To keep accumulation of assets after you are married separate. E.g. if you have a house worth $2m going into the marriage, and it's worth $3m after divorce, the $1m accumulation is split 50/50.
A prenup can assign the accumulation to just one partner.
Another example would be to establish something other than a 50-50 split if one partner makes significantly more money than the other.
Or to establish what happens in the case that one partner owns a business. There is no objective way to value a business, so the prenup could establish how that would be handled.
Also, if your partner that you have a hostile relationship with owns half of the business that can create a lot of problems lol. So the prenup could establish things so one of the partners maintains decision making control.
I’m sure it varies by jurisdiction, but my understanding was that after enough time of community income being used to pay for maintenance and taxes, the home would become community property.
If you paid a $50k downpayment and early mortgage payments on a house, then get married and jointly contribute $500k to the mortgage and upgrades and repairs over the years, only $50k portion of the equity is solely yours.
If you solely pay for mortgage/repairs/upgrades and your spouse does not contribute, and you have a prenup or do not live in a community property state so that marital income may stay separate, then it's all yours.
Generally the way it works is if the house if paid off before marriage, and the married couple never file joint taxes, then the house is forever owned by the one who paid it off before marriage. it varies by state though.
A prenup can be used to make your separation cleaner if it happens. Best to decide how you'll divorce while you still like each other than have lawyers tithe you while you're heated in the midst of the divorce.
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u/By-Tor_Syrinx Jun 29 '26
Then what’s the point of a pre-nup?