Topic guide · 45 articles
Protecting your assets with a prenup
What happens to the home, savings, inheritance, debt or business you bring into a marriage, and how a prenup keeps separate what you want kept separate.
01
What happens to property you owned before marriage?
What you own before the wedding usually starts out as yours, but how you use it during the marriage can change that. Start with what happens to premarital property.
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What Happens to Property You Owned Before Marriage?
Property you owned before marriage usually starts as separate property, but it can become marital property if you commingle it or retitle it during the marriage.
- What Happens to Premarital Assets That Disappear During Marriage? A Prenup Gap Explained Under many states’ default divorce-property rules, a separate-property claim often requires tracing the asset to a separate source; if it is spent, retitled, or commingled beyond tracing, the claim may be lost or reduced. A well-drafted prenup defines what remains separate and how commingling, proceeds, substitutions, and appreciation are treated, subject to governing state law. Read article →
- Prenups Are Not Just for Celebrities: What Separate Property and IP Clauses Do for Ordinary Couples A prenup’s separate property clause identifies which assets stay yours alone, which can include intellectual property for items including creative work, business ideas, royalties, or other IP-related income. These provisions are useful for ordinary couples too, not just the wealthy, including people with savings, a side business, an inheritance, freelance work, or creative income. Read article →
- What Does a Prenup Protect? The Modern Asset Inventory Crypto wallets, frozen embryos, pets, student debt and song lyrics: what a modern prenup actually protects, and how your state's default rules treat each one. Read article →
- Can a Prenup Protect Future Assets? What It Covers After the Wedding Yes: under California Family Code §1612(a)(1), a prenup can set the rules for property "whenever and wherever acquired," meaning assets you earn or buy after the wedding, not only what you own today. Read article →
- What Happens to My Assets if I End Up Divorcing? Without a prenup, asset division depends on negotiation or a judge's decision. Prenups provide clarity and control. Read article →
- What Is a Cohabitation Agreement? How It Works A cohabitation agreement is a written contract for unmarried partners who live together. See what it covers, what makes it enforceable, and when to sign one. Read article →
Self-Serve: drafted for your state, built around what each of you brings in
$649 flat for the couple, online notarization included.
02
Is a house you bought before marriage protected?
A home bought before marriage is the asset couples ask about most, and mortgage payments, the deed and appreciation all affect who has a claim. These guides cover each one.
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Is a House You Bought Before Marriage Protected?
A house you bought before marriage is usually your separate property, but under IRS and state law, marital funds, retitling, or appreciation can give your spouse a claim.
- Should You Buy a Home Before or After Getting Married? How a Prenup Changes the Answer Buying a home before the wedding can speed up equity-building, but without a prenup, separate-property contributions often get tangled when the marriage begins. Read article →
- Prenup for a House: How to Protect a Home You Own or Buy Together A prenup for a house can set who owns the home, whether a down payment is repaid first, and how equity is split, for a home you buy together or already own. Read article →
Self-Serve: drafted for your state, built around what each of you brings in
$649 flat for the couple, online notarization included.
03
How does a prenup handle inheritance and trusts?
Prenups and trusts do different jobs, and inheritance needs planning on both sides. Start with how a prenup and a trust work together.
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How Does a Prenup Affect a Trust? (2026)
A prenup can set how trust income and distributions are treated in divorce, but it generally can't rewrite an irrevocable trust. Here's how they work together.
- Prenups and Inheritance: How to Keep What You Inherit (or Expect to Inherit) Separate From Marital Property Inheritances are usually classified as separate property by default, but commingling during marriage can quietly convert them into marital property a court will divide in a divorce. Read article →
- Prenups and Estate Planning: How a Prenup Works With Your Will, Trust, and Beneficiaries A prenup and estate planning do different jobs: the prenup defines what you own, while your will, trust, and beneficiary forms decide where it goes at death. Read article →
- Do We Need a Prenup if We Both Have Wills? While having a will is a crucial aspect of estate planning, it's not the only tool couples should consider for securing their finances. Read article →
- Prenup With Kids From a Previous Relationship: Protecting Their Inheritance A prenup with kids from a previous relationship keeps a child's inheritance intact, and 17% of U.S. children live in a blended family (Pew, 2026). Read article →
- Prenup for a Second Marriage: Protecting Your Children, Your Inheritance Plan and a Blended Family A prenup for a second marriage protects children from a prior relationship, the assets you built before this marriage, and a plan a will alone cannot. Read article →
- How Prenups Safeguard Sentimental Treasures When it comes to your belongings, some possessions are worth far more than their price tag. Read article →
Bespoke: a custom prenup for complex finances
Trusts, founder equity, business interests and vesting schedules, with an independent attorney for each partner.
