Prenups to Protect the Stay-At-Home Parents

**Kusha Navadar** (0:10)
It's The Brian Lehrer Show, I'm Kusha Navadar filling in for Brian today here on WNYC. Now we'll talk about divorce, and specifically this aspect. For stay-at-home parents, divorce often comes with a uniquely high emotional and financial cost.
Stories of a stay-at-home parent who left the workforce to raise children, only to face severe financial hardship after a divorce are not uncommon. But a new mechanism in divorce law may be changing things. It's a specific clause within prenuptial agreements that's gaining popularity among couples. Wall Street Journal National Legal Affairs reporter Erin Mulvaney has a new story on this headlined, The Trigger Clause More Couples Want in Their Prenups. And she joins me now to talk about it. Hi Erin, welcome to the show.

**Erin Mulvaney** (0:58)
Hi, thanks for having me.

**Kusha Navadar** (0:59)
Great to have you here. And listeners, you can help us report this story. Have you written a trigger clause into your prenup agreement? Are you curious about it? Or do you have a story about navigating divorce as a stay-at-home parent? Call us or text us. We're at 212-433-WNYC. That's 212-433-9692.
So Erin, help explain this to me. What is a trigger clause?

**Erin Mulvaney** (1:24)
So a trickier clause would be imagine that you have a prenup, and you're thinking about how you're going to divide your assets. At that early stage in your marriage, you might say, okay, if one of us decides to be a stay-at-home parent, what will happen in that event? And so there are many things that you could add into the clause to ensure that that stay-at-home parent has the same type of opportunities, or at least it's a consideration if it does come to divorce at the end of your marriage.
And the reason I'm being vague is it can come in a lot of different forms. It could be a consideration for maybe giving more alimony at the end of a marriage, or a larger lump sum in the simplest way, or the earning parent could create separate accounts for that stay-at-home parent, just to ensure some security in that they're not just totally giving up their careers and will be left with nothing if the marriage is to fail or end.

**Kusha Navadar** (2:27)
Yeah, and this conversation happens supposedly for many people before children come into the picture before marriage, but not for everybody, but just that idea of what happens if careers change, and if a person decides to stay at home and forego their career and potentially their future earnings. And in the course of your reporting, you feature one couple, Anna and Zach, who built this into their prenup. What got that conversation started for them?
Hey, can you hear me? Erin?
I think we might have lost Erin. This is WNYC. Oh, Erin, I think I just heard you. Hey, I can hear you now. Hey, I don't know what's going on with the wires today. The internet bugs must be grumbling. But did you hear my last question for you about Anna and Zach?

**Erin Mulvaney** (3:15)
Would you mind repeating it?

**Kusha Navadar** (3:16)
Oh, absolutely, certainly. So you feature a couple in your reporting, Anna and Zach, who built this trigger clause into their prenup. What got the conversation started for them?
I think there might be some issues going on today, folks. I'm sorry about the tech difficulties here. I'm not hearing Erin. We're going to try to figure out what's going on. In the meantime, if you are listening to this and you have an experience you would like to share or you have had a trigger clause written into your prenuptial agreement, or if you're curious about it, give us a call or send us a text. We're at 212-433-WNYC. That's 212-433-9692.
I think what we're trying to do right now is getting Erin on the phone and patched in. So thank you all so much for starting out on a Monday with us and just kind of rolling with the punches, which is wonderful as all great New Yorkers do. Erin, I think we got you back on the phone. Are you there?

**Erin Mulvaney** (4:23)
Hey, yes, I'm here.

**Kusha Navadar** (4:24)
Wonderful. Beautiful to hear your voice. Thank you so much for sticking through it with us.
Let's go to your reporting. I want to know about Anna and Zach, who you reported on. They built a trigger clause into their prenup. What got that conversation started for them?

**Erin Mulvaney** (4:41)
You know, they're a great example, too, because one thing that is fueling clauses like this and reconsiderations of prenups like this are couples like Anna and Zach because they got married, they're getting married later in life, you know, like 39 and about 42 when they actually got married.