The traditions of relationships, love and marriage change over time. Couples wait longer to get married these days, meaning that they might already be living together and be bringing money (or debt) into the marriage. They are more established in their lives and, therefore, likely have more business and money matters to clarify before getting married in order to prepare for a potential divorce.
This was certainly the case for one of the most successful and young businessmen in the world who got married over the weekend. Mark Zuckerberg, the creator of Facebook, has made headlines for a couple of significant milestones in his life in the past week. Just when it was big news that Facebook was being traded as a public company, Zuckerberg got married. His weekend wedding has people wondering whether he and his wife created a contract regarding property division in the case of the divorce.
Zuckerberg and his wife have been together since college and lived together before their wedding. Just because there was no marriage contract between the couple doesn’t mean that Zuckerberg’s assets would be completely protected if the couple had broken up. Few couples, however, make the decision to discuss business and financial matters if they are simply living together. In fact, many fail to have such discussions and create prenuptial agreements before making the union official.
The public widely assumes that Zuckerberg would ask for a prenuptial agreement before getting married. He has a big business and a significant amount in assets to protect in case his marriage doesn’t work out. No one has confirmed whether the couple signed a premarital contract before their Saturday wedding. Reuters does suggest that the time of the wedding compared to when Facebook went public was no coincidence. It would be easier to measure the value of the company and the pair’s assets by getting married so close to the time of the big business move.
Source: Reuters, “Zuckerberg’s post-IPO wedding is smart legal move,” May 20, 2012