04
Can a prenup protect you from your partner's debt?
A prenup can set who is responsible for which debts instead of leaving it to state default rules. Start with the guide for couples where one partner carries significant debt.
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Prenup for Couples Where One Partner Has Significant Debt: How to Protect Yourself Without Punishing Your Partner
Americans hold $1.28 trillion in credit card debt and $1.66 trillion in student loans, part of a record $18.8 trillion in household debt, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and a prenup is the cleanest way for one partner's balance to stay theirs.
- Prenups and Financial Protection: Debt, Two Incomes, and Who Owes What A prenup gives financial protection from a partner's debt and sorts two incomes: 53% of engaged Americans under 45 had signed one by May 2026. Read article →
- Do You Need a Prenup for Student Loans and Pets? Student loans signed before the wedding are usually separate debt. See what shared payments, refinancing, and pet ownership do to that line in a prenup. Read article →
- Should I Create a Prenup if I Have No Assets? Learn how prenups can help anyone, even individuals with no assets. Read article →
- Do You Need a Prenup Without Assets? What to Consider A prenup does its most useful work before there is much to divide. What state law does with your future income, first home, retirement, and debt. Read article →
Self-Serve: drafted for your state, built around what each of you brings in
$649 flat for the couple, online notarization included.
05
Can a prenup protect a business or startup equity?
Equity, a company or a family business raise valuation and growth questions a standard agreement may not answer. Start with the guide to complex finances.
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How a Prenup Protects Startup Equity, Trusts and Business Interests (2026)
What a prenup for complex finances covers: unvested equity and RSUs, future grants, family trusts, business growth, disclosure and independent counsel.
- What Will Happen to My Business if I Don’t Have a Prenup? Appreciation, Goodwill, and Commingling A guide to prenups for business owners: how courts treat a business, its growth and its goodwill without a prenup, and what a business prenup can keep separate. Read article →
- Navigating Marriage as an Entrepreneur: Protecting Your Business, Equity, and Founder Income Under California law, appreciation in a separately owned business driven by an owner's effort during marriage can become community property (Pereira v. Pereira, 1909). Read article →
- Can Business Partners Be Affected When a Co-Owner Marries Without a Prenup? The U.S. Census Bureau counted 5.58 million small employer firms in 2023, and a co-owner's divorce has the potential pull any of them into court over ownership and valuation. Read article →
- Prenups for Tech Workers: How to Protect Stock Options, RSUs, and Pre-IPO Equity A prenup lets tech workers and startup founders define how stock options, RSUs, ESPP shares, and pre-IPO equity are treated in divorce, before any of it vests or gets divided by default state law. Read article →
- Prenups and Tech Equity: Vesting Across the Wedding, 83(b) Elections, and Who Owns the Upside Under IRC Section 83(b), founders and employees have 30 days from grant to elect capital-gains treatment on restricted stock, a deadline the IRS does not extend, which is why equity timing shapes how a prenup should be written. Read article →
- Prenups and Pre-IPO Equity in California: How RSUs, Vesting Cliffs, and Cap Tables Are Treated In California, RSUs, stock options, and founder equity that vest during marriage may be treated as community property in divorce. A California prenup can set a clearer rule for existing and future equity compensation before default property-division formulas apply. Read article →
- Prenups and digital assets Who gets your Bitcoin or Facebook memories? Don't scramble for answers post-breakup—address digital assets now. Read article →
Bespoke: a custom prenup for complex finances
Trusts, founder equity, business interests and vesting schedules, with an independent attorney for each partner.
06
What should a prenup cover for your profession?
Guides for the assets and income particular professions tend to carry, from pensions and equity to royalties and partnership interests.
- Prenups for Actors
- Prenups for Attorneys
- Prenups for Athletes
- Prenups for Content Creators and Influencers
- Prenups for Creative Professionals
- Prenups for Filmmakers
- Prenup for Finance Professionals
- Prenups and the FIRE Movement
- Prenups for First Responders
- Prenup for Military Couples (2026)
- Prenups for Musicians
- Prenups for Physicians
- Prenups for Teachers and Professors
- Prenups for Venture Capitalists
- Prenups for Wealth Advisors
Bespoke: a custom prenup for complex finances
Trusts, founder equity, business interests and vesting schedules, with an independent attorney for each partner.
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