When two people agree to get married, they make a conscious decision to share their lives and everything in it, including assets.
What happens when one partner has substantially more assets than the other? In such cases, it is usually recommended that both partners sign a prenuptial agreement or 'prenup'.
A prenup takes the partner's assets out of the equation if the couple were to ever split up or divorce.
Usually, a prenup will protect only those assets the partner made before the marriage was final.
So anything made after is 'fair game', but it all depends on the actual wording of the prenup in question.
While signing a prenup sounds good on paper and to the person with the substantial assets, it might not sound so good to the person who's being asked to sign the document.
Many people, when asked to sign a prenup, say 'no way'.
Think about it, it's almost like betting that the marriage won't last.
What happened to 'till death do you part? Is the person supposed to forget all that and sign a paper that says the partner won't pay if they ever split up? This it the conundrum often faced when two people get together and one has much more than the other.
In such cases, communication is key, but both people still need to be realists.
Will The Marriage Last? 'Till death do you part is a romantic notion, but is it based on reality? With the divorce rate so high and with divorce lawyers being some of the most in-demand legal counsel in the country, it's easy to see that relationships as we know them are in trouble.
Will your marriage last? This is a question you should ask yourself before you get married in the first place.
If you believe that it will, then don't have your partner sign the document, if you are in fact the one with the assets.
If your partner is the rich one, make sure you don't sign because you believe the marriage will last.
If there is any doubt, then the marriage wasn't meant to be.
Signing a prenup wouldn't be a problem if people actually married for love and stayed married even when things got tough.
The institution of marriage may be broken, but prenups only seek to complicate things.
If you want to get married, it should be with the one you're committed to spending the rest of your life with.
A prenup would be a moot point in that situation.
If people stayed together when they promised 'I do', then the divorce lawyers would be out of business, marriage in this society would once again see a rebirth and we'd never have to hear the term 'prenup' again.
The bottom line is that if you want someone to sign a prenup, you have doubt in your mind.
If you are being asked to sign a prenup, that person has doubt that you're the one.
In both of these cases, maybe marriage isn't such a good idea.