Anonymous wrote:I am an early employee at a start up that is about to be sold. Not sure what the financials will looks like but I could get a few million.

My coworker mentioned a postnup as being standard in situations like this. My initial reaction was to think their marriage must be rough. In my marriage we have always shared money in one account, have no real delineation in finances, and have always made about the same amount of money. But now I am wondering if my coworker knows something I don't? Should I protect this money? In a situation like this, is there any reason to protect your money outside of the fact that you don't trust your spouse?

Your money is your husband/wife's money too. Postnup sounds insane!

Divorce lawyer here: this is essentially asking your spouse (whom you seem to love) to waive something to which she is entitled. This is worse than asking for a prenup which typically is designed to protect separate assets (to which the non owning spouse would t be entitled to anyway).

If my spouse worked for a startup that eventually paid off and then wanted me to sign a postnup, I would ask for a divorce. I support you through the ups and downs of a startup and then you are going to try to keep all of the upside? LOL. Get real.

In a happy marriage, this seems like a bad idea. I would assume my spouse was planning to leave me at some point if they asked me to sign a postnup.

Personally, I wouldn't worry about my spouse/divorce, but I would probably put some safeguards in place for my children. I've read too many stories about the widowed spouse remarrying and leaving everything to the new spouse so the children get nothing.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And why would you think your wife doesn't deserve half of the proceeds? Did you use solely your money to invest in it? Were you there before your marriage?

It may be the wife asking who is getting the money.

What's your point? I'm female and would never hit my husband with a postnup either.

The point is that its sexist to assume OP is a DH.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And why would you think your wife doesn't deserve half of the proceeds? Did you use solely your money to invest in it? Were you there before your marriage?

It may be the wife asking who is getting the money.

Funny, I read OP as the wife on this one too.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And why would you think your wife doesn't deserve half of the proceeds? Did you use solely your money to invest in it? Were you there before your marriage?

It may be the wife asking who is getting the money.

What's your point? I'm female and would never hit my husband with a postnup either.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And why would you think your wife doesn't deserve half of the proceeds? Did you use solely your money to invest in it? Were you there before your marriage?

It may be the wife asking who is getting the money.

Don't assume!

Anonymous wrote:And why would you think your wife doesn't deserve half of the proceeds? Did you use solely your money to invest in it? Were you there before your marriage?

Presumably the job and any investment in the company predated the marriage since the idea would be to protect assets that were acquired outside of the marriage. Even then I think it would only fly if the job hours and workload really didn't impact the other spouse in any measurable way, which in my experience is rare--but possible.

Anonymous wrote:And why would you think your wife doesn't deserve half of the proceeds? Did you use solely your money to invest in it? Were you there before your marriage?

It may be the wife asking who is getting the money.

And why would you think your wife doesn't deserve half of the proceeds? Did you use solely your money to invest in it? Were you there before your marriage?

I went through two big payouts and no one ever discussed a postnup. If you are in a difficult marriage I can understand the desire to do it but your spouse will clearly know what's up and will either not sign or negotiate a big payout. I'm happily married so even if I had heard of one I would not have done it.

Sure, if you want to ensure that those assets are protected and solely yours should you ever divorce. That assumes your spouse would agree to sign a postnup, though. For most families we know where one partner works at a startup, there has been a "cost" to the other partner in the form of having to have flexibility in work schedules, reduced hours, etc. to cover home and childcare responsibilities such that the spouse would probably not agree that the money earned belonged solely to the spouse who was at the company. If that has not been your experience, your spouse might be more likely to agree that he/she played no role in your earning that money, and might be okay drafting a postnup to document that it is solely yours.

I am an early employee at a start up that is about to be sold. Not sure what the financials will looks like but I could get a few million.

My coworker mentioned a postnup as being standard in situations like this. My initial reaction was to think their marriage must be rough. In my marriage we have always shared money in one account, have no real delineation in finances, and have always made about the same amount of money. But now I am wondering if my coworker knows something I don't? Should I protect this money? In a situation like this, is there any reason to protect your money outside of the fact that you don't trust your spouse?