Expert Reveals the Smartest Things She’s Seen Women Add to Prenups

A TikTok video about the cleverest prenuptial agreement inclusions has gotten viral attention.

The video, posted by negotiation strategist Joanna Dahlseid, 41, included some of the smartest prenup clauses she’s encountered while working with women preparing for and negotiating the terms of their marriage. Since the video was posted, it has received 1.2 million views. Dahlseid spoke to Newsweek about her experience in negotiation consulting and what inspired her to get into prenup work.

“Clever things I’ve seen women put in prenups, money before men edition,” she said in the video. “This is gonna be fun.”

Dahlseid, who is not a lawyer but specializes in negotiation consulting, explained how she started working in prenup consulting.

“When I started doing prenup work, it was really because I had a divorce that I was working on and consulting with, and she had a friend who was getting married and she was like, ‘Oh my God, you need to talk to Joanna,'” Dahlseid said in the video. “So, a divorcing woman sent a woman getting married to me, and that’s how prenup work was born.”

One of the most common and practical clauses Dahlseid said she has seen is an emergency fund: “I always love a six-month emergency fund for a woman in a bank account with just her name on it in the event of a divorce,” she said.

However, some prenups get even more specific and strategic.

“My personal favorite was the woman who asked for a tummy tuck and long term support for child rearing during the marriage and post divorce,” she told Newsweek. “Women take on so much responsibility and risk in a relationship. They should be able to benefit, have the support they need to thrive in their careers, as partners, and as mothers in and out of the marriage.”

“I also loved working on a prenup where a woman asked for money on an annual basis to invest into real estate, so in the event the marriage didn’t work out, she walked away with stability and income earning potential,” she added.

Dahlseid debunked the idea that prenups are inherently unromantic, comparing them to other forms of financial protection.

“The idea that prenups are planning for divorce is silly,” she said. “No one looks at car insurance or life insurance and says, ‘You’re planning on getting in a car crash.'”

Instead, she argues that prenups can strengthen relationships by fostering transparency and trust. By establishing financial safety for both partners and considering the risk both are taking, couples can create fairness and awareness between them.

For those struggling with how to bring up a prenup with their partner, Dahlseid recommended open-ended questions like:

• “What do you think about prenups? What scares you about them? What do you like about them?”
• “What does financial safety look like to you? How do we establish that for both of us?”
• “Marriage is a contract…Do we even know what the laws are for both of us?”

Her approach is about creating agreements that both partners feel good about rather than approaching prenups with fear.

“You want to hold your partner’s heart gently, while also considering what you feel is in your best interests,” she said.