The marital breakup process in many cases is inevitable, and it is often painful for those involved. For this reason, it may not come as a surprise that more millennials in Pennsylvania and elsewhere are opting to develop prenuptial agreements, or prenups, before they get married. In fact, new research indicates that more than 50 percent of attorneys recently saw a rise in these types of agreements among millennials, as members of this generation are increasingly interested in protecting themselves in the event of divorce.
In millennials’ prenuptial agreements, they often cite their main reason for creating the agreements as the desire to protect their separate property. Other reasons for putting together these types of agreements include property division and alimony. Young adults value prenuptial agreements because they are generally settling down much later in life than previous generations did, so by the time they get married, they often have more assets to bring into the marriage than their parents did.
Ideally, prenuptial agreements should be fair to both parties. This is true no matter which person brings more assets into the marriage. When done correctly, prenuptial agreements can offer engaged couples a peace of mind, as they will know what will happen to certain assets if they decide to end their marriage. In addition, the process of creating a prenuptial agreement helps to promote critical financial conversations between people before they get married.
Sometimes, however, people end up getting divorced without prenuptial agreements. The good news is that they can still try to resolve their divorce matters through negotiation or mediation, which is usually less stressful than going to trial. An attorney can help a divorcing individual to explore all of his or her divorce options with the goal of achieving the most personally beneficial outcome possible in Pennsylvania.
