Why Prenuptial Agreements Are Becoming More Commonplace

Prenuptial agreements, once the exclusive province of celebrities and the fabulously wealthy, are becoming much more commonplace.

More couples are entering into second marriages, or are entering into first marriages later in life with significant assets, and want to protect themselves. Also, the publicity that has surrounded many famous people's "prenups" has caused them to be viewed with less of a stigma--for many people, they are now seen as routine financial planning rather than a sign of bad faith or lack of commitment.

Prenups can be fairly simple. Typically, a couple will list the assets and the debts they bring to the marriage, and state what will happen if there's a break-up: how the property will be divided, and whether alimony will be paid. Prenups often also spell out what happens when one spouse dies.

Prenups tend to be most popular among three groups:

• People who have children from a pre- vious marriage and want to protect the children's interests.
• People who have been through a messy, hard-fought divorce in the past, and want to make sure that it doesn't happen again.
• People who are entering into a first marriage with significant assets, or with an expectation of a large inheritance. (In these cases it's often the person's parents or family members who push for the prenup.)

A common arrangement is for each spouse to keep the property they bring to the marriage, and to split any property they acquire after the marriage. However, some couples plan to maintain completely separate assets even after they are married. Still other couples set things up so that how their assets are split will depend on how long the marriage lasts.

Some couples have been known to insert all sorts of other things into prenups, such as who will do the housework, how often they will take vacations, or even how often they will have sex. But these sorts of provisions typically don't stand up in court.

Generally, a prenup that says how a couple's assets will be split is enforceable. However, most states require that a prenup be basically fair: If one spouse is obviously taking advantage of the other, a judge will often strike it down.

Some states require that a prenup be fair when it is signed. However, other states require that it also still be fair at the time the couple splits up. A few states add other requirements; for instance, in Maine, a prenup is automatically void a year and a half after the couple has a child, unless it is renewed in writing.

There are a few things you can do to make a prenup more likely to hold up in court. First, each spouse should be represented by a different lawyer, so it's clear that each one signed the agreement voluntarily and understood fully what it meant. (Some couples even videotape the signing to prove that they both signed of their own free will.)

Second, it's good to sign the agreement well before the wedding. If the agreement is signed just prior to the big day, a spouse might later claim that he or she was pressured into it at the last minute.

Finally, be fair. The more greedy a spouse is, the more tempted a judge will be to throw out the agreement later.