On behalf of Stange Law Firm, PC posted in Family Law on Tuesday, February 25, 2014.
Prenuptial agreements are like insurance. No one likes paying for insurance, but when your home is damaged in a storm, or car wrecked in a crash, it sure can come in handy. The same can be said of a prenuptial agreement. The difficulty with a prenuptial agreement is both raising the issue with your future spouse and conceiving in your own mind of the need for one.
A prenuptial agreement is a contract that you and your future spouse agree to, prior to your marriage that lays out how you will divide your assets should you ever decide to divorce. If you are young and only have school debt and few assets, it may seem somewhat unnecessary.
But if you are older, maybe previously married and now divorced, and decide to give marriage another go, you may have certain assets you want to protect, should disaster strike twice and this marriage follow the previous one to a Missouri family court.
Prenuptial agreements are also useful to protect the rights of your children from a previous marriage. You can protect their rights to specific personal and real property, to prevent a divorce from divesting you of important assets.
For anyone considering marriage, it can also provide the basis for an in-depth discussion of money, both spending it and saving it, and prevent your discovery after the wedding of any financial irregularities or dangerous spending habits.
It may help you strengthen your bond, or if fundamental incompatibilities become known, may save you from embarking on a marriage that would eventually come to grief over issues of money.
Source: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, “Plan your divorce before your wedding day,” Jim Gallagher, February 23, 2014
