Disillusioned: 6 Myths About Pre-Nuptial Agreements You Shouldn’t Believe

Feb 20

, Carroll Law Office

Planning and getting ready for marriage is a happy time. It’s one that couples often don’t want to spoil with talk about money or major plans for the future. In that vein, prenuptial agreements (a.k.a. “prenups”) are often viewed as being unromantic, and some might even think they signal distrust and something darker if their partner wants one. However, it’s important to know the truth about all of these myths that people believe regarding prenuptial agreements. Below we’ll dispel some common misconceptions associated with prenups.

• Prenups are only for the rich and famous

Although you tend to hear about messy divorces and unsigned prenuptial agreements in the tabloids, the truth is that prenups are meant for everyone who plans to get married. It doesn’t matter how much you have in the bank, the fact of the matter is that they are meant to protect your assets, whatever they may be.

• Prenups only come into play during a divorce

As we mentioned above, prenups are used to protect your assets. This is particularly true if you have children from a previous marriage or ex-spouse you share assets with. Prenups, when viewed in this sense, prevent your new spouse from getting in the way of anything you have previously and carefully thought out in regards to your estate.

• The courts won’t uphold your agreement

This is sometimes true, but usually only if the prenuptial agreement fails to meet the legal standard as required by your state. Another common portion that courts won’t recognize are those that pertain to children and any decisions about child support and custody. However, a court isn’t likely to cancel out an entire agreement under these conditions, just the portion that has to do with your children. Otherwise, so long as the prenup was executed in accordance with the requirements of the law, a judge is likely to uphold its contents.

• Prenups make your marriage more likely to fail

This is, of course, a myth. In fact, it’s likely that a prenup could even help to strengthen your impending nuptials, because it makes you and your partner talk about the important things before walking down the aisle. There needs to be full disclosure and transparency when making your prenuptial agreement. Being able to have these kinds of discussions makes it more likely that you and your partner will have harder conversations that need to happen before making the commitment to each other.

• Prenups mean you don’t trust your partner

Like the other myths we’ve touched on, prenuptial agreements don’t mean that there is trouble brewing, or is inevitable, in your relationship. Like we’ve said, there are a whole host of reasons why prenups are beneficial just in case something changes down the road.

• They’re too expensive.

This is also simply untrue. When compared with the cost of a marriage (or an even costlier divorce) prenuptial agreements are fairly straightforward. A common example is thinking about them like a type of insurance. It’s not something you hope to need, but if it’s there, you will be the happier for it.

Prenuptial agreements are a common and important process of getting married and something all couples would benefit from. If you are getting married and want to consider a prenuptial agreement, please don’t hesitate to contact the Carroll Law Office today!