On February 29th the news was full of excited brides to be getting down on one knee to take advantage of the leap year tradition and no doubt many of those brides have already now started planning their big day.
A wedding does not plan itself and there are countless decisions for the happy couple to make but one big decision often overlooked is the decision as to whether to protect your assets in the event that the worst happens.
Whilst the last thing any engaged couple wants to think about is a marriage coming to an end, the reality is that many marriages do end in Divorce.
Many couples are getting married later in life and by that point many have already built up considerable assets by themselves. You may not have a luxury holiday home or millions in the bank, but what you do have may have been hard earnt, or have been provided to you by your family, and many people would not want to share these assets if things went wrong, particularly if the marriage is short lived.
A prenuptial agreement is not just for the rich and famous, it is for anyone who has an asset that they want to protect, however big or small that asset may be.
Even if you don’t have any assets going in to the marriage it might be the case that you expect to acquire an asset, for example by way of inheritance, and a prenup can provide for that scenario too.
The best time to discuss what each party would like to happen in the event of a separation is when it seems most unlikely. When you are on good terms it is much easier to discuss these tricky issues.
When you are planning your life together there will be much discussion about the future, and although raising the issue of a prenuptial agreement can be difficult, in the long term it means that both parties are entering into the marriage on the same page and with a clear understanding of what will happened should things not work out.
Hopefully you will never need to rely on your prenuptial agreement, but if you do decide to separate having a prenuptial agreement can help to make the separation much more straightforward, reducing the arguments and animosity and saving significant amounts on legal fees negotiating a financial settlement.
