These are contracts entered into by a man and a woman who are about to be married, in contemplation of death or divorce. They are especially common when persons of different means tie the knot, and in second marriages, and spell out what is to happen with each person's finances in the event the marriage ends. People have more tolerance for prenuptial agreements than they used to. By law, there must be full disclosure of all income, assets, debts and liabilities, prior to entering into an agreement, and the agreement must be presented timely. The idea is that if the marriage lasts only a matter of months or a few years, the parties want to be made whole and to be put back in the financial position they were in before the marriage.
Problems arise when marriages last a long time and then end bitterly.
The woman may have given up a career and increased earning capacity and assumed the role of mother and homemaker. Some argue that it is unfair to enforce a prenuptial agreement, which leaves her nothing under those circumstances. It is for this reason that Kaplan insists on a very important clause in all of the prenuptial agreements she drafts for her clients. If the marriage lasts past a specified number of years, say ten or more, then the agreement goes away. The parties are acknowledging that after so many years, it is not possible to 'turn back the clock,' so to speak.