In plenty of places, you don't even want to live with someone too long without a pre-nuptial agreement and even then the law can cancel those agreements.
What would you put in a pre-nup for a situation like this? And if the agreement solves all issues, why wouldn't you just put it into regular marriage/family law so everyone can enjoy the benefits without hiring a lawyer when tying the knot?
Prenuptial agreements still have a value within the UK, they are considered intent towards your actions in the event of a divorce and unless there are significant extenuating circumstances leading to the divorce are normally honoured. As long as neither of you are cheating, abusive, performing illegal acts, etc, the prenup usually holds up.
I'll do one better, just don't marry. Pre-nups are routinely thrown out by divorce courts.
Unless the guy is extremely poor and marrying a high net-worth woman, there is just no point in marrying, you gain absolutely nothing (except for pithy tax benefits in some cases).
Getting a pre-nup is pretty much going through the work of a divorce, but before you get married. He wouldn't leave her with nothing, unless she found her lawyer from the bus station bench.
Maybe pre-nup has a different meaning where you live. I'm in the US, and here a pre-nup is an agreement that defines custom rules for a marriage and divorce that are override, add to, and/or clarify the rules of the default marital contract. So, not everyone has one.
Wikipedia defines it well:
> Couples enter into a written prenuptial agreement to supersede many of the default marital laws that would otherwise apply in the event of divorce, such as the laws that govern the division of property, retirement benefits, savings, and the right to seek alimony (spousal support) with agreed-upon terms that provide certainty and clarify their marital rights.
I'm told that in my state (Victoria) prenuptial agreements carry no legal weight. There are laws to divide up the estate in the case of a divorce, and private contracts cannot override laws. A prenup can of course be voluntarily honoured, just not legally enforced.
Everywhere? The point of an explicit pre-nuptial is to opt out of what would happen by default. It's opt-out, not opt-in. If you don't have a pre-nup, then you get the standard pre-nup terms which have usually been established over a long period of time, with detailed rules about homes, children, property etc.
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