Why do I need a prenuptial agreement when I believe in marriage for life? Unfortunately, there is no easy answer to that question. Nobody ever enters into a “lease marriage.” It is always intended for life. Yet, a huge number of marriages end by divorce. Some say 50% of all marriages end that way, others say the number is higher. It varies by the ages of the spouses, whether they have been married before, etc. The situation can be analogized to insurance. You don’t expect your house to be destroyed in a storm but it can happen. When the storm is happening its nice to know that you have insurance. Similarly, you don’t expect your marriage to end, but it will go through stormy periods. At such times, its nice to know that you do not have the added stress of wondering what your financial future will be if the marriage does not weather the storm.
Keep in mind that it takes two to make a marriage. No matter how committed you remain, if your spouse decides to make a change the law gives you no power to stop that change. At that point a Judge will make what he or she believes is a just and right division of your community estate, unless you have a prenuptial agreement.
You and your spouse will probably live to be over 80 years old. It is impossible to predict how circumstances or people will change over time. If the marriage ends by divorce a prenup can greatly reduce the stress and financial cost in untold ways.
