A prenuptial agreement is a contract that is entered into before you get married (postnuptial agreements are also possible for those who are already married), which sets out what you want to happen to yours and your other half’s assets, if your marriage doesn’t work and you need to get a divorce.

Prenuptial agreements are more well-known for being entered into by the very wealthy, especially when one party brings more money into a marriage than the other.

Some argue that prenuptial agreements should be entered into by anyone who is getting married or entering into a civil partnership.

There aren’t many people who go into a marriage believing that it may, in the end, break down. In the initial stages of a relationship, your rose-tinted spectacles are often stuck firmly in front of your eyes, making your other half seem the most wonderful person in the world. And yes, he or she may be a perfectly wonderful, lovely, thoughtful person. But life has the habit of surprising us….best laid plans and all of those clichés.

Those rose-tinted glasses may fade over the years. They may even fall off altogether. You may spend the rest of your life with your other half or things may not go the way you’d hoped for and you may decide to go your separate ways.

As solicitors, we are often criticised for being cynical. And maybe we are, as many of our clients are going through a divorce when they come to us for help and advice. But none of us know what the future holds. We take out insurance on our homes and on our cars for that very reason. Many of us even take out life insurance, to ensure that our families are looked after, should the worst happen.

So why are so many of us afraid of even discussing prenups with our other halves? After all, our lives today may look very different to the ones we have in a year’s or even a decade’s time.

Although not necessarily the most romantic of conversations to have with your fiancée, coming to an agreement now, when you are both very much in love and on good terms, about how your finances should be dealt with if you ever decide to go your separate ways, is much more preferable to lengthy (and often costly) negotiations, with someone who you may no longer see eye to eye with.

The financial aspect of a divorce is often the most difficult and time-consuming part of separating from your spouse.

We’re often bombarded in the press with stories of lengthy and costly divorces, involving celebrities or high net worth individuals. Many of us have heard the horror story of the divorce that takes years and ends up costing the couple most of their worldly goods, in order to come to any kind of agreement about what will happen to the little that is left.

In general, the divorce process itself is actually quite simple. It is usually the financial settlement that can be the gruelling part and it is this that these articles are often referring to.

Going to court to ask a judge to decide your financial settlement can be the most costly and time-consuming part of the process. Thankfully, this is relatively rare, as most couples do come to an agreement between themselves, either with the help of processes such as mediation or collaborative law, or without.

If you want to know how your finances may be split if you divorce, it’s important to speak to our expert divorce solicitors.

Having a prenuptial agreement in place stating what you both want to happen to your assets should you divorce, could help to make things that little bit more simple.

Prenuptial agreements are not legally binding in England and Wales.

This means that even if you and your spouse enter into a prenuptial agreement, a judge does not have to enforce it. It’s important to understand that a court could decide that your financial settlement is going to look quite different to the one on your prenuptial agreement.

If you and your spouse have entered into your prenuptial agreement properly, the courts may be much more likely to enforce it, should you need them to do so in the future.