女人,該不該對婚前協議說不?

【英文原文】

I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Sign Here
New Yorkers Laura Jackson and Gary Zaremba met on a dating website in 2005. Two years later, Mr. Zaremba, a 52-year-old real-estate developer, popped the question. Ms. Jackson accepted.

Then he popped another: 'Will you sign a prenuptial agreement?'

He had been through a divorce, had a college-age son and several real-estate investments. She, a publicist and also 52, had never married.

'When he first mentioned it,' Ms. Jackson, now Ms. Jackson-Zaremba, says, 'I thought, 'Oh, my God.' It definitely took a little bit of the romance out.'

Baby boomers looking to protect their assets are increasingly turning to prenuptial agreements -- legal contracts drawn up before a marriage that dictate what happens to assets in the event a couple should part ways, either by divorce or death.

'They used to be for the rich and famous,' says Marlene Eskind Moses, president of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers and a lawyer in Nashville, Tenn. 'It's become more commonplace in the market as an estate-planning opportunity for boomers.'

Even before the financial crisis hit, prenuptial agreements were on the rise: Some 80% of matrimonial lawyers said they had seen an increase in couples signing them in recent years, according to a 2006 survey sponsored by the matrimonial lawyers group.

The financial crisis -- which hit boomers, those born between 1946 and 1964, especially hard -- accelerated the trend. Many of them, just on the cusp of retirement, saw their investment portfolios pounded, as the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 53% from Oct. 9, 2007, to March 6, 2009. Home values, which represented significant chunks of boomer net worth, were down almost 31% as of March 31 from their peak in mid-2006, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller national index.

As a result, boomers have become more anxious to hold on to whatever they have left, says Gabriel Cheong, a divorce attorney with Infinity Law Group LLC in Quincy, Mass. Today, the majority of inquiries come from boomers 'concerned about protecting their assets,' he says. 'Not just with the markets, but with protecting their spouses and children.' And they often enter a marriage with substantial assets -- and children from an earlier union.

Baby boomers are more likely to get married multiple times than younger or older couples because they also are more likely to have gotten divorced. Almost 40% of boomers who have been married have gone through at least one divorce, according to 2004 Census data, the most recent available, while only about 30% of all people who have been married have been divorced. By their 50th birthday, 27% of boomers have moved on to their second or third marriage.

None of this, of course, makes discussing a prenup with one's betrothed any easier. Ms. Jackson-Zaremba and Mr. Zaremba 'put the elephant on the table,' he says, and disclosed everything to each other before their lawyers drafted the agreement. Though his net worth was significantly higher than hers, she had retirement savings and an annual salary she wanted to keep separate. He owned a string of properties in several states and several lighthouses he was in the process of restoring that he, too, wanted to keep separate.

Under the terms of the prenup, one investment property on Long Island's North Fork that the couple purchased would be owned 75% by Mr. Zaremba and 25% by Ms. Jackson-Zaremba. A second property on Long Island would have the same split, but after five years ownership would change to 50-50.

Assets filed on a joint tax return wouldn't be considered joint assets, the agreement states, and Mr. Zaremba's name would be added to the lease on Ms. Jackson-Zaremba's New York apartment. Neither party would take on each other's debts. Ms. Jackson-Zaremba also would receive a life-insurance policy, a provision added in the drafting.

'The prenup changed me,' she says. 'I became more assertive.' Most of all, she finds it much easier, both professionally and personally, to discuss money.

Lawyers usually recommend that couples with substantial assets -- or those who expect to inherit such assets later on -- consider a prenup. Without one, they are at the mercy of a smorgasbord of state laws in the event of a divorce or death. In 'community property' states, such as California, marital assets are typically split 50-50. In 'equitable distribution' states, judges generally look at what is 'fair,' so all marital property is considered before it is divided.

Such uncertainty has helped prenups gain favor as estate-planning tools. Yet they are anything but simple to execute, and prospective couples need to make sure they avoid some common traps.

