Carolyn Hax wrote an interesting column in The Washington Post in response to a woman who was surprised when her fiancé presented her with a prenup a month and a half before the wedding.

There were many comments discussing the pros and cons of prenuptial agreements.  But to my mind, people were missing the point.

They set the problem up as though the choices were having a prenup and getting divorced or living happily ever after in marriage until death do us part.

The thing is the legislature has already made a prenuptial agreement for you which is the default if you do not make your own.  It is called the domestic relations law and it is contained in the law books which publish the code for your state and the appellate cases which interpret that law.  It is several  pages long and incredibly complicated.  You will be blissfully unaware of it until and unless you get divorced.  Then you will say, “The law says what?”

So I think the choices are actually these: In the unhappy event we do get divorced, (a) do we want to make our own agreement now or (b) do we want the law, the judge and the lawyers to make one for us later?  Hopefully, you will make a prenuptial agreement and throw it in a drawer somewhere and never have to pull it out.