A prenuptial agreement can also safeguard any earned income or assets during the marriage, as well as unearned income through a bequest or trust payout. You may be forced to pay alimony to your ex-spouse if you do not have a prenuptial agreement. A prenuptial agreement, on the other hand, allows you to predetermine a precise alimony amount or possibly abolish it entirely. In addition, with a prenuptial agreement, you can decide what happens to each of your assets should one of you die prematurely or lose his or her job. A premarital agreement is a contract before marriage, during which parties agree that all property owned by either of them, whether acquired prior to or after signing the contract, will remain their own separate property. The party's attorney will usually draft a premarital agreement for them to sign before a minister or judge. The lawyer will typically charge several hundred dollars for this service. Premarital agreements are similar to marital agreements in that they serve as contracts between spouses agreeing to give up some of their future rights to their spouse. However, premarital agreements are signed by the parties before they marry and therefore cannot be revoked once the marriage is official. If a couple divorces, they will need to negotiate new terms with their former husband or wife since there is no longer a legal document binding the two of them. In California, marital agreements are treated similarly to premarital agreements.