Recently there has been a growing awareness about the fact that marriage is not just a romantic union between two people. It is also a business contract including mergers and acquisitions of interests, wealth and property. An unplanned marriage can cause havoc in the personal and professional lives of both parties. Heard of cases where one spouse’s debts are entirely borne by the other? Yes, such things can happen. So if you don’t want to be on the receiving end of any financial liability that your spouse may have brought upon himself/herself, read on.
A premarital agreement or a prenup– may sound unromantic, even shrewd but are essential in today’s world. They have to be signed before marriage keeping in mind the scenario of divorce. Well, caution is always better. Many would walk away from the idea of coldly calculating their finances, assets and liabilities at a time of love and happiness. Others would think engaging in such a contract would already scar the marriage before it even begins. But all of us can agree that problems do erupt in all marriages and a prenup should be viewed only as a precautionary mechanism. Let’s go through some of the pros and cons of a premarital agreement.
PROs
- A prenup protects the debt-free spouse from obliging to the debt of his/her partner.
- Solves inheritance issue of children from previous marriage, if any.
- Limits the alimony or financial support to be given to the partner in the event of a divorce and saves one from endless bitter negotiations later.
- If post marriage, a partner has to give up a strong lucrative career, a prenup offers compensation routes for that.
- Helps ease all decision –making aspects and financial investments taken in the course of the marriage.
CONs
- Spouse may be required to give up on his/her inheritance to the partner’s wealth, if stated so in the agreement. The law of the land used to take it in default that upon a partner’s death, the other spouse is entitled to property even if not mentioned in the will.
- A poorly built contract can instill a lack of trust between the couple.
- In the honeymoon phase of a relationship, one party may compromise and agree to certain conditions thinking that it would never come to implementing it. This may prove detrimental in the end to both the partners.
- Negotiations during the divorce lose their sharpness and aren’t as effective as issues have already been put in place in the prenup.
Premarital agreements aren’t the devil here. Contact an Austin Prenup Lawyer to handle all negotiations during the formation of the contract and prevent casting any shadow on your blissful happily ever-after!