Prenuptial Agreements: How to Write a Fair & Lasting Contract

by Katherine Stoner Attorney, Shae Irving

Overview

Plan today for peace of mind tomorrow

Marriage is so much more than a great wedding. It’s also a legal contract that binds two people together in many aspects of life, including finances. If you and your spouse can’t agree on how to divide assets in the event of a split, the state may end up deciding that for you. Fortunately, you can create a customized prenuptial agreement that addresses your concerns, including:

Combining Nolo's legal expertise and plain-English writing, Prenuptial Agreements makes a potentially touchy subject easy to deal with while explaining how to create a valid contract. This easy-to-use book covers:

• protecting each other from debts
• taking care of children from a previous marriage
• clarifying financial responsibilities
• protecting hard-earned assets
• and much more

Prenuptial Agreements makes a potentially touchy subject easy to deal with while explaining the foundations of a solid contract. The 6th edition is completely updated to provide the latest laws of your state and includes instructions any couple can use to write a clear agreement.

With Downloadable Forms: Easy-to-use worksheets and essential agreement clauses that help you get organized are available for download (details inside).

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781413326550
Publisher:	NOLO
Publication date:	10/29/2019
Edition description:	Sixth Edition
Pages:	408
Product dimensions:	6.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Katherine E. Stoner is a superior court commissioner in Monterey County, California. Prior to that, she was a certified family law specialist, with a practice focused primarily on family law and mediation. She was a founding member of Collaborative Practice of Monterey County. She is also the coauthor of Prenuptial Agreements: How to Write a Fair & Lasting Contract (Nolo). Katherine has been a trainer at the Center for Mediation in Law in Marin County, California, and is an adjunct faculty member at Monterey College of Law, where she teaches community property, family law, and mediation.

Shae Irving has written and edited for Nolo since 1994, specializing in estate planning and family law issues. She has written or co-written books and software, including Prenuptial Agreements: How to Write a Fair and Lasting Contract, Living Wills and Powers of Attorney for California, Get It Together: Organize Your Records So Your Family Won't Have To, and Nolo's Quicken WillMaker Plus software. Shae graduated from Boalt Hall School of Law at the Universityof California, Berkeley.

Table of Contents

Your Prenup Companion 1. A Prenup Primer 2. Is a Prenup Right for You? 3. Deciding on the Specifics 4. Understanding Your State's Law 5. Assembling Your Draft Agreement: The Basics 6. Additional Provisions for Your Prenup 7. Turning Your Draft Into a Binding Agreement 8. Working Together 9. After You've Made a Prenup Appendixes A. How to Use the Downloadable Forms B. Worksheets C. Clauses for Building Your Prenup Index

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"An excellent gift for any starry-eyed couple, this guide approached the contract of marriage clearly and thoroughly" . Reference & Research Book News 

Interviews

The idea for this book grew out of the many years I spent as a family lawyer and mediator. So many of my clients could have saved unnecessary expense and anxiety at the time of a divorce or on the death of their spouse if only they had a prenuptial agreement that clearly spelled out their expectations. I set out to write a guide for engaged couples, to help them to decide together if they need a prenup, and if so, to help them create a fair, practical, and binding document.

Editorial Reviews

A comprehensive and well-written guide that will greatly help couples—and lawyers—in drafting prenuptial agreements.” Stuart Walzer, family law attorney & author

“An excellent gift for any starry-eyed couple …” Reference & Research Book News

"Approximately 50% of all marriages in the United States end in divorce. Marriage is one of the few personal contracts in which the state you live in dictates the terms of a divorce — unless a couple create their own customized premarital agreement. Combining Nolo's legal expertise and plain-English writing, this newly updated and expanded fifth edition of "Prenuptial Agreements: How to Write a Fair & Lasting Contract" makes a potentially touchy subject easy to deal with while explaining how to create a valid contract. Thoroughly 'user friendly' in organization and presentation, "Prenuptial Agreements" is an easy-to-use guide that covers: Whether a prenup is right for your relationship; How to decide what a prenup should include; How to deal with special situations, such as one spouse's debts, business ownership, or kids from a previous marriage; How to assemble a draft agreement; How to turn your draft into a contract; and even offers tips on negotiating and communicating. This current edition of "Prenuptial Agreements" reflects current state laws, plus worksheets and clauses for preparing an agreement that suits the unique needs of anyone contemplating getting married and desirous of the protection that a prenuptial agreement can provide. Simply stated, "Prenuptial Agreements" should be a part of every community library collection." The Midwest Book Review, James A. Cox, Editor-in-Chief

From the Publisher