No doubt you’ve heard of rich and famous people demanding a prenuptial agreement before they get married. You’ve probably even thought to yourself; that makes sense. After all, one person is super-wealthy and the other perhaps not so much. It would be insane if the person they married were to wait a few years and then demand half of everything and hire the best attorneys to litigate like hell on wheels. Prenuptials merely put gold diggers on notice; “It ain’t gonna happen!”

Legal contracts in marriage don’t always hold up the way you’d like them to. It is very interesting to read some of these prenuptial and postnuptial contracts, some of which have no chance in hell of standing up in a court of law if and when push comes to shove, and anytime there is a divorce, especially when it involves a lot of money, both parties and their attorneys tend to do quite a bit of posturing, pushing and yes, shoving too.

Some lawyers see prenuptials as a challenge to defeat. Yes, for this type of lawyer it is akin to the MMA of the legal world. Let’s discuss all this, but let’s get some definitions straight first.

• Prenuptial: Prenuptials are a written contract and agreement between two people before marriage. The agreement will list all the property and assets owned by each person prior to the union, and all the debts owed too. It generally stipulates who will get what in the event the marriage ends or one of the parties becomes deceased.

• Postnuptial: Post Nuptials are a written contract or agreement made after marriage or union which will stand as a guideline in settling the couple’s affairs in the event of a separation or divorce, or if one member becomes deceased. The contract also states who gets what assets and how the estate is to be divided.

You can see how the two are vastly different, and you can imagine all the reasons one or more of the parties involved would want such an agreement. These types of contracts are becoming very common in this day and age of ‘winner take all’ divorces where big attorneys (hired guns) go to war, each with the intent of winning. 

Both heterosexual and homosexual couples need to understand how these agreements work, what the benefits are, and understand all the future ramifications prior to signing or agreeing to any of the stipulations set forth. It also pays to find an attorney who specializes in this type of law because there is always new case law and the legal landscape is always shifting like the desert sand.