Second Marriages: Cohabitation and Prenuptial Agreements After 40

Re-partnering after 40 — whether after divorce, widowhood, or simply meeting someone later in life — is different in important ways from a first marriage or first cohabiting relationship earlier in life. Both partners typically arrive with established financial lives: homes, retirement savings, sometimes businesses, and very often, children from a prior relationship whose interests matter alongside the new relationship.

Cohabitation Agreements vs. Prenuptial Agreements

In Alberta, the relevant legal frameworks depend on whether a couple marries or lives together as adult interdependent partners (Alberta’s term for common-law partners meeting certain criteria, generally cohabiting for a minimum period or having a child together).

Agreement Type	Applies To	Addresses
Prenuptial Agreement (Marriage Contract)	Couples planning to marry	Property division and spousal support in the event of separation or divorce, under the Family Property Act
Cohabitation Agreement	Couples living together, married or not	Similar property and support matters for adult interdependent partners, and can also address day-to-day financial arrangements during the relationship

Both types of agreements, to be enforceable, generally require independent legal advice for each partner (meaning each partner has their own lawyer, not a shared lawyer), full financial disclosure from both partners, and execution well in advance of the wedding or move-in date — agreements signed under time pressure (such as days before a wedding) are more vulnerable to being challenged later.

What These Agreements Typically Address

Pre-Relationship Assets

Property owned by each partner before the relationship began — a home, investment accounts, retirement savings — can be addressed explicitly: will these remain separate property if the relationship ends, will any growth in value during the relationship be treated differently than