Words can be very powerful on a number of levels and they carry more information with them than their base dictionary definitions. The word marriage is interesting in this regard, because if you are middle-aged and your friend tells you that his 24-year-old son is getting married you get a certain impression about the event and the nature of the union. Now twenty years later when a different friend tells you that his 45-year-old son is getting married, you see an entirely different picture in your mind. You may ask if his son asked the woman to enter into prenuptial agreement, knowing that the son had significant assets and children from a previous marriage. Twenty years previously you would have never thought to ask your other friend that question when his son was getting married at 24.
This being said the stigma behind the prenuptial agreement should be put to rest once and for all. Under certain circumstances, asking your paramour to sign one may well be inappropriate. Under other conditions it should be viewed by both parties as necessary and prudent. If you are getting remarried and you have children from a previous marriage your spouse-to-be should certainly understand why you would like to enter into a pre-nup for estate planning purposes.
Beyond that, circumstances could arise in the future that call for a post-nuptial agreement. It could be because one party unexpectedly inherited a large sum of money, or after many years of marriage when concerns that were addressed in the the premarital agreement were no longer relevant. A married couple who never divorced can also use a post-nuptial agreement as an estate planning aid. The husband and wife may not be in complete concurrence about how to distribute their shared assets, so if they simply draw up a post-nuptial agreement that delineates the personal property of each the problem is solved and they are free to create independent estate plans.
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