According to the Equality in Marriage Institute, the couple should review the following key areas:

In the case of wealthy people, prenuptial agreements join estate planning in the establishment of marital-family trusts used to shelter assets from estate (federal) taxes.

Prenuptial agreements can also be used to provide economic reinforcement to dimensions of the marriage that are not directly economic. For example, a wife may insist that role as stay-at-home mother merits compensation through spousal support for the interruption in her career. However, prenuptial agreements cannot deal with any of the following: custody of the children (including the children’s religion and schooling), visitation, child support, anything illegal (which is true of all contracts); anything "unconscionable"; or anything encouraging divorce.

In general, prenuptial agreements that are "fair and reasonable" will be enforced. Generally, the longer a marriage lasts the harder it becomes to enforce a prenuptial agreement, often because the spouses, like all married couples, taint their assets by commingling them. Couples often do this by accident or design when, for example, a man puts his money in their account and thereby makes it marital property.

Moreover, even with a prenuptial agreement, a husband normally makes some reasonable provision for his second wife in the event of his death because he is not free to leave her penniless and destitute by virtue of a prenuptial agreement in favor of his adult children from a previous marriage.