HOW CAN I GET A PREMARITAL OR PRENUPTIAL AGREEMENT AND HOW MUCH DOES IT COST?
Back to FAQ

Mediation lets you set the agenda, the schedule, and the flow of the discussions.

The most important thing that mediation helps you accomplish is that you and your fiancé will discuss the issues and reach an agreement before your individual lawyers get involved. This keeps the cost and acrimony to a minimum.

You may want to take a look at 10 Tips on Why Prenuptial Agreement Mediation Works.

There are many advantages to using mediation, and click here to see what we think are the most important advantages.

To learn more about our mediation staff, use the following links to read about: Diana Mercer, Tara Fass.

Traditional Way: The typical way of handling premarital agreements is that the fiancé who wants to have a premarital agreement has his or her lawyer draft an agreement which is very favorable to the client asking for the premarital agreement. The recipient attorney then makes many one-sided changes in favor of his or her client (the other fiancé), and then the agreement goes back to the first lawyer, who disagrees with most of the changes. As a result, the agreement is redrafted multiple times... all charged by the hour.

Worse yet, the first time the couple sees or discusses the agreement may be after the first draft. Their input into the draft itself may be limited, and mostly guided by the lawyers.

Mediation: The Better Way: The fiancés develop a list of issues to discuss with a mediator, and the mediator helps them explore the options and decide how they'd like to handle each issue. Each fiancé may have the help of an individual lawyer during this process, but the agreement is tailored around the couple's priorities and needs. The lawyers are acting as sounding boards and advisors, and they're helping, but not driving, the process.

The result is that when the agreement is drafted, it represents the agreement of both fiancés. Typically, it needs very little revision.

At Peace Talks Mediation Services, our mediators will make sure that you have thought about all of the options before you sign your agreement.

Premarital agreements can be complicated, as you can see from the checklists. If you feel like you need a premarital agreement, you probably do need one, and it's worth doing correctly.

Fees start at about $1500. Depending on the complexity of your situation and the types of things at issue, you may want to budget between $3500 and $10,000. The mediators at Peace Talks can give you an estimate for your total agreement cost when you come in for your mediation orientation.

We also suggest building in the cost of a premarital agreement into your wedding budget.