PRE-NUPTIAL AGREEMENTS. Good or Bad?

PRE-NUPTIAL AGREEMENTS. 

Good or Bad?

Whilly Bermudez - Host / Commentator 

Americans are divided in their opinions but I thought it was a good topic to start 2011. Let’s be serious, the thought of even contemplating having to execute a Pre-nup is only for those few with considerable personal wealth. As you will see from the study and the research very few people ever get to worry about it. So please don’t fight with your significant other just to participate in this discussion ;)  

I can identify with both sides of the argument. However, being a single man I have had the good fortune or not to see how trifling and devious some women can be. Real gold diggers and opportunists do really lurk in the shadows. So you have to be on guard and make wise decisions. 

When it comes to celebrities, I feel that the person with the God given talent (Musician, Athlete, Model, Entrepreneur, etc.) is the only reason why there is even a financial fortune to begin with so I am not in favor of having to give the other person these obscene amounts of money. I just don’t think it’s fair.

Regardless, of my opinion or yours let’s look at some numbers & data:

While over one-fourth (28%) of Americans say that prenuptial agreements make smart financial sense for anyone getting married, another fourth (25%) think such agreements are for the rich and famous, not "regular" people. One in five (19%) believes in true love and feels that a prenup is never needed when the two people involved really love each other. Another fifteen percent are convinced that a prenuptial agreement dooms a marriage to failure from the start, and another twelve percent find such contracts a good idea in general, but would feel too uncomfortable to bring them up in their own relationship. Another one in five (18%) says none of these statements best describes their attitudes toward prenups.

·         Men are the shyer sex: they tend to be less comfortable than women with the subject of prenups. While ten percent of women say they see a prenup as a good idea but would be uncomfortable to bring up the subject in their own relationship, fifteen percent of men would feel uncomfortable. 

·         Households with children view prenuptial agreement with more trepidation than do those without children. Americans who live in households with children are significantly less likely than those without kids (22% vs. 32%) to believe that prenups make smart financial sense. Conversely, Americans who have kids are significantly more likely than others to believe that prenuptial agreements doom a marriage to fail (20% vs. 12%). 

·         Likewise, divorcees embrace a more cynical approach to traditional marriage and are more open to the idea of a prenuptial agreement than the rest of the population. While fewer than one in ten (8%) divorced Americans feels that a prenup is unnecessary if two people really love each other, fully one in five (20%) married Americans feel the same. Furthermore, divorcees view a prenuptial agreement as a financial matter much more often than non-divorcees: one-half (49%) of divorced Americans believe that prenuptial agreements make financial sense, while just one in five (21%) married Americans feel the same.

Keeping one's own assets is the greatest benefit of a prenuptial agreement. More than four in five (45%) Americans see the biggest benefit of a prenuptial agreement as that one can keep one's fair share of assets brought into the marriage or earned during the marriage. One in five (18%) believes a prenup would make a divorce shorter, easier, and less costly. Another twelve percent think of the children first: they see protection of the best interest of the children as the biggest benefit of a prenuptial agreement. Three percent mention some other benefit, while only one percent sees getting enough of their spouse's assets earned during their marriage as the biggest benefit of a prenup agreement. One in five (21%) sees no benefit in a prenuptial agreement.

·         Americans with children are significantly less likely than those without children to see the benefit in a prenuptial agreement. More than one in four (27%) Americans with children see no benefit in a prenup, while just one in five (19%) Americans with no children fail to see a benefit. Likewise, two in five (40%) Americans with children believe the biggest benefit of a prenuptial agreement is keeping one's own assets, while one-half (48%) of Americans without children feel the same. 

·         Divorced Americans are open to a prenuptial agreement because of financial considerations. One-half (53%) of divorced Americans view the capability to protect assets brought into the marriage as the primary benefit of a prenuptial agreement, while only two in five (41%) of married Americans feel the same.

Single Americans seem open to the idea of pre-nuptial agreements. One in ten (9%) unmarried Americans say they would never get married/remarried without a prenuptial contract. While one-fourth (24%) of unmarried Americans would not ask for a prenuptial agreement, they would consider it if their significant other wanted it. Another one in five (22%) would ask their significant other for a prenup, but would still marry him or her without one. One in five (18%) would want a prenuptial agreement if they were to marry someone with a lot more or a lot less money than they themselves had. One-fourth (27%) is opposed to prenuptial agreements and would never sign one before they married.

·         Men boldly go where women do not. More unmarried men (27%) than unmarried women (17%) say they would ask their significant other for a prenuptial agreement, but they would still get married without one. One-third (32%) of women say they would never sign a prenup before they married, while only one in five (21%) men think so.

·         American parents are more idealistic than are Americans without children. One in three (33%) unmarried parents would never sign a prenuptial agreement before getting married, while just one in four (25%) single Americans without children echo those sentiments. It follows that significantly more Americans without children (11%) would never get married without a prenuptial agreement than those with children (5%). 

·         Divorced Americans place enormous value on prenuptial agreements in their own life - significantly more than Americans who have never been married. One in five (17%) divorced Americans say they would never get remarried without a prenuptial while very few (6%) Americans who have never been married report that they would never get married without a prenuptial agreement. Divorcees are less likely than those who have never been married to say that they would ask their significant other to consider a prenuptial agreement but would marry them without it (16% vs. 26%) and to say that they would never ask for a prenuptial agreement, but would consider one if their significant other wanted it (17% vs. 27%). Moreover, divorcees are less likely than those who have never been married to adamantly oppose ever signing a prenuptial agreement: one in five (19%) divorced Americans would never sign a prenuptial agreement, while one in four (26%) of those never married feel the same.

Happy New Year!

WHILLY BERMUDEZ

About the Study: Harris Interactive conducted a QuickQuery^SM online omnibus study on behalf of Lawyers.com. A sample of 2,731 adults age 18 or older was interviewed online.

To ensure a reliable and accurate representation of the total online population, completed interviews were weighted to known proportions for age, geographic region, and race. The margin of error for the total sample is +/- 1.9%.

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