What can a prenuptial agreement really do to justify the cost and hassle of drafting it before a marriage takes place?  It can actually do a lot.  The primary purpose is to protect property that one spouse or the other hand prior to the marriage in the event that the marriage ends.  This is often used to help ensure that assets are left to children of a previous marriage, or even to ensure that a new marriage does not potentially end in a divorce and losing a large portion of a pre-marriage estate.

While a prenuptial agreement is great for keeping property separate it is also great for keeping finances separate as well as debts as well.  This makes a prenuptial agreement perfect for couples where one spouse has a huge amount of debt from risking the martial property, or even the property of the other spouse after the marriage occurs. 

Another great benefit to having a prenuptial agreement is so that you can easily keep family heirlooms in the family.  If there is something that is highly valuable, it could be lost during a divorce.  However, with a prenuptial agreement the family heirloom is safe.  You can also specify in the prenuptial agreement exactly what each spouse will get in the event of a divorce. 

With a prenuptial agreement, you can specify the exact rules you want to be used in the event of a divorce.  This means if you want to determine exactly what each spouse will receive then you are able to determine the exact amount each party gets.  You can decide exact specifics in terms of which specific pieces of property each spouse can get, or you could decide that one spouse will receive 80% of the martial property while the other spouse receives only 20%. 

While prenuptial agreements have many great aspects, it is important to remember that a prenuptial agreement cannot be binding on matters of child support or custody.  Therefore it is essentially useless trying to handle these matters in a prenuptial agreement because the agreement will not likely stand up in court.  However, if you carefully plan and draft a joint custody agreement then the custody decision may stand, but it is up to the judge handling the divorce ultimately.

Additionally, some states limit the right to plan alimony issues in the prenuptial agreement.  Other states enforce the alimony decisions that are included in the prenuptial agreement.  However, in states that do enforce alimony agreements in the prenuptial agreement it is possible to limit the amount and duration of alimony that is awarded.  It is also possible to waive alimony if this is what is agreed upon by the parties. 

A prenuptial agreement however is never intended to handle matters that are not associated with finances or assets.  Any issues about legal names, children, potential pets or anything else have no place at all in a prenuptial agreement.  They should be handled in a separate manner and have no place at all in a prenuptial agreement.  It is vital that the prenuptial agreement not be bogged down by matters that have no legal place in the prenuptial agreement. 

You should try to cover as many financial issues as possible in the prenuptial agreement.  You need to always assume that there is going to be a divorce at the worse case scenario.  While everyone intends to marry and stay married, statistics say that a divorce is quite likely.  Because divorce is likely it encourages many people to help protect their assets when they marry in case it does not work out.  This is a very wise financial and personal decision.