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In Sickness and in Wealth: Should You Think Twice About Marriage with a Prenup?

By Babble.com 

PrenupFor some, marriage is a business. It’s two shareholders coming together and merging assets. “Mine” gives way to “ours” and “me” gives way to “we.” But for others it is more than just a business; it is a union. It isn’t simply a merging of assets, but of two people’s lives. And from the moment you vow to go through life with the person you marry, it is a life that you are constantly building together . Unless of course, there’s fine print to suggest otherwise, perhaps in the form of a prenuptial agreement.

Maybe by now you’ve heard the story of a woman who is married to a millionaire. As reported by the New York Post and referenced in The Huffington Post the two had a prenuptial agreement.

According to the attorney for the woman, Elizabeth Petrakis (who has now become the spokeswoman for thrown out prenups), Dennis D’Antonio, “three months before the couple’s 1998 wedding, Peter Petrakis presented his bride with a prenup stipulating that all assets acquired during their marriage would remain his in the event of a divorce.” Mrs. Petrakis was “guaranteed $25,000 for every year the couple was married” as well.

At the time Mrs. Petrakis refused to sign the prenup, and as a result, just days before the wedding, she was promised by her then-fiancé that he would tear up the prenup after they had children. As a result of never upholding his end of the agreement, Mr. Petrakis who is said to be worth over $20 million, committed fraud.

Given the fact that marriage involves two persons building a life together, one would wonder why someone would ask that of the person they had intended on spending their life with. Unless, perhaps, they had some doubts. The fact that Mr. Petrakis lied to his wife resulted in her ability to challenge the prenuptial agreement, and it worked.

And now the flood gates have opened. People everywhere want to know if the document they signed before signing their marriage certificates still means something. Will this agreement, seemingly more sacred than the union itself, still be upheld in the event that the idea of “forever” sounded much better than actually working towards forever?

Read more The Huffington Post

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