Marietta and Jeremy have been dating for the past 3 years. They got engaged 1 ye

Question

Marietta and Jeremy have been dating for the past 3 years. They got engaged 1 year ago and are planning their wedding. Marietta was born and raised in the Philippines, came to America about 5 years ago, and obtained citizenship 2 years ago. She has never been married before and has strong family ties and family values. Jeremy, was married for 5 years, has one child that is 6 years old, and his final divorce papers finally arrived after 4 years ago of long and difficult negotiations. He built his company and is financially stable because of all of his hard work and accomplishments. He loves Marietta, and doesn't want to think about divorce, but his past experience has left him uneasy and not only has the financial loss been traumatic, but the fight for equal custody was strenuous, but declared in the final divorce settlement. He would like to put a pre-nuptial agreement together, but Marietta cannot understand the reasoning behind this agreement. Review the case study and assume the role of either Marietta or Jeremy. Write a 400 word essay explaining the reasoning behind your thoughts and actions. Why do you want or not want to enter into this type of an agreement? What are your fears? What are your rights? What are your concerns? What would be the advantages or disadvantages of your decision?

Explanation / Answer

Prenuptial agreement refers to a contract entered into before marriage. This contract is different from the main agreement of marriage. The content of this agreement may vary depending upon the concerns of parties involved in the anticipation of breakup of marriage relationship. Typically, it involves division of property, and other financial assets, spousal support etc.

In the given case Jeremy is particularly interested in entering into prenuptial agreement of which Marietta who have neither married before and hails from very different culture Phillippines where family ties and values are given high priorities. Jeremy not only have personally experienced a broken marriage and gone through all the hardships, legalities, negotiations about child custody as well as financial settlement following the breakup but being an American he also hold a different view of family ties. He must also have observed and informed about marriage and divorces of his known friend and relatives and the pains they would have gone through. With such social experience, one not only holds higher expectations of breakup of marriage relationship but is also likely to pick up the social best practices to navigate such situations from knowing how others would have reached a resolution or even avoid the unnecessary pains associated with an likely event of divorce. Therefore Jeremy’s intention to enter into Prenupital agreement is quite normal if we look from his perspective. But at the same time if we view the event from Marietta perspective such a proposal would seem strange and odd. Marietta hold strong family values given her understanding of marriage relationship itself carry the highest priority and in her mind expectations of divorce is may be negligent. She may not even be thinking about divorce not might she have seen evets of divorce in family circle. For Marietta’s inexperience and feeling of love and affiliation towards Jeremy and given her age she may also be over optimistic about the marriage and underestimating negative outcomes. Therefore she basically does not expect any significant likelihood of divorce moreover the cultural values she carries from her ethnic background of higher tolerance for uncertainty and collective orientation provides her a positive and confident outlook towards any event as compared to Jeremy whose culturally inherits values of low tolerance for uncertainty and individualism – focusing upon individual rights. For Marietta the thought of individual rights may seem odd and concerns related to anticipation of breakup even before marriage feel strange.

Finally, given their personal experiences and cultural inheritances both Jeremy and Marietta are right in their feeling, concerns and reactions to the idea of marrying and entering prenuptial agreement. it is difficult to decide who would be advantageous or not it is value judgement and evaluation of advantageousness would depend upon the parameter used to assess the same.

           

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