Many people fear that drafting a prenup means that they are admitting their marriage will end before it has even begun. The fact is (and please forgive my being a trifle morbid here) that all marriages end – if not in divorce, then in death. For this reason, the California state legislature (and every other state in the Union for that matter) has helpfully crafted a default (read “generic”) plan for you in case you die without an estate plan, or divorce without a prenup. So the question you should really be asking yourself, is not whether a prenup means your marriage will end, but whether the government’s generic plan is the right plan for you.

A prenup, like an estate plan, is nothing more than a document allowing you to take control over your property. Most people believe they are better suited to decide how their property should pass at death than the government, and the same logic often applies to divorce. Many couples also find that defining their expectations before marriage helps minimize conflict later.

If you have a prenup or are planning to have one, then you have already determined that the cookie-cutter government plan is not right for you and your family. Chances are that the government plan for how your property should be divided at death will not meet your standards either.

So with those preliminary points out of the way, let’s turn to the meat of this posting: the intersection of the two documents.

It is important for married couples and registered domestic partners to make sure that their estate plans and their premarital agreements are not in conflict. It is not uncommon for estate planning attorneys who do not have experience with family law to narrowly focus on issues such as minimizing “death taxes” at the exclusion of other previous intentions of their clients. A common mistake is for an estate planning attorney to re-title property for the sake of the estate plan, but in contravention of the premarital agreement. This can have the unfortunate effect of negating the entire premarital agreement entirely, and you can imagine the negative impact that might have.

Another example is that many clients on a second marriage want to ensure that their property will pass to their children from the first marriage, and not to the new spouse’s family. This is possible, but the estate plan and the prenup need to work in conjunction with one another to be effective. One document cannot do the job if the other is not in agreement.

For these reasons, it is extremely important that your attorney have an understanding of both estate planning and family law. The law around property varies greatly depending on the context and circumstances. Failure to have an attorney review your unique situation from a global perspective can have serious unintended and very expensive consequences.