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In the Balance: Prenups

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01/09/2018 GMT

Prenups

BBC World Service - In the Balance, Prenups

Should couples take more responsibility over their future finances before tying the knot?

Would you sign a divorce contract before you got married? Should you? They’re often seen as unnecessary, unromantic, and irreligious, but we hear how prenuptial agreements are on the rise, and not just among the super-rich. 

We speak to a newly-wed who signed a prenup with her now husband to protect her business interests. One of the UK’s top divorce lawyers tells us they are often better than the default divorce provisions laid out by governments. And a lawyer in Nigeria explains how she’s trying to use them to protect women’s rights. 

But prenups are not without pitfalls – we also hear how they can be coercive, unfair, and even destroy a marriage before it’s begun.

Contributors: Ayesha Vardag, founder and president of London law firm Vardags; Erin Lowry, author of Broke Millennial, a book and website about personal finance; Laurie Israel from Israel, Van Kooy & Days law in Brookline, Massachusetts, and author of The Generous Prenup; Lesley Agams, founder and partner at Demeters Solicitors & Advocates in Abuja, Nigeria, and blogger on women's issues.

(Picture: Models of a bride and groom on a wedding cake. Credit: Getty Images)

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