Many engaged couples choose to take advantage of premarital counseling sessions before they say “I do.” This particular kind of counseling allows couples to sort out their differences, refine their expectations and become practiced communicators before they wed.
Choosing to engage in premarital counseling is almost always a healthy, proactive choice. However, this particular kind of counseling may not always be enough to adequately prepare individuals for the rights and responsibilities afforded to married couples. It is therefore important that engaged couples also sit down to discuss the possibility of executing prenuptial agreements before their big day.
In recent years, premarital agreements have been executed as much to ensure marital stability as they have been to protect individuals’ interests in the event of divorce. When a couple sits down with an experienced family law attorney and opts to execute a premarital agreement, each member of the couple may be compelled to closely examine his or her relationship to money and assets.
Just like premarital counseling, the premarital agreement drafting process allows couples the chance to refine their expectations, work out their differences and proactively plan the kind of future they wish to live in. As a result, creating a premarital agreement can help to stabilize a marriage before it even begins.
In addition, prenuptial agreements do help to shield each individual’s interests in the event that the marriage does not progress as both members hope it will. If you are getting married, please strongly consider pairing the premarital counseling process with drafting a prenuptial agreement. These proactive actions just might make your marriage stronger than you ever hoped it could be.
Source: The Huffington Post, “A Case for Pre-Marital Counseling,” Elisabeth Joy LaMotte, April 22, 2014
