Prenuptial agreements: What’s happening?

Pre or early relationship (‘prenup’) financial agreements have been available in Australia for some years now, but there is still a dearth of research regarding how they are being used by lawyers and their clients. This article draws on interviews with family lawyers regarding prenup agreements, with a focus on who is using them and why, and what lawyers think about them. Key findings include that while most participants considered that power imbalance usually or often existed between the parties and was not overcome by the process of entering agreements, most also supported the continued availability of Family Law Act financial agreements — a position that, in our view, indicates the need for further legislative reform.