Years after other marriages, children, careers and more, older couples here in New Hampshire and elsewhere have a lifetime of assets, investments and obligations. Finding love again and deciding to remarry is a gift, but it does not have to be a curse as well. It may be worthwhile to at least consider a prenuptial agreement to protect the futures of each of them, the children they may have from a prior relationship and more.
To determine whether this would be the best course of action, the parties would benefit from having frank discussions about their finances. Reviewing credit reports, investment portfolios, assets and debts helps to lay out what each of them brings to the marriage. The outcome of this review and the conversations that accompany it may help make a couple’s choice.
If one party has children, adult children or grandchildren they want to provide for upon death, a prenuptial agreement would serve as a powerful estate-planning tool. Identifying separate assets is one of the primary objectives of such an agreement, after all, which brings up the topic of how much the parties should or should not commingle their assets. Each of them may need to keep separate accounts in order to protect their assets, but that does not mean they cannot share accounts. They just have to do so carefully.
The process of deciding whether a prenuptial agreement would be appropriate under a certain set of circumstances may bring up more concerns and questions than a couple may realize. In most cases, it would be beneficial to have a prenup out of an abundance of caution. However, getting the details and the document right will most likely take some guidance and assistance. Any flaw in the document could result in it not being valid if it should be needed at some point in the future.
