The Marriage-Friendly Prenup

After I began helping couples negotiate their prenups, what immediately struck me was how the lawyer-driven process of creating prenups almost guaranteed that the marriage would end in divorce. Laurie Israel has written a brilliant, much-needed book with detailed, practical advice that shows couples how to avoid this result and negotiate in ways that actually strengthen their marriage. -Kenneth Cloke, Mediator and Collaborative Lawyer, author of The Magic in Mediation: A Search for Symmetries, Metaphors, and Scale-Free Practices, Santa Monica, California I wish I had this book 25 years ago. Laurie's analysis of the prenuptial process is methodical, thorough, insightful and revolutionary. It adds humanity and generosity of spirit to the inherently emotionally complex and traditionally purely money-focused process. It helps bring collaborative law and mediation squarely into the prenuptial process. Laurie's style is easy to read, rendering an otherwise heady legal topic accessible to lawyer and lay person alike. Any couple considering a prenuptial agreement or lawyer involved in a prenuptial agreement should read this book. -Oran Kaufman, Esq., Attorney/Mediator, Amherst, Massachusetts With a clarity and grace that comes from years of experience helping couples through the pain of divorce, and now, more joyfully, helping couples create healthy prenuptial agreements, Laurie Israel shares her insightful, optimistic, and grounded wisdom on building a strong, healthy marriage, with, or without, a prenup. -Karen Van Kooy, Collaborative Lawyer, Mediator. Skylark Law & Mediation, P.C., Southborough, Massachusetts Laurie's approach is based on a simple observation: since dynamics around money are inseparable from other interpersonal dynamics, a poorly negotiated prenup can easily cause such damage it becomes a tearful roadmap for divorce. The Marriage Friendly Prenup explains how - in the right circumstances, negotiated the right way and with the right terms - a well-crafted prenuptial agreement can actually contribute to the glue that holds a marriage together. -Jeffrey Fink, Esq. Kerstein, Coren & Lichtenstein, LLP, Wellesley, Massachusetts This book is a must-read and a vital resource for couples at all stages of their relationship - and for the family lawyers, financial advisors and couples' therapists who can support them. Laurie offers narratives, thought-provoking questions and encouraging tips for sustaining and nourishing relationships. -Jacinta Gallant, Collaborative Lawyer and Mediator, Prince Edward Island, Canada. The Marriage-Friendly Prenup is the essential manual for any couple considering a prenuptial or postnuptial agreement. Laurie is hands-down the most knowledgeable person on the planet regarding prenups and brings to this important work vital experience as a mediator and collaborative law attorney. -David A. Hoffman, Esq., Founder, Boston Law Collaborative, LLC and Lecturer on Law, Harvard Law School, Boston, Massachusetts With her wonderful new book, ""The Marriage-Friendly Prenup,"" Laurie Israel helps all readers, professionals and ""ordinary people"" alike, to understand that the process and terms of a couple's prenup will reverberate, for good or bad, throughout one's marriage. Simply put: the prenup sets the tone for a marriage. Laurie helps us to understand how to most capably set that reverberating tone. -Jim Melamed, Founder and General Counsel for Mediate.com and ODR.com