Prenuptial agreements are becoming increasingly popular all over the USA. While several years ago they were regarded as an extravagant whim of the rich, more and more people have now started to realize that signing a prenuptial agreement is a very practical and efficient method to avoid many potential problems later in married life.

It is difficult to find any specific statistics about the number of prenuptial contracts executed in the USA on an annual basis, since many of them are never made public. Dorothy K. Philips, a renowned lawyer invariably present in Pennsylvania’s Top Lawyers list, provided some useful information about the essentials of prenuptial and postnuptial agreements, since she concentrates her practice in family law and is often involved with the drafting of such contracts.

A prenuptial agreement (often called ‘prenup’) is a contract between two people prior to marriage which sets out the financial agreement of parties in case of separation, divorce, or death.

There are several reasons why people enter into prenuptial agreements. According to Ms. Philips, people most often seek her legal help for drafting a prenup because they want to protect property owned before the marriage. This property may include real estate, pension plans, stock portfolios, or simply property with purely emotional value. The second biggest reason to decide on a prenuptial agreement is that people want to protect children from previous marriages. Prenups can also be signed to protect family business, inheritances and gifts, and to avoid disputes over property in case of or divorce or death.

Ms. Philips pointed out that many couple choose to enter into a postnuptial agreement and seek her advice on that subject. Postnuptial agreements are very similar to prenuptial ones in terms of the issues they settle; the only difference is that they are concluded after marriage.

Dorothy K. Phillips is a frequent author and lecturer on family law issues and has been featured on ABC, CBS, NBC, and CNN. She’s been published in the Wall Street Journal, the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Philadelphia Business Journal, Harper’s Bazaar, Philadelphia Magazine, the Legal Intelligencer, and the Pennsylvania Law Weekly. Ms. Phillips is also a monthly columnist for the Pennsylvania Law Weekly, a state publication, writing the "Domestic Disputes" column. She is recognized as one of the Top 50 Female Attorneys in Pennsylvania.