It's Not About Breaking Up—It's About Talking Money First: More Gen Z Couples Are Choosing Prenups

Celine Tsoi and Charles Mock met two years ago in Goleta, California. She was 23 at the time, and he was 27. Eight months later, they became engaged.

Friends immediately asked, "Oh, are you going to sign a prenuptial agreement (prenup)?"

"A lot can happen in marriage," said Celine Tsoi. "You want to discuss these issues when you still love each other, not when things go bad and you want to hurt the other person."

Today, it's not just the wealthy and celebrities who see value in a legal agreement outlining how money will be handled if a marriage ends. An increasing number of people, especially young couples—even when there's little wealth disparity—now opt for prenuptial agreements.

Charles, a nurse, earns more than Celine, who is pursuing a PhD. However, Celine has slightly more savings, so the financial gap between them is small. Still, they wanted to confront important financial matters from the start.

What particularly moved her was that Charles wanted the prenup to specify that if they ever separated, the house would go to her.

"Just having this conversation," she said, "shows you who the person you're about to marry really is."

In the US, divorce courts have long favored prenuptial agreements. According to a recent Harris Poll conducted for Bloomberg, over half of engaged or married Americans under 45 now say they have a prenup. Nationwide, roughly one in five married couples has a prenuptial agreement.

In the UK, studies show that as English law moves toward broader recognition of prenups, about one in ten couples now signs one.

Multiple surveys indicate that young couples are leading this trend, with about one-third of married individuals under 35 having signed a prenup.

"It's fair"

Mark Gilmartin, a lawyer at London-based JMW Solicitors, says he's seen a sharp rise in demand for prenups over the past 18 months. The old stereotype of "billionaires and barmaids" is rapidly being replaced by demand from "new creator professionals," including entrepreneurs and influencers.

"People are trying to protect what they will create in the future, not just what they already have," he said.

But beyond aspiring TikTok stars, he's also seeing a significant trend of "regular people like you and me" wanting prenups—often to protect inherited wealth.

Becca Gibson from West Sussex is one such person. In a few days, when she walks down the aisle to marry Dave Howells, their focus will be on the future, not the possibility of marital failure. But they’ve still made provisions—just in case.

Dave, who works in finance, earns more than three times what Becca makes from her eyelash extension business.

"I'm very much in favor of the idea," said 33-year-old Becca, especially after her first marriage "didn’t end well."

She knows that if a court were to decide on asset division, the outcome might favor her more—since she has three children with her ex-husband, while Dave has only one with his former partner.

"It’s not a benefit for me… but it’s a fair arrangement," she said.

Becca expects to inherit substantial property from her parents and wants to protect those assets, so that if they ever split, each can walk away with what they originally brought in.

"It feels good knowing that if something does happen, my life just goes back to how it was before," she said.

Dave, 45, admits it’s not romantic, but given divorce statistics, he prefers to be pragmatic.

"The court might say, ‘Wait, this person earns way more than her—shouldn’t he pay her something?’"

"I’ve built a home for myself and a future, including a pension."

"Putting aside my emotional love for her and the kids, I’m no different now than when I met her—and she was independent then. So why should I be paying extra for her lifestyle if we split?"

"The Great Wealth Transfer"

Lawyers say a key motivation for many couples is to avoid repeating the pain of past breakups or the messy divorces their parents endured.

But the rise of online platforms has made prenups faster, cheaper, and more accessible.

Dave initially pursued the traditional route through a local law firm, expecting to pay around £5,000 ($6,650; ¥45,000 RMB; NT$215,200). But he later switched to the semi-automated service Wenup, paying a flat fee of £1,600.

Julia Rodgers, co-founder of the US-based prenup platform HelloPrenup, notes that people are marrying later than ever.

"You might have student debt, you might have started a business or bought a house. So by age 34, you have a lot to protect and a lot you could lose," she said.

Dubbed "the Great Wealth Transfer," this phenomenon means some younger generations are receiving substantial assets and beginning to manage them. Often, the push to protect inherited wealth comes from their parents.

Prenups were once criticized for limiting women’s rights, but Rodgers believes they’ve evolved and now benefit women like her by allowing them to clarify their rights from the start.

"We want to have honest, open, and transparent conversations about life goals, financial arrangements, and roles and responsibilities in the family—so we can have lasting, happy marriages and avoid the situations we saw in our parents," she said.

Celine says most of her friends think prenups are a good idea.

She paid only a few hundred dollars using an online platform; even if she had to hire a lawyer, she considers it a worthwhile "investment" in the marriage—cheaper than the wedding itself, but perhaps more important.

Most importantly, she and Charles have already had those "difficult conversations."

"We’ve never had one argument about money," she said.