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Can a pre-nup replace our wills and living trusts? No. The chief intent of a pre-nup is to cover what happens in the event of a dissolution, not a death. Do all 50 states recognize pre-nups? Yes. There is a nationwide Uniform Prenuptial Agreement Act (UPAA). The particular laws of each state may differ as to the conditions for en forcing a pre-nup, but even community-property states -- which mandate dividing marital assets and debts fifty-fifty at divorce -- recognize the primacy of a pre-nup that specifies the division of property or debt in another way. Do judges pay attention to pre-nups? If they don’t, is it worth asking my fiancé to sign one? Until recently, judges were not all that favorably inclined toward pre-nups. Years ago, many states did practically everything they could to discourage divorce. Courts in those states tended not to honor pre-nups, because pre-nups, they believed, planted the idea of divorce in partners’ minds. Well, times have changed. Most judges now have come to recognize that some couples may he better off divorced—and if they do divorce, they are much better off for having signed a pre-nup. Generally speaking, courts now en force these agreements. Exceptions include con tracts the court views as giving one spouse a powerful incentive to end the marriage, for ex ample, if a spouse is entitled to more money if the marriage lasts a certain number of years (they see this as promoting divorce, which they still look unfavorably upon). Agreements that are viewed as a contract to evade creditors illegally, or, again, that the court believes one party intimidated the other into signing, are viewed unfavorably. |
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