Relationship Agreements

The CBS comedy, “The Big Bang Theory,” made light of a relationship agreement in a previous episode. In reality, such agreements exist in some rare cases. A book entitled “Once You’re Lucky, Twice You’re Good” reported that Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan had such an agreement. Priscilla’s terms were one date night and 100 minutes together a week that were outside of Zuckerberg’s apartment or the Facebook office.

These agreements are different from prenuptial agreements that protect marital assets; they are more like wish lists or a business plan for a successful relationship. Usually, relationship agreements are not legally enforceable like prenuptial agreements are. Lawyers compare the agreements to cohabitation agreements used by homosexual couples or heterosexual couples who do not believe in marriage.

See Jan Hoffman, Just Call It a Pre-Prenup, The New York Times, May 25, 2012.

Special thanks to Jim Hillhouse (Professional Legal Marketing (PLM, Inc.)) for bringing this article to my attention.