What’s more American than baseball, July 4th or apple pie? . . . . . it’s the prenuptial agreement!

You know what we’re talking about. The “prenup” as it’s come to be affectionately known is that device used by many a terrible movie, TV show and book to manufacture conflict. Well, maybe.

More accurately the prenup is a (usually) legally binding contract between two people entered into prior to marriage describing some basics: who owns what, when and how was it acquired, will it be considered yours/mine/ours and what will we do should the marriage not work out.

From the 1950s world of mom and dad, 2.3 kids and a house in the suburbs with a white picket fence evolved the model of mom as homemaker and dad as breadwinner resulting in the view that dad had a right to his assets (he earned them, right?) while mom had a right to financial security (she earned it, right?). Thus was born the traditional use of the prenup to provide for the needs of each person.

As our society has evolved the traditional family has been supplanted by non-traditional families from unmarried cohabitation to children from prior marriages to same-sex couples and so on. The prenup has evolved as well and is now used less as a formal division of asset document (although this spirit lives on) and more as a set of relationship guidelines. (We once read a prenup that included items such as “he has to pick up his dirty laundry from the floor on a daily basis” and “we agree to have ‘healthy sex’ 5x/week.” Just what exactly is ‘healthy sex’…and 5x/week?!)

Also changing is the primary driver of the prenup. In a recently poll of 1600 attorneys conducted by the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers more than half said they’ve seen an increase in the initiation of prenups by women over the past five years. In fact prenups overall are on the rise with a 73% jump over the past five years in the number of contracts entered into. Moreover retirement assets are now more commonly being included with a 36% rise over the past five years in the number of contracts within which provisions for these assets have been made.

To read more survey details (or sneak behind your spouse’s back to plan your marital escape) visit the AAML’s website.

As an aside should prenups apply to politics? Taxpayers should be able to protect themselves from marrying a spendthrift President and Congress to avoid getting stuck with the tab when the marriage is over!