WHY ARE MORE AND MORE MILLENNIALS GETTING PRENUPTIAL AGREEMENTS?
In our state, studies have shown that a number of millennials seeking out Prenuptial Agreements is growing. A Prenuptial Agreement is a written contract that a couple enters into prior to getting married. Should the marriage not pan out, it outlines how finances, assets, and debts should be divided.
The quest for a Prenuptial Agreement has spiked primarily because people are getting married later in life than in previous generations. They are more likely to come into the relationship with assets of their own, like a home, savings accounts, investment accounts, and multiple parcels of real estate.
People are increasingly aware that 40-50% of marriages in the United States end in divorce. And, because the stigma of divorce has become less taboo since the later part of the 1980’s up to the present, it wasn’t uncommon for millennials, themselves, to be the offspring of divorced parents and grandparents. Growing up realizing that divorce is not so rare is what has been a main driving force to think more rationally about future decisions and choices. While many are doing Prenuptials, the same age group is opting for Postnuptials, in the event that they were not of the same mindset prior to the marriage.
Prior to getting married, it is very important that the couple talk to each other about their personal finances and lifestyle, their ideas about money and how to save and spend it once they are married. Many people have joint assets and also have a “house account” from which the household expenses and weekly needs are paid from.
By having difficult conversations now, understanding the other person’s thoughts, and memorializing same in a Prenuptial or Postnuptial document, couples can actually lower their chances of getting divorced in the future. And, if they do, it is much less prolonged and messy.
