It is understandable how young married couples do not see the necessity of a Pre-Nup before their first marriage. It is healthy to still have a belief of true love and fairy tale endings when one is so young.
However, for those of us who go through second or even third relationship break-ups, there can be little or no excuse for not putting in place a pre-nup or Binding Financial Agreement.
The more relationships one has, the greater the statistics are of the prospects of separation. Some may find true love on the second, third or fourth time around, but the stats do not lie. There is a 50% or greater chance that your second or third innings will be shorter than the first. However, for those not as cynical or as harden as I might be, then here are some other reasons to consider a Binding Financial Agreement for that second, third or fourth relationship.
- You and your partner probably each bring in assets to the relationship that involve different mixes and values and that have been accumulated over a substantial period of time;
- You will probably not have children, but there may be adult children on both sides and having a good Binding Financial Agreement that compliments your Will is sensible Estate planning;
- Second or third relationships where each party brings a different mix of assets to the relationship, and where there are no children, often presents some of the more difficult cases to resolve by way of property settlement. This may be because there are different movements (due to market forces) in each parties’ assets that they bring to the relationship and the length of the relationship is typically not extremely long (it is unlikely that your second, third or fourth relationship will be greater than 20 years). All of this adds to uncertainty and widens the discretion that the Court probably has when deciding a property settlement;
- Finally, and most importantly, you do not have to pay divorce lawyers again and again to resolve your financial mess from another break up – surely that alone is enough incentive.
