A prenup is a contract with rules defining your financial relationship with your spouse during and, if necessary, after marriage. This is why we say that every married couple has a prenup! You either write your own, or you accept your state's default rules when you get married.

There isn’t just one type of prenup. Many people assume a prenup means each spouse keeps 100% of their assets and debts, when in reality, prenups range from keeping assets and debts separate, to guaranteeing a 50/50 division of everything owned by either spouse and everything in between.

A postnup is similar to a prenup, except they are signed after the wedding date. In some states, you are limited as to what you can include in a postnup, while in most states, anything you can include in a prenup, you can also include in a postnup.

If you want to customize your financial relationship to have anything other than what your state law says, you need a prenup! At a minimum, a prenup means choosing what belongs to you, what belongs to your spouse, and what belongs jointly to you and your spouse. Without a prenup, a judge's ultimate power to make those decisions lies.

Specifically, the other reasons to have a prenup are:

• Identify premarital assets and debts that will remain separate

• Identify categories of assets and debts that will be considered joint property

• Pre-determine alimony (or waive alimony)

• Protect the inheritance of children

• Protect a spouse from the other spouse’s debts

• Protect business interests (both premarital and postmarital businesses)

Yes! The myth that prenuptial agreements aren’t enforceable dates back to the 1970s and early 1980s before the passage of the Uniform Prenuptial Agreement Act when the laws surrounding prenups weren’t mature and well settled. Prenups have now been accepted and enforceable in all 50 states for 40 years. Generally, an enforceable prenup is voluntarily signed, negotiated with full disclosure of the financial circumstances of each spouse (assets, debts, income), and with enough time before the wedding that each spouse has the opportunity to hire an attorney and participate in meaningful negotiations. In some jurisdictions, like California, both spouses need to be represented by an attorney, particularly when alimony is addressed. When done properly, prenuptial and postnuptial agreements are routinely upheld like other contracts.

Yes! A prenup can outline not just ownership of assets, but also responsibility for debts, both those that exist at the time of the wedding and those incurred in the future.

Yes! It’s customary to address how assets will be treated in the future, and whether they will be classified as joint property or separate property.

This will depend on each couple, because most of the time associated with getting a prenup should be spent having conversations with your future spouse and getting aligned on how finances will work in your relationship. Most attorneys would recommend anywhere from six weeks to six months, depending on how much you have already discussed with your partner, how much you agree, whether you have complex issues to be addressed, etc. Bottom line: once you’re engaged, start your prenup process - you don’t want to be rushing at the last minute. Some states will be more skeptical of prenups signed within a week of the wedding.

The price can vary depending on the provider, location, whether you’re downloading a computer-generated document or working with a licensed attorney, whether the attorney specializes in preparing prenuptial agreements or not, the complexity of issues, and many other factors. We offer flat-fee customized prenuptial and postnuptial agreements, drafted by experienced licensed attorneys, starting at $3500.

As of 2023, every state except for Iowa allows the use of postnuptial agreements, which are similar to prenuptial agreements, but signed after the marriage. In some states, such as California, you may be limited in what you can include in a postnup as compared to a prenup.

Any attorney can only represent one of the two spouses, so if each spouse wants to receive independent legal advice, they will need to have separate attorneys. That said, we believe that a prenup or postnup is best prepared as a collaborative effort where the couple educates themselves on their options and comes to an agreement on as many of the terms as possible to reduce back and forth between attorneys, where the intent of the couple can sometimes be lost in translation.

In many states, it’s not legally required that both spouses have separate counsel, just that each spouse has had the opportunity to have separate counsel. In some jurisdictions, like California, both spouses need to be represented by an attorney, particularly when alimony is addressed.

Typically the state where you and your spouse are currently residents should be the state for your prenup or postnup (rather than the state where your wedding takes place, or a state where you may move to in the future). If you and your spouse live in different states or plan to move immediately after the wedding, ask us during your consultation about what is best for your situation.

Prenups and postnups are customarily written with clauses specifically intended to make them enforceable across state lines, so you don’t have to worry about rewriting your agreement if you move within the United States in the future.

No! Our entire process from initial consultation to signing your agreement doesn’t require you to physically come to our office - we use Zoom for videoconferencing.

A typical prenup process takes about a month, with much of that time dedicated to the couple having conversations to come to a consensus on the content of their agreement. For couples that have already agreed to most terms, the process can often take just a couple of weeks from beginning to end.