If you are newly engaged, the thought of talking to your future spouse about a prenuptial agreement may be the furthest thing from your mind. However, you may want to reconsider that and open up a discussion about this. Why should you do this? For starters, it puts you in control of your life and your assets rather than some arbitrary laws. You could consider that you will always have a prenup. It can either be the one you and your spouse create or the divorce laws in your state. Which sounds better to you?
In addition to not leaving your life up to chance and the hands of the law, which can change over time, Forbes suggests there are other benefits to marital contracts. Do you or your to-be spouse have children from a previous marriage or relationship? Maybe one or both of you even have grandchildren already. A prenup gives you the ability to make sure each bloodline gets the assets you want them to have after you die. It’s a great adjunct to estate planning, especially for blended families.
Do you or your partner own a business or have a significant interest in a business? If so, a divorce could have serious implications for that business unless you protect it. A strong prenuptial agreement may help do this. The fact remains that the biggest reason most people don’t have prenups is that it just feels too hard to talk about it yet the benefits are clear.
If you would like to learn more about prenuptial and postnuptial agreements, please feel free to visit the marital contracts page of our Illinois family law website.
