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From the Globe and Mail

Prenup: Romance killer or wealth protector?

First comes love, then comes the prenup?

The “money talk” is difficult enough for most couples. Who, then, is going to bring a prenuptial agreement, a legal document that spells out who gets to keep which assets should the marriage not work out?

“It’s such a romance killer,” says Marie Phillips, a wealth advisor at IPC Securities Corp., based in Mississauga. “But divorce is a leading cause of bankruptcy, so having a marriage contract in place is a good idea.”

Not many people agree; an Ipsos survey last year found only 8 per cent of Canadians have prenuptial agreements – legal contracts that are typically designed to address postmarriage division of property and spousal support. South of the border, about 14 per cent of married Americans have a prenup, according to a 2016 study from George Mason University in Virginia and Stanford Law School in California.

“Prenuptial agreements are not a social trend,” says Jeff Rechtshaffen, a Toronto-based family lawyer. He points out that a basic element of family law spells out that "everything you own before marriage is yours and that the wealth you accrued during marriage is to be divided equally between the spouses.”

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/investing/globe-wealth/article-prenup-romance-killer-or-wealth-protector-or-even-bankruptcy/