Prenups in 2023
A prenup should be called a “protect my assets” agreement. “Prenup” is the relaxed way of saying “prenuptial agreement,” you could also call it a premarital agreement or antenuptial agreement. This is a contract written before marriage that lays out the dividing of assets when a legal civil union ends, most commonly due to divorce but could also be due to death and another special occasion, like if a spouse goes bankrupt. This should not be confused with the regulation of a couple’s children. A prenup is only valid if it is created and signed before marriage. This gives each control and selection of his or her assets. Many people question whether this decision is for them, and with the divorce rate at or near around 50 percent in America, this decision can be challenging. Prenups divide aspects like property between all forms, retirement benefits, alimony benefits, and other monitorial property like savings and stock holdings. This contract is proactive in its predetermined rules and terms that provide clarity for a couple going through the uncomfortable divorce process.
This is not to be confused with postnuptial agreements that occur after a legal union, also known as separation agreements. Prenups vary in power and regulations depending on the country or state in which the contract is recognized. In the US, for example, a prenup is the same in all fifty states because it is consistently recognized in the district of Colombia. However, a state may interpret the agreement differently. In an article published in CNBC News, it was reported that the popularity of prenups has increased in the millennial age group (https://www.cnbc.com/2019/01/10/bezos-divorce-highlights-usefulness-of-prenuptial-agreements.html) Among this age group, most couples have sought to protect an inheritance, real estate, and other forms of property. In the millennial generation, aspects of social media have also been worked into the agreements, such as who has rights to what accounts and what can or cannot be posted on social media of another spouse during the marriage or after a divorce.
California, Florida, New Jersey, Virginia, and 28 other states have adhered to the UPAA/UPMAA. This stands for the Uniform Premarital Agreement Act. This has yet to be accepted in the remaining 22 states. This act was instilled to remove grey areas and unclearness in the agreement. This was created so that a prenup would translate the same into the other states along with these standards made by the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws. This does its best to fix the inconsistency that comes from statutory courts. The three items that this act enforces in its framework are that it “requires marital agreements to be in writing and declares them to be enforceable without consideration or modernizing existing state laws,” it “Offers couples a flexible framework for premarital agreements that promote responsible planning and informed decision making,” and it “provides courts in every state a framework for determining an agreement’s validity regardless of where it was executed.”
Furthermore, a prenup can be recalled if a spouse states they were forced to sign it under extreme circumstances like abuse or coercion. The rules and laws of prenups also are held to the same standards for same-sex couples. There must be proof of duress to process this as accurate. Another task a prenup does is it can set limits to how one person provides to another; A prenup can be customized anyway as long as the couples draft it themselves. Some couples choose to change the benefits from one spouse to another depending on if the marriage lasts a certain amount of time; for example, a couple may agree to split assets in a fifty-fifty ratio if a divorce were to happen in the first ten years of marriage, then that ratio may change to a seventy-twenty-five ratio when the marriage surpasses ten years. This is called a “Sunset Provision.”
In the United States, a prenup must have these five characterizations to be valid. The first is that the agreement must be in writing, whether digital or physical paper; an oral agreement will not suffice. The next aspect is that it must be voluntary; if a member is forced into signing it, it can be proven invalid. The third rule is that at the time of writing, both parties must be fully disclosed, sharing all assets and not hiding any money. The fourth rule is that the contract must be reasonable, and the final rule must be executed and signed by a witness.
The most common ways a prenup is invalidated in the eyes of the law is if a person was forced to sign it or signed under duress if the agreement is unreasonable and if one party did not share all assets when the contract was signed.
In short, prenups should not be feared because it is simply a contract. In a world where anything is possible, it is better to be prepared. If someone is getting married for the right reasons it should not harm a person nor a relationship. The stigma that commonly circulates these agreements have ended relationships.
Talk with your partner to navigate what is the best route. In my candid opinion, I would say, yes!