Peter Jon Mitchell, in a recent Cardus Family newsletter, ponders “what Taylor Swift’s prenup says about marriage.” 

Actor Adam Sandler officiated the largest wedding at Madison Square Garden since Rev. Sun Myung Moon performed a mass wedding for 2,000 of his followers in the early 1980s. Sandler, of course, officiated the celebrity wedding of Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce in early July. The Swifties likely have the Moonies beat in media wedding buzz, but it was insights from Harvard professor and public intellectual Arthur Brooks that caught my attention.

 Brooks notes that Swift and Kelce signed a highly sophisticated prenuptial agreement, which is perhaps unsurprising given the net worths involved. But it’s not just celebrities. Brooks shows a significant increase in prenup agreements. In 2010, just three per cent of marrying couples signed prenups. By 2023, just under half of millennials and Gen Zers signed prenups. While acknowledging the arguments for such agreements, Brooks highlights the empirical data that suggests couples who pool incomes and combine finances tend to share financial goals, have higher-quality communication and have higher overall relative satisfaction.

 Marriage is a life-building institution. It integrates economic partnership, physical and emotional intimacy and parenthood. In earlier decades when Canadians married in their early to mid-20s, marriage served as a foundation for building a life together. More recently, people view marriage as a capstone after career and financial goals are achieved. The increase in separate finances and prenups may not merely be a response to perceptions of risk, but a result of young adults entering marriage at later ages. Perhaps couples are less inclined to see their established financial lives intertwined, but as Brooks suggests, they may be missing out on non-financial benefits that come with this economic cooperation.