Prenuptial VS Postnuptial Agreement

Hello and welcome to 60 Seconds with Sergio. I’m your host, Sergio Cabanas, Attorney-at-Law here in Florida. Thank you for joining me today.

Today’s question is: “Sergio, I’ve heard about prenuptial agreements and postnuptial agreements when it comes to marriages and divorces but, what exactly do these agreements do and what’s the difference between the prenuptial and the postnuptial agreement?”

Well, I get this question a lot. Basically, both agreements address how things are to be carried out in the event of a divorce. For example, it calls for how the assets are to be divided in the event of a divorce. Or whether any alimony will be paid. Etcetera. So, let’s go over what most people know about prenuptial and postnuptial agreements and let’s go over the less obvious information.

First, the difference between a prenuptial and a postnuptial agreement is that the prenuptial agreement is obviously made before the marriage whereas the postnuptial agreement is made after the wedding or after the marriage. So let’s go over why some people choose to do a prenuptial agreement and others choose to do a postnuptial agreement.

First, the prenuptial agreement is made before the marriage and it’s usually when one or both spouses have assets that they want to protect in the event of a divorce, or they are expecting to have assets later on during the marriage that they want to protect in the event of a divorce. Such as, for example inheritance or a large windfall from some other event.

So, why would anybody want to have a postnuptial agreement? Well, that usually comes up under two circumstances. One is, the parties wanted to enter into a prenuptial agreement but because of lack of time, they were unable to execute a prenuptial agreement before the wedding. So, they decided that, with time, they just execute a postnuptial agreement after the wedding.

The second reason why the spouses enter into a postnuptial agreement is because they are expecting or they anticipate some type of a divorce happening in a near future and they want to make sure that the assets are divided in a certain way. And/or other issues such as alimony is addressed in a postnuptial agreement, so that, when the divorce is eventually made they just carry out whatever instructions and terms and conditions they agreed to.

But, for whatever reason, the spouses may be holding off on a divorce, it could be, for example: immigration purposes, or for the purposes of the children, they want the children to reach adult age. Or some other financial reasons. That’s pertinent in the case.
So, I hope this short video provided you at least some guidance over the differences of the prenuptial and postnuptial agreement. Of course, this is no substitute for an actual consultation with an attorney who can review the specifics facts of your case and give you the appropriate advice.

As always, thank you for joining me today. And as always, stay informed and stay strong.