PMA: Pre-Marriage Awesomeness
(otherwise known as Premarital Agreements or Prenups)
Hello, people who are planning on getting married at some point. I have a suggestion that you probably don’t want to hear. You know the thing about marriages? Lots of them last forever and everyone lives (relatively) happily ever after. You know which marriages are most likely to be forever marriages? Ones with strong communication, and this is where a pre-marital agreement comes into play.
Before you get married to someone, you should know their goals, their aspirations, and their plans for their financial future, as well as your financial future as a couple, and that of your family.
You expect everything to work out, otherwise you wouldn’t be marrying this person (hopefully). So, you don’t need a prenuptial agreement, right? Talking about a prenup is going to upset the other person. They’ll accuse you of only being interested in money. They’ll say you don’t have faith in your relationship.
Well, then don’t talk about a prenuptial agreement. To begin with no one uses the word “nuptial” anymore. You start using legal sounding words that no one uses, and yeah, you are bound to raise some red flags. What you talk about is your goals, your future, and where you want to end up, together. In language that is comfortable to you both.
Then together you prepare a premarital agreement that lays out that financial path you want to take together. Marital is a nice word. Marital, marriage, weddings, dancing, fun, party, yay. Or just call it a PMA. Pre-Marriage Awesomeness. Private Money Assurance. Prevents Money to Attorneys.
That last one is the key. Divorce is expensive. When you are starting a relationship and planning a life together, you’re on similar pages with similar dreams for the future and goals. When you are ending a relationship, the mood shifts. Your goals and dreams become diametrically opposed to the other person and anything they get is at your expense.
Let “happy you” decide how your divorce is going to go, not “angry you”. Not “disappointed you”. Not “this person just broke my heart and ruined my life” you. That version of you will spend a lot of money on attorneys trying to get what you think you deserve, and probably do deserve. After all, you’re the victim in this story, not your awful ex.
Family law attorneys in general are ok with that. That is how they get paid. People fighting over things they do not need to fight about. It’s not good for you, though, or the person you are embarking on this journey with, with only the best of intentions and hopes and dreams for forever. You love this person. You don’t want to pay attorneys tens of thousand of dollars of your hard-earned money to fight with this person.
The solution, of course, is the PMA. A well-crafted Premarital Agreement, by a firm such as McFarling Law Group, whose attorneys have many years of experience drafting such agreements for people of all levels of wealth (or lack thereof), will for all intents and purposes lay out the roadmap for your divorce. And the road it leads to is a nice straight one with clear and obvious direction and minimal cost to either party.
People think of PMAs as a vehicle for wealthy people to protect their money, and of course, they can be. But who can more easily afford to pay tens of thousands of dollars to have attorneys divide their things? The super-rich, or regular people?
A PMA is basically divorce insurance. You pay a little money now, to save a ton of money, time, and heartache later. Of course, you never hope to use it. You also never hope to use your car insurance, homeowner’s insurance, and most certainly not your life insurance, but you still get those things just in case.
The only difference between a PMA and the other types of insurance is that the PMA is more likely to be a good investment. Insurance companies have an actuarial advantage when they issue you insurance. They are in the business of making money.
Attorneys are in the business of making money, too, of course, but we would much rather you come in and pay us a little bit of money now to get everything squared away when you are in a good mood than maybe come back years down the road when you are grumpy and wish you had just done a PMA in the beginning.
Anyway, whether you’re looking for Pre-Marriage Awesomeness, Divorce Insurance, peace of mind, or to protect your voluminous assets, Family Law Solutions can craft the exact right agreement to suit your needs, and either you will spend a little bit of money for a document you never need, or you will save a ton of money on one that you will always be grateful you had.