It is not uncommon for people to have children with one partner and then go on to marry another. Maybe they married and divorced the parent of their children. Or perhaps they never married them in the first place.
Either way, if you are about to marry someone who is not your child’s parent then you should consider making a prenuptial agreement. Here is why:
They help protect your children’s rights to your property
Marrying someone who is not your child’s parent can harm your child’s entitlement to inherit your assets when you die. This is because your new spouse would also hold some claim to them. By making a prenup, you can ringfence certain assets for your children alone.
It is important to do this for several reasons. Firstly because you have no way of knowing how your upcoming marriage will turn out. Secondly, you have no way of being certain how the relationship between your future spouse and your children will develop.
It might be that the marriage goes great and, if you were to die, your spouse would treat the children as their own, ensuring they have all they need and bequeathing your children everything when he or she follows you to the grave.
Then again, it might not. Perhaps the children and step-parents never build a good relationship. Perhaps your spouse divorces you and takes you for all you are worth, leaving you with very little to pass on to your children. Or perhaps you and your new spouse have further children, and your spouse prioritizes leaving assets to them over your kids from the earlier relationship.
It can be hard for children to watch a parent marry someone else who will take up a large percentage of the time and attention that they might once have received. Knowing you have taken steps to protect them with a prenuptial won’t change that, but it will make it slightly easier for them when you pass.