Why More Couples Are Signing Postnuptial Agreements.

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He cheats. She wants a divorce. He pleads for forgiveness. She’ll stay, for a price: If they ever do divorce, she wants the house, the car, and a hefty slice of their other assets. That kind of deal is possible with a postnuptial agreement, a legal contract between spouses who intend to stay together on what happens if their marriage ends. Also known as a postmarital agreement, it’s an increasingly popular variant of the prenuptial agreements that engaged couples have been signing for decades.

Couples often have very different reasons for signing postnups than prenups. And because postnups are newer and less common, it’s harder to predict whether courts will enforce one.

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Still, postnups are getting more popular. Half of the members of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers said in a survey in late 2015 that they were being asked to write more postnups. Just 2 percent said they were handling fewer.

There are two common reasons why couples come to Ravdin looking for a postnup, she said. Sometimes they just run out of time before their weddings to get a regular prenup and seek a postnup instead—obviously a mistake, given how much harder postnups are to enforce. The other common reason, she said: “A couple is estranged, but they’re willing to take a chance on a reconciliation.” Sometimes the problem is adultery or some other malfeasance. Couples may even be living separately but want to work out some way they can stay married—for the kids, or just to avoid the hassle of a messy divorce. The agreement, Ravdin said, is essentially: "'If this doesn’t work out, and we split up, here’s what our rights and obligations are going to be at that point.'"

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