Is a Prenuptial Agreement Right for You?
by
Shae Irving, J.D. &
Katherine E. Stoner, Attorney-Mediator
For premarital agreements, follow these steps to decide whether a prenup makes sense.
Once you understand the basics of premarital agreements, you should focus on the specifics of your circumstances and figure out whether a prenup is what you need. The following three steps will help. (To learn the basics of prenups, see Prenuptial Agreements -- An Overview.)
Step One: Take a Prenup Quiz
If you or your fiancé answer yes to any of the following questions, there is a good chance a prenup would be helpful. If you answer no to every question, you might still benefit, but having a prenup might not be as critical.
- Do you own any real estate?
- Do you own more than $50,000 worth of assets other than real estate?
- Do you own all or part of a business?
- Do you currently earn a salary of more than $100,000 per year?
- Have you earned more than one year's worth of retirement benefits or do you have other valuable employment benefits, such as profit sharing or stock options?
- Does one of you plan to pursue an advanced degree while the other works?
- Will all or part of your estate go to someone other than your spouse when you die?
Step Two: Identify Important Issues
Jot down on a piece of paper a list of the things you might want to include in a prenup, such as identifying separate property, decisions about how you will handle money and property while you are married, whether alimony will be paid or waived in the event of divorce, retirement benefit agreements, and agreements about how you want to leave property at your death.
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