It is a sad fact that roughly half of all marriages will end in divorce. This has caused many couples to consider signing prenuptial agreements before saying 'I do'.

A prenuptial agreement, often called a prenup, is a legal contract entered into by a man and woman prior to marriage. It includes provisions related to the division of property and spousal support in the event of divorce.

You may want to consider a prenuptial agreement if any of the following circumstances apply:

• One of you is much wealthier than the other.
• You own a home or other significant assets.
• You own part or all of a business.
• You expect a big increase in income (for example, if you expect to graduate from medical school).

If you do believe a prenup is in your best interest, bring it up early. Don't wait until a week before the wedding to spring it on your significant other.

Be open and honest about why you want a prenup and try to agree on the basic framework before bringing in the lawyers. Draw up a list of all your assets and discuss who should get what.

Once you've both agreed to sign a prenuptial agreement you should each get your own lawyer. If you use the same attorney a judge may choose not to enforce the prenup on the basis that one spouse did not receive adequate legal representation.

You must also be sure to fully disclose al of your assets. Any attempt to mislead or hide assets will result in the prenup being thrown out.

Another way to have your prenup thrown out by a judge is to make it too lopsided. A vaild prenuptial agreement must be fair to both parties and it must not leave either party destitute.

A few more things to keep in mind:

Prenuptial agreements do not pretain to child support. You can not waive your rights to child support nor can you designate less than would be provided to the child by the courts.

A will does not supercede a prenuptial agreement if the terms of the prenup are more generous. In other words you can not use a will to leave behind less money than is stipulated in the prenup. You can however leave more money than the prenup stipulates.

You can insert a clause in the prenup that will cause it to expire after a certain amount of time. These are called 'Sunset Provisions' and in some states they cause prenups to lapse automatically after a number of years unless both parties opt to renew the terms. In a few states, prenuptial agreements automatically lapse after the birth of a child.