Pre-nuptial agreements are an increasingly popular documented vow for wealthy couples. Written during the optimistic time just before marriage, pre-nups stipulate the division of assets should the couple eventually divorce.
Also becoming more prevalent are post-nuptials, according to Steven Goldfeder, partner of the law firm Blank Rome. Unlike pre-nups, these documents can be executed at any time during the marriage, he told ThinkAdvisor in an interview.
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Here are highlights from our conversation:
THINKADVISOR: Are post-nuptial agreements more popular among couples?
STEVEN GOLDFEDER: Yes. Over the last five years or so, I’ve done a lot more than in the previous 10. Pre-nups have become much more popular. So when these get changed during the marriage, they become post-nups.
Part of the reason [for post-nups’ growing popularity] is that a pre-nup is [often] done with a second or third marriage. If the spouses have previously given up assets, they don’t want to do it again.
And nowadays pre-nups are done by a lot of children of wealthy families or by young people with start-up companies or interests in startups.
THINKADVISOR: What’s the most common, underlying reason for doing a post-nup?
GOLDFEDER: Often it’s because the marriage is on the fritz. They say, “I need to know that if this doesn’t work out, I’m going to get at least XYZ.”
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“Why Wealthy Couples Turn to Post-Nups to Clarify Asset Division,” by Jane Wollman Rusoff, was published in ThinkAdvisor on July 25, 2025.