Prenuptial Agreements for Recently Engaged and Newlywed Couples

Many people believe that a prenuptial agreement only addresses financial matters if the parties to a marriage divorce; however, prenups are also routinely used to address the distribution of the parties’ estates in the event of death during the marriage.  Entering into a prenuptial agreement helps foster healthy communication about finances from the very beginning of a marriage and gives the parties a clear roadmap of how the finances will be handled if one party of the relationship should pass away. Here are three key advantages to having a prenup as part of your estate plan:

Property Protection

Prenups define the property items of each partner. Parties specify what property belongs to each spouse and how they’d like to handle distribution of the assets in the event of their passing. This can be especially helpful if couples enter the marriage with family heirlooms or other property that they wish to keep separate.

Define Marital Property

In the unfortunate instance of a spouse passing away, a prenup is the widow/widower’s guide to what happens to their late partner’s assets. It’s important to establish both marital and non-marital property to make the transition for your living spouse one that is clear, concise and mutual when it comes to what happens to your personal and shared estates.

Protection from Debts

A prenup determines how debt liabilities will be distributed and helps protect from issues with creditors. If one spouse comes to the marriage with an extensive amount of credit card or other loan debt, a prenup can define the liabilities as the spouse’s separate debt and detail how it will be handled it in the event of a spouse’s passing.

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