【中文譯文】

2005年，紐約人勞拉•傑克遜(Laura Jackson)和加里•扎倫巴(Gary Zaremba)在一家相親網站上遇見。兩年後，52歲的地產開發商扎倫巴問你願意嗎，傑克遜說我願意。

然後扎倫巴又問：你願意簽署一份婚前協議嗎？

他離過婚，有一個20歲左右的兒子，擁有多筆房地產投資。傑克遜從事公關行業，也是52歲，從未結過婚。

現在姓“傑克遜-扎倫巴”的傑克遜說，他第一次提起的時候，我心裏說，天哪，這肯定是有些煞風景。

嬰兒潮一代正越來越多地藉助婚前協議來保護自己的財產。婚前協議是結婚前起草的法律合同，規定了夫妻不在一起時（不管是離婚還是死亡）財產應該怎樣處置。

全美婚姻律師學會(American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers)會長摩西(Marlene Eskind Moses)說，以往簽署婚前協議的非富即貴，而現在，作爲提供給嬰兒潮一代的財產規劃(estate-planning)機會，婚前協議已經變得更加平常。

即便是在金融危機襲來以前，婚前協議也已經呈上升趨勢。全美婚姻律師學會2006年支持的一項調查顯示，約80%的婚姻法律師說，他們看到近幾年簽署婚前協議的夫婦有所增加。

嬰兒潮一代指1946年到1964年出生的美國人，金融危機對這一代人的打擊尤其沉重，因而加快了婚前協議的上升趨勢。隨着道瓊斯工業股票平均價格指數(Dow Jones Industrial Average)從2007年10月9日到2009年3月6日下跌53%，很多嬰兒潮一代在即將退休的時候看到自己的投資組合大幅縮水。住房價值在嬰兒潮一代的淨值當中佔據很大一部分，而據S&P/Case-Shiller全國指數顯示，到今年3月31日，這一塊相比2006年年中的峯值差不多下跌了31%。

馬薩諸塞州律所Infinity Law Group LLC離婚律師Gabriel Cheong說，由於上述原因，嬰兒潮一代更加急於保住一切留下來的東西。他說，今天大部分詢問都來自於關心如何保護自己財產的嬰兒潮一代，他們不僅關心市場，還關心如何保護配偶和孩子。而且他們在進入一段婚姻時，常常攜帶着來自先前家庭的大量資產，還有孩子。

和更年輕或更年少的夫婦比起來，嬰兒潮一代更有可能多次結婚，因爲他們也更有可能離婚。美國2004年的普查數據（最新）顯示，40%有婚姻經歷的嬰兒潮一代曾至少離過一次婚；而在所有有婚姻經歷的人士中，這個比例只有大約30%。到50歲生日那一天，27%的嬰兒潮一代已經進入到第二段或第三段婚姻。

當然，婚前協議的商定並不因爲這些情況而變得更加輕鬆。扎倫巴說，他和傑克遜單刀直入，把各種情況都向對方做了披露，然後讓律師來起草婚前協議。雖然他的財產淨值比女方高出不少，但女方仍希望把退休儲蓄和一份年薪保留給自己。他在多個州擁有很多房產和幾處正在修復的燈塔，也希望留給自己。

根據婚前協議的條款，夫婦兩人在長島North Fork買下的一筆投資性房產將由扎倫巴持股75%，傑克遜持股25%。在長島的另一套房產也同樣劃分，但五年後的所有權將變爲對半持有。

協議書說，聯合報稅的財產不會被視爲共有財產，扎倫巴的名字將被加進傑克遜紐約公寓的租約當中。雙方都不承擔對方的債務。協議草案還加進去了一條，傑克遜將得到一份壽險單。

她說，婚前協議改變了我，我變得更加果斷了。最重要的是，她覺得談起錢來更加容易了，不管是在職場上還是生活中。

律師常常建議，擁有大量財產、或預計今後會繼承大量財產的夫婦應當考慮簽署一份婚前協議。如果沒有這樣的協議，在遇到離婚或死亡的情況時，財產的處置就將由大雜燴般的各種州法律來定奪。在加利福尼亞等實行夫妻共同財產制(community property)的州，婚後財產往往是對半分。在實行公平分配製(equitable distribution)的州，法官常常是看怎樣分配“公平”，所以所有婚後財產都要算到一起，然後再作劃分。

正是這些不確定性，一定程度上導致婚前協議作爲財產規劃工具而受寵。但執行起來絕非易事，準夫妻們需要確保自己避開了一些常見的陷阱。