The Costs of Drafting a Prenuptial Agreement

Prenuptial agreements, commonly referred to as prenups, are contracts between prospective spouses that list each spouse’s assets and then list what will happen to those assets in the case of a divorce. A prenup becomes effective once the prospective spouses are married.

A critical aspect of a marital relationship is that it is an economic union between two people. Future partners can use a prenuptial agreement to help establish what that economic union means to each of you.

Who Would Want a Prenuptial Agreement?

Many people think that a prenuptial agreement is only for the ultra-wealthy and famous, but that isn’t always the case. A prenuptial agreement can help establish how a partner will be treated if they leave the workforce to maintain the home or care for your children. A prenuptial agreement can help determine how the marital community will treat things like student loans and credit card debt.

A prenuptial agreement is helpful in every relationship. A prenup is, at heart, a very effective device for financial planning for the future. As your financial situation evolves alongside your marriage, a prenup will help prevent any feelings of confusion or resentment between you and your partner since it will outline how your finances will be allotted. A prenuptial agreement can also be helpful to people who own a business. A prenup should also be considered a requirement for any couple who wants to minimize the costs of a potential divorce.

How Do You Make a Prenuptial Agreement?

You can technically draft your prenuptial agreement; however, we do not recommend this approach. A prenup is a hyper-technical document that relies on a sophisticated set of laws and cases that many lawyers do not fully understand. A prenuptial agreement is not a document that you want to fail when you need it most since this is your estate, your assets, and your things it is protecting. You do not want any of the complicated laws surrounding prenuptial agreements to negatively impact your rights and responsibilities concerning your assets and your contract. We recommend that you find an attorney who is knowledgeable in this area to draft the prenuptial agreement for you.

The cost of drafting a prenuptial agreement varies depending on the number of assets you and your partner have. The more assets, the more complicated the agreement becomes and the longer it takes to draft it.

Prenuptial agreements can save you a lot of time and money in the event of a divorce since a good prenup will address most, if not all, of the property within the marital economic community. A prenuptial agreement will give you more control over what happens if you and your partner divorce since you two will be making the decisions ahead of time, rather than letting a judge make these decisions for you.

Difficulties Involved in Drafting a Prenuptial Agreement

Drafting a prenuptial agreement can put a strain on your marriage before it has even begun if you and your partner enter the process with the wrong mindset. No party to the prenup should feel like they are being forced into signing the agreement, and no one should be trying to take advantage of their partner by making the document. However, we see enough of these coercive prenuptial agreements in our line of work to wholeheartedly recommend reaching out to an attorney if your spouse approaches you with any sort of premarital agreement.

A significant problem with overly coercive prenuptial agreements is that you can find yourself in a protracted legal battle at divorce. This could involve you and your ex-partner arguing over the terms within the agreement that was supposed to save you both money and time if you ever divorced)!

As mentioned above, there are lots of different ways for a prenuptial agreement to go wrong. Here are a few of the most common issues that can come up. A court will not enforce a prenuptial agreement’s terms related to child custody and child support, any terms related to doing something illegal are prohibited, any non-financial requirements, for example, requiring plastic surgery, will be invalid, Courts will not uphold terms pertaining to spousal support if the affected spouse did not receive independent legal counsel. Any terms that the court determines to be unconscionable can invalidate a prenuptial agreement.

Additionally, a prenuptial agreement must be properly executed, and once the prenup is created, both parties must have at least one week to seek independent legal counsel before signing it.

We also recommend not saving your prenuptial agreement until right before the wedding. The more time you and your partner have to think about the agreement without worrying about the details of your wedding, the better.

Why You Should Choose Feinberg & Waller, APC to Draft and Advise You on Premarital Agreements

At Feinberg & Waller, APC, our prenuptial agreement attorneys help clients draft comprehensive prenups that enable them to protect their assets and interests throughout their marriage. Our attorneys will work with you and your soon-to-be spouse’s attorney to establish equitable terms for your marital agreement. We understand your needs and will help you by providing unparalleled professional service.