Speaker 1: My name is Katie Michelson, and I'm a partner at the law firm Biermann LLP. I practice 100% of domestic relations and matrimonial law, and today the topic will be on prenuptial agreements. There's a big misconception that prenuptial agreements are only for the very wealthy, and quite the contrary. Many of my clients come to me seeking prenuptial agreements to help them sort through and pretty much preplan what's going to happen in the event of a divorce or an untimely death. I often get questions by people asking if they have to have significant assets or income to enter into a premarital agreement, and the answer is a resounding no. Prenuptial agreements are for individuals who want to have more control on how their assets and income are ultimately allocated in the event of a divorce or even death. Prenuptial agreements can be as complicated or as simple as individuals like to see. I've done prenuptial agreements that are 30 or so many pages, and I've done prenuptial agreements that are much shorter. It really is depending upon what the person wants to accomplish with a prenuptial agreement, and that really gives me the direction I need in how I want to advise them on what should be included. It's really interesting, the full gamut of the ages and walks of life that people come to me seeking a prenuptial agreement. I will often get individuals who are more established in their lives, who have assets that they want to protect. Given that in today's day and age, people are generally marrying later in life, many individuals have assets and income that they want to protect, and they certainly don't want to leave it to the court system as to what happens in the event of a divorce. So a prenuptial agreement is great for individuals who have taken time to build their estates and to build themselves as professionals. I also have a fair number of individuals who own their own businesses, and for them, this is somewhat of a planning on how to preserve their business assets as well. And then I also have individuals who have been married before, and they see what the result is of going through a divorce. They want to preserve their assets. They don't want to have a court making decisions because perhaps they've had a negative experience in the past. So it's important for them to be in control of the situation. I treat premarital agreements like marital settlement agreements. A prenuptial agreement should never be done in a rushed manner, just as a marital settlement agreement, which is the financial agreement one enters as part of their divorce, should never be done overnight. The biggest difficulty people have is understanding that a prenuptial agreement doesn't have to be just a two-page document. It's to include income, assets, recognition of premarital assets, what to do in the event of a divorce as it relates to spousal support. All of these aspects are incorporated into a marital settlement agreement. So I think it's really important for people to understand that as much time as it goes into drafting a marital settlement agreement in the divorce process, the same amount of time and attention needs to be done when drafting a premarital agreement. The Uniform Premarital Agreement Act was adopted by Illinois and governs what needs to be in a premarital agreement. Provided that terms are included that comport with the Uniform Premarital Agreement Act, the prenuptial agreement will remain valid. There are ways that terms of the prenuptial agreement can be challenged. And for more information, you should look at the Uniform Premarital Agreement Act to determine how that can happen. One piece of advice I have for family law attorneys who draft premarital agreements is to know what you know and know what you don't know. There's no harm and actually a benefit to clients to consult with estate planning attorneys and attorneys in other areas of law that the terms of a prenuptial agreement can apply to. This helps our clients tremendously. It has another set of eyes looking over the agreement terms and makes sure that the agreement remains valid. To learn more about the benefits of joining our ISBA family law section, please visit the ISBA website. Thanks so much for joining us.