@JLeslie it may differ from state to state, but I know in Maryland, even if there is no will, the estate would go initially to the living spouse, if there is one, so that this would not necessarily be cause for concern.
@gorillapaws I’m pretty sure that spousal rule wouldn’t override any will. The will, unless it is determined that it was made under duress or the person was not of sound mind, should trump all other laws. But I’m not a lawyer and maybe it is as you say in some states.
In general, I understand why people want prenup agreements. I will say, however, that I think they have become a lot more prevalent as the trend in marriage has been to not stay married to the same person your whole life. Nowadays, we still say, “in sickness and in health, etc.”, But I think those words are taken a lot less seriously these days. Don’t get me wrong; there are certainly circumstances where the marriage should not stay together, particularly in some sort of abusive situation. That being said, a lot of people don’t want to put any effort into maintaining their marriage and as soon as there is any sort of problem, they want to break up. I think people go into marriage nowadays almost expecting that that’s going to happen at some point and so they want a prenup. Whereas back in the day, people expected to get married and stay married and so their thoughts weren’t going along those lines of what am I going to get if I leave my husband or my wife.