A Prenup Is the Latest Must-Have For Tech Startup Founders In Love

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Bloomberg: In Silicon Valley, where penniless programmers fervently believe their ideas are worth billions, getting rich can take priority over getting married. California law assumes that any wealth created during a marriage is community property, which should be split equally in a divorce. That's alarming not just for young entrepreneurs but also their investors. Fortunately, a well-written prenup is a safeguard against post-divorce havoc, which is why more and more young couples are insisting on the agreements, according to more than half-a-dozen lawyers in the Bay Area and elsewhere. Long popular with older wealthy couples who re-marry, prenups are also being demanded by entrepreneurs who want to keep future windfalls to themselves. In a 2016 survey by the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers, 3 in 5 divorce attorneys said more clients were seeking prenups in the past three years. "People's concepts and notions of fairness when it comes to privately held businesses are changing," said Sideman Bancroft partner Monica Mazzei, adding she's seen "a tremendous increase" in prenups in the past eight years. "They feel that even if they're married, this is their passion. The agreement should be reflective of that." Still, the report cautions, "a prenup hardly guarantees a smooth divorce. Judges can and do throw out the agreements, especially if they're drafted poorly." "If you don't put in the right language, a lot of prenups don't do the job," said Lowell Sucherman, a divorce attorney at Sucherman Insalaco in San Francisco.Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Click here to read full news..