Rachel Alexander, ESQ.
Prenuptial Agreement Mediation
Alexander Mediation Group is a professional divorce mediation firm serving couples and families throughout New Jersey, New York City, and the Hamptons. Our mediator can help you work through your divorce's financial, emotional, and legal issues.
Rachel Alexander, ESQ.
Alexander Mediation Group
Rachel Alexander is a family law attorney and professional mediator specializing in family-related matters. For over 20 years, Rachel has handled various family law cases, including divorce, child custody, child support, prenuptial agreements, and more. Learn more about Rachel.
Prenuptial Agreement Mediation for Financial Clarity Before Marriage
Define What the Prenuptial Agreement Needs to Accomplish
A Prenuptial Agreement is a contract that a couple enters before marriage. The agreement addresses premarital property and existing debt, and may specify or limit certain rights of each party during the marriage and in the event it ends. A Prenuptial Agreement may also account for responsibilities for existing children or a established business.
A strong Prenuptial Agreement is built as a shared financial framework for the marriage. Often referred to as a “Prenup,” its execution does not indicate either person expects the marriage to fail. Rather, creating a Prenuptial Agreement can demonstrate a conscientious, serious approach to an upcoming marriage. The agreement organizes an important part of shared living; identifying what each partner intends to hold separately, what each intends to share, and how each will support their marriage.
Prenuptial mediation helps partners identify shared principles and create a practical marital roadmap. Sensitive topics, perhaps not previously discussed, can be addressed intentionally, in a supportive, structured and informed environment. Couples can explore assumptions and expectations about marital financial responsibilities and decide together how they want to approach finances in their marriage.
Importantly, future spouses are invited to look from their upcoming wedding to the marriage they wish to create. They can build its foundation through productive communication and reach agreement on the important issues that will run throughout the life of their marriage. Prenuptial Mediation and the resulting Prenuptial Agreement can preempt common marital conflicts.
Disclose and Review the Complete Financial Picture
Prenuptial mediation provides a structured process for sharing and discussing financial data, particularly how separate assets will be treated in the marriage.
The prenuptial mediation process respects that each person has a unique relationship with money and finance. Each person has their own definition of what constitutes financial security, a particular level of risk tolerance, and a [dis]comfort accruing debt. Individual responsibilities, interests or bandwidth in managing active or passive assets across different classes and structures vary greatly between individuals. Mediation gives both people a mechanism to securely document and disclose current financial information pertinent to the agreement and identify where they align or differ.
The mediator helps the parties define their individual objectives and concerns as well as navigate the potential implications for each choice they make, so the couple feels confident in their informed, joint decisions. Through the mediation process the couple strengthens respectful engagement around each other’s financial needs while collaborating to determine mutual goals.
Distinguish Separate Property from Joint Financial Plans
Over time, marriage generally interweaves finances. Spouses may share earnings and expenses. They may also contribute together to property, purchases, or other financial commitments.
A Prenuptial Agreement specifies which existing assets and debts will remain individual property. The agreement can also define which property the couple intends to treat as joint. While this may appear straightforward, when considered in the context of a long-term marriage, it is not. For example: Will the maintenance of one spouse’s separate property be funded through marital income earned by both parties? Does that produce a sense of inequity and if so, how will that be addressed?
Protect Plans for Children and Existing Heirs
Some marrying couples may want to preserve assets for children from a previous relationship. Other couples may wish to protect a portion of their estate for existing heirs or other intended beneficiaries.
A Prenuptial Agreement can record which assets the couple intends to distinguish from the marital estate and reserve for the benefit of other intended recipients. The agreement does not replace a will or other estate-planning document.
Couples with related estate concerns are encouraged to draft their wills concomitantly with their Prenuptial Agreement, so the two documents are consistent. Couples with existing wills are also encouraged to update them to reflect changes pursuant to the Prenuptial Agreement, whether by revisions or the addition of a codicil. Trust and estate documents should be reviewed periodically to ensure they remain current and consistent with other contractual and legal commitments.
