Red Leaf Law, LLP

Maximum stars to Steve Schinko at Red Leaf Law for prenuptial agreements — HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
The end of my marriage was painful and embarrassing, but nothing compared to the legal fight over assets that dragged on for 2 years afterward. When my ex and I split, whatever promises I’d heard about dividing everything down the middle went right out the window, to my shock.
During the marriage, I founded a software company to sell a successful program I’d written. I’d also worked hard on a novel, and was getting closer to finding a publisher. Since I created the software and wrote the novel, I assumed I’d be able to keep those in the divorce, right? Hahaha. She argued that she was entitled to half of everything. And because the software company had let her quit her computer job for a few years, she should be allowed to keep the whole company, since it had become her income source. It seemed unbelievably unfair to me, but she had an ace in the hole: my novel, which she essentially held hostage. If I wanted to keep my novel’s full rights, I’d have to give up the entire company. So I did. Oh, and she got spousal support too, even though her computer skills could’ve landed her a $ 70-​$ 90K job.
When I married, I bought into the shortsighted view that prenups weren’t romantic, or implied a lack of trust, or that they somehow hinted the marriage was doomed.
Having been bitten, my view has since changed; I think now that they signify nothing, except insurance to help enforce an equitable division, should the worst come to pass, however unlikely that might be. We don’t say no to life insurance because it somehow implies we might die soon; I don’t know why I applied that logic to prenups.
And now, by a miracle, all of that’s past, and I’m about to tie the knot with the woman of my dreams. So, I’ve had to revisit the prenup question, since I’ve put a lot of logs into the fire since my divorce: new companies, TV scripts, a side consulting business… workaholic much?
Going into this beautiful, pristine marriage — and even though I know she’s PERFECT for me – I want insurance for that worst case scenario I know will never happen. It’s unfair that if you put 90%-100% of the effort into a business while married, you’ll still end up having to split it 50 – 50 — or worse, end up with nothing. How is that fair?!? Which is why the «insurance» exists. And it protects both parties. She’s incredibly creative, so she gets the same protections for her work — the peace of mind that she’ll get to keep what she sows, and if she and I start something together, that it’ll be divided equally according to our wishes, with no lawyer tricks.
So we wrote up our own prenup – a first draft. And when you get into the weeds of it, it becomes complicated quickly: solo & joint businesses… creative works… skills you acquire… contacts you’ve made… web sites and domains… inherited debt… short films & YouTube videos starring each other… digital assets like music, e-​books, and software… those racy private photos you took…
It took us a couple of months, but once we had it all written down, we started looking for an attorney, and happened upon Steve Schinko at Red Leaf Law (thanks, Google). Generally I’m not a huge fan of lawyers (see above, where I got my a$$ handed to me). No offense, Counsels. But with Steve, I felt at ease right away. Clear website. Experienced. Local. Flat rates. Everything spelled out in plain English. Friendly on the phone (which was important, because everything was transacted via phone & email).
We explained to Steve that we wanted our prenup translated into legalese, and analyzed for gaps, and somehow, 5 days later, an email arrived with exactly that. 5 days! Incredible, since this was no boilerplate document. He’d taken our dense, complicated list of crazy wishes and expanded it into a well-​written, easy-​to-​read legal document complete with questions and comments identifying gaps and risk areas we were able to quickly resolve. The final doc felt detailed, balanced, and fair to both of us, thanks to Steve’s big legal brain and support.
Sorry this post was so long, but maybe it’ll save someone else from heartache. Prenups should be as mandatory as life insurance, even though I know we’ll all live forever. If you’re an entrepreneur or creative (solo or together), you owe it to yourselves to each keep a fair share of what you create if the unthinkable should ever befall you, and you deserve peace of mind so you can forget about it and get on with your bliss.