No one likes to mix legalese with the joys of becoming married, but the truth of the matter is that there comes a time to discuss the legal side of marriage. When two people are coming into a marriage with assets, it’s never a bad thing to get a legal agreement in place that basically says what happens when a divorce occurs. While no one wants to assume that their marriage will be one that ends in divorce, the truth of the matter is that you have to plan for everything. If you plan to have children in the marriage, then you also have to realize that you’re thinking about their needs as well as your own.

It can be hard to stop and really look into it from this perspective, but this is really the best way to go. You don’t want to try to skip over taking care of what needs to be taken care of.

Now, you might think that you could do a pre-nuptial agreement on your own, without a lawyer. This is true — there are boilerplate agreements out there that are a lot less costly than hiring a lawyer. However, a lawyer can give you a higher level of customization than those other templates can, and customization is important. How else are you going to make sure that you get everything handled to your satisfaction? In addition, if you have any questions that need to be answered, you won’t have the lawyer’s expertise backing you up. You’ll have to hope and pray that the answer is online in a format that you can trust. It’s just better for your own peace of mind to hire a lawyer rather than trust a template to one of the most important decisions of your life. Now, if you are going through a subsequent marriage where you already shelled out for a lawyer in the past, then you might have more reason to go with a template rather than a lawyer.

Back to the subject at hand. If you’re thinking about going with a lawyer to draft a prenuptial agreement, it’s important to make sure that you are definitely thinking carefully when it comes to the search. You don’t want to end up going with the wrong type of lawyer — you want to deal with a family affairs lawyer, first and foremost. While it’s true that law is law, a specialist is definitely better in this case than a generalist.

Experience is the name of the game here. You will need to make sure that you actually look for a lawyer that’s drafted numerous prenuptial agreements over the years. If you have a friend that has one, you might want to ask them about their lawyer and see what they say. You can also call around to some lawyers in other fields and ask who they would go to if they had to get a pre-nuptial agreement drafted. This can help you really determine who’s good and who isn’t good.

When you meet up with the lawyer that you want, you shouldn’t hold back on your questions. That said, you also want to be honest about your situation. You don’t want to brag or discuss assets that aren’t really yours. It’s important to be honest because the lawyer will not be able to draft a good agreement if they don’t have that type of information.

Overall, it’s a great time to get a pre-nuptial agreement drafted. If you really take the time to get your questions answered and find the best lawyer for the job, you’ll have no regrets about walking down the aisle with the person you want to marry — get started today!