agreement

You might be on the fence about whether you want to create a prenup before you get married, so let’s look at some the most common reasons why people sign such a document:

— To codify and agree to the responsibilities of the spouses within the marriage.

— To keep the property of a separate business removed from the marital estate.

— To identify one’s retirement benefits as separate and individual property.

— To establish income and deductions related to tax returns.

— To manage household expenses and bills.

— To manage a joint bank account if any exist.

— To organize how investments will be made into the shared residence or shared business.

— To make arrangements about the use of credit cards and the paying off of debt.

— To codify arrangements pertaining to the education and payment of the education for one or the other spouse.

— To create a plan for settling potential areas of disagreement during marriage through arbitration or mediation.

Conclusion

Marriage is about love — and, indeed, it should be — but it’s also a business and legal arrangement. Therefore, it’s one area of life where the divide between business and your personal life can get blurred. A prenuptial agreement helps things stay clean and clear so that — in the event of a divorce later on down the line — the prenuptial agreement will help the spouses go their separate ways in the most civil way possible.