Prenupt/Marital Agreement - Do you have one and thoughts on getting one

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Neither of us had two pennies to rub together when we got married straight out of grad school, so no.

However, if one of us had significant pre-existing assets, we would have one, and I would have no problems signing it.

+2

+3 I'm a single parent, own my house and a profitable investment property, have a decent amount in retirement accounts and make $225. For the financial protection of my DSs, I would insist on one (should I ever marry again).

Can't do anything about Social Security, but I would be really, really pissed if I was forced to share my retirement account with a slacker ex!

[Anonymous]

If you both go into a marriage young and poor, then I would advise against a prenuptial agreement because you never know what life will bring you.

My DH and I have been married almost 19 years, and we started our lives together with $57K in HHI and $130K in student debt. Since we were both young lawyers at that time, we might have agreed to have a prenuptial agreement that split everything in proportion to our economic contributions to the marriage -- at that time I thought I would be the primary breadwinner.

Fast forward 19 years. I gave up a good career after 8 years of practice, and am currently a SAHM to several children -- we do not have a nanny. DH earns about $2 million/year.

We will be together forever, but the economics of our marriage are very different from what I might have envisioned and planned for in a prenuptial agreement had we made one when we first were married.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you both go into a marriage young and poor, then I would advise against a prenuptial agreement because you never know what life will bring you.

My DH and I have been married almost 19 years, and we started our lives together with $57K in HHI and $130K in student debt. Since we were both young lawyers at that time, we might have agreed to have a prenuptial agreement that split everything in proportion to our economic contributions to the marriage -- at that time I thought I would be the primary breadwinner.

Fast forward 19 years. I gave up a good career after 8 years of practice, and am currently a SAHM to several children -- we do not have a nanny. DH earns about $2 million/year.

We will be together forever, but the economics of our marriage are very different from what I might have envisioned and planned for in a prenuptial agreement had we made one when we first were married.

No reason you couldn't have modified the agreement at a later point to reflect changed circumstances.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wouldn't you each need a lawyer? Seems hard for one lawyer to represent both of you, since the premise of the agreement is you will be separating.

OP here, yes I believe that's correct although most of the fees will be incurred by the lawyer drafting the agreement. I assume the fees for the lawyer advising the other party won't be that much as we're in agreement on the substance of the terms.

Domestic relations lawyer here: this is not true at all. It is labor intensive going through and figuring out what was left out...

Fair enough. Can you provide any ballpark cost estimates for a fairly simple prenupt/marital agreement? Separate finances so we'd keep our own accounts, 401Ks, neither side pays alimony, etc. so it should be fairly straightforward.

Also, any thoughts on how we can reduce legal fees? Our thought was to prepare an itemized list of things and our agreement on them as well as a list of assets for disclosure.

Just posted, but it cost us about $6K to do our prenup which is ludicrous. We ran into a slight change (because I bought a home while we were drafting) and it took forever, even though we were in agreement. Lawyers charge to "think" about your emails. So here's my advice -- be very direct and very specific in any correspondence you send. Provide a draft of what you want yourself and have them add the lawyer-ese. And talk to your partner before hand and make sure you're in agreement before you go to the lawyer.

Also, use an associate instead of a partner. It will be fine and a lot less expensive.

Thank you, wow I didn't realize it would cost that much although it sounds like you might have more assets than us. I'm a lawyer (although not in family law) so I may just draft it and let spouse take it to a lawyer to review since we’re in agreement on everything that way there’s no issue of one party not being adequately represented.

[Anonymous]

A prenup never even crossed my mind. Ever. My husband is older, too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wouldn't you each need a lawyer? Seems hard for one lawyer to represent both of you, since the premise of the agreement is you will be separating.

OP here, yes I believe that's correct although most of the fees will be incurred by the lawyer drafting the agreement. I assume the fees for the lawyer advising the other party won't be that much as we're in agreement on the substance of the terms.

Domestic relations lawyer here: this is not true at all. It is labor intensive going through and figuring out what was left out...

Fair enough. Can you provide any ballpark cost estimates for a fairly simple prenupt/marital agreement? Separate finances so we'd keep our own accounts, 401Ks, neither side pays alimony, etc. so it should be fairly straightforward.

Also, any thoughts on how we can reduce legal fees? Our thought was to prepare an itemized list of things and our agreement on them as well as a list of assets for disclosure.

Just posted, but it cost us about $6K to do our prenup which is ludicrous. We ran into a slight change (because I bought a home while we were drafting) and it took forever, even though we were in agreement. Lawyers charge to "think" about your emails. So here's my advice -- be very direct and very specific in any correspondence you send. Provide a draft of what you want yourself and have them add the lawyer-ese. And talk to your partner before hand and make sure you're in agreement before you go to the lawyer.

Also, use an associate instead of a partner. It will be fine and a lot less expensive.

Thank you, wow I didn't realize it would cost that much although it sounds like you might have more assets than us. I'm a lawyer (although not in family law) so I may just draft it and let spouse take it to a lawyer to review since we’re in agreement on everything that way there’s no issue of one party not being adequately represented.

A domestic relations lawyer will likely want to use his/her own format. Going through an agreement figuring out what Is missing is isn't easy.