It has been nearly one week since Valentine's Day of 2012 and nearly one week since an estimated four million people got down on one knee and heard their loved one say "yes." Now that the initial flurry of excitement has faded, brides and grooms in Massachusetts and across the nation are creating their wedding checklists.

Adding a prenuptial agreement should be one item that the newly engaged should consider adding to their checklist as a way to define marital and separate property in the event that the marriage comes to an end -- as all do whether through divorce or the death of a spouse.

Prenuptial agreements often get a "bad rap" based on entirely false assumptions, which is why we wrote about helpful ways to bring up a prenup in a recent post. While we addressed how to bring up the topic, this post will focus a little more on why you should.

The traditional view of a prenup is that it protects a couple with disparate wealth, specifically the wealthy spouse. While it can do that if that is the desire, a prenup can also protect the less wealthy spouse. It can also ensure that children from a prior marriage are protected and provided for.

As more and more couples wait to get married, more and more couples are bringing their own established financial life to the marriage. Prenups not only determine what each spouse's desires are for their property, but can also help avoid financial infidelity. Full financial disclosure from both spouses is required for a prenuptial agreement to be valid. Being honest about finances before they are combined can actually help strengthen a relationship.

A prenuptial agreement can even protect an interest in a future expectation. You may not have received your inheritance, but you may know what may become yours in the future. A prenuptial agreement can set guidelines for this event even though it is only an expectation.

There are so many more ways that a prenuptial agreement can be beneficial to a relationship, but the newly engaged will never know how unless they have a discussion with an experienced family law attorney.

Source: Reuters, "When Valentines and prenups go together," Kathleen Kingsbury, Feb. 15, 2012