One of the arguments people use against prenuptial agreements is that they think the document will make them more likely to end their marriage. After all, they’re already thinking about divorce and planning for it before they’re even married. Isn’t that a defeatist attitude? Won’t the prenup also make it easier to get divorced, so they’ll be quicker to pick divorce if things get tough in the marriage?
While these things may be true in specific situations, there is generally no correlation between having a prenup and having higher odds of divorce. In one poll, the vast majority of experts (86%) claimed that signing one had “no predictable impact” at all.
What a prenup does do is to show that you know divorce is a possibility. No matter how happy a couple feels on their wedding day, there is the chance that they will split up. If you get married in your 20s, you could have 50 or 60 years ahead of you. Are you going to stay happy with your partner for decades? Maybe, but it’s a long time. Things change. People change. Life happens. Divorce simply is a reality. Those without a prenup merely have not planned for it in advance, while those with a prenup — even if they never end up using it — at least do have a legal plan in place.
Whether you have a prenup or not, you need to know what rights you have if you do find yourself facing divorce. This can be a complicated process, and there is certainly a lot at stake.