Why Don’t More People Consider Prenuptial Agreements?

 Posted on December 03, 2013 in Prenuptial & Postnuptial Agreements

In the midst of planning a wedding and a romantic honeymoon, having a conversation about a prenuptial agreement might be awkward at best. A Harvard researcher suggests that these documents are underused for two primary reasons: people underestimate the value of a prenuptial agreement, and an underlying belief that signing a prenuptial agreement spells out marriage disaster. Heather Mahar, a Research Fellow in Law and Economics at Harvard, conducted a study to determine what leads people to avoid the prenuptial agreement conversation. Since there’s no registry of prenuptial agreements, it’s difficult to know exactly how many people have such a document. However, legal practitioners and scholars estimate that approximately 10% or less of the population uses a prenuptial agreement. Although statistics from the US Census Bureau and other experts would indicate that the rate of divorce is particularly high in the United States, it’s interesting that so few people elect to have a prenuptial agreement. What she found is that many people believe that signing a prenuptial agreement is a negative signal for the relationship. In her results, nearly 64 percent of the respondents stated that they believe divorce was more likely than not if they were asked to sign a prenuptial agreement. A majority of respondents also indicated that despite their awareness of current divorce statistics, they believed their relationship would be more likely to succeed. This is referred to as "optimism bias" and is a second leading reason for why individuals choose not to pursue prenuptial agreements. A prenuptial agreement doesn’t have to signal a negative outcome to the relationship. What it does signal is an awareness of your individual situation and an interest in outlining expectations if the relationship doesn’t work out. For some people, putting together prenuptial agreement is simply prudent planning. If you would like to speak with a professional about house to put together it prenuptial agreement, contact in Illinois family law attorney today.