Begin Early and Allow Time for Independent Review
A Prenuptial Agreement is not only a roadmap for the couple entering marriage, but also a legally enforceable contract. A Prenuptial Agreement may become unenforceable when the required legal conditions are not met. One such legal requirement is that each partner has a full opportunity to review and understand the agreement before signing it. In addition, each party must have individual counsel. After Prenuptial Mediation, once the parties have reached mutual understanding and agreement, and had their Prenuptial Agreement drafted, the parties have the Agreement reviewed by their respective, individual counsel.
Adequation timing for review affects whether both partners can make informed decisions. If one party is presented with a Prenuptial Agreement on the eve if the wedding date, not only will that party likely have deficient time for review or consultation with independent counsel, that party may later have grounds to have the Agreement rendered unenforceable, based upon the same circumstances. In both New York and New Jersey, limited time for review, restricted access to counsel, or signing under stress can affect an agreement’s enforceability. A rushed agreement, made under a pressured time constrain, ultimately serves neither party.
Prenuptial Agreement Mediation supports both members of the couple in addressing complex financial considerations with more comprehensive and satisfying results. Importantly, it allows the time and space needed to ensure the process supports a strong start to the marriage.
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Prenuptial Agreement Mediation FAQ
What Is a Prenuptial Agreement?
A Prenuptial Agreement, sometimes called a Premarital Agreement, is a contract entered into before marriage. It can define financial expectations and distinguish individual property from property the couple intends to treat as joint.
The agreement may also state how the couple plans to handle selected assets, debts, or financial responsibilities during the marriage.
Why Would We Create a Prenuptial Agreement If We Are Not Expecting to Divorce?
A Prenuptial Agreement does not mean that either person expects the marriage to fail. In fact, working through sensitive, important topics in Prenuptial Mediation can be educational and a wonderful step towards lasting marriages. Couples may use the agreement to outline financial expectations and responsibilities, understand each others’ financial concerns, and define what constitutes separate or shared property. Often parties with significant family trusts, affecting multiple other individuals, are directed to enter Prenuptial Agreements to protect the intended beneficiaries of the trust.
In the Prenuptial Mediation process, each party’s current assets and liabilities are documented and discussed. The mediation process guides couples through all considerations allowing them to make joint decisions regarding the treatment of assets and liabilities after the parties marry. Discussing financial aspirations and apprehensions before marriage may prevent unexpressed expectancies from becoming a source of later conflict.
If circumstances change after the wedding, the couple may always return to mediation to negotiated changes, which can be reduced to an appropriate written agreement such as a Postnuptial Agreement.
What Can a Prenuptial Agreement Not Address?
A Prenuptial Agreement cannot predetermine every issue that might arise during the marriage. Issues around future children cannot legally be decided in advance of their existence, nor can any of their lawful rights, such as child support, be waived.
Decisions concerning trusts and estates, if contained in a Prenuptial Agreement, may still require further estate-planning and separate documents.
How Does Mediation Help Couples Develop a Prenuptial Agreement?
In mediation, future spouses have active roles in developing their agreement. The mediator furnishes information regarding the process and specific legal and financial considerations; the mediator encourages productive discussion and facilitates agreement between the parties. The mediator provides an unbiased environment that supports the couple in making decisions.
Once reached, the mediator provides a safe forum for parties to discuss concerns about the agreement itself. Both partners can examine the proposed provisions before separate attorneys review the document for each person.
What Happens to a Prenuptial Agreement If the Marriage Ends?
If parties divorce, the Prenuptial Agreement is relied upon as evidence of what the parties agreed before marriage. If the marriage ends, the agreement governs the property and financial issues it addresses.
In the event of a mediated divorce, the spouses will be helped to draft a Settlement Agreement, which will be informed by the Prenuptial Agreement. During divorce mediation, parties may elect to deviate from certain terms in their Prenuptial Agreement. The agreement required for divorce may be called a Property Settlement Agreement, Marital Settlement Agreement, or Stipulation of Settlement, depending upon state and the individual drafting attorney.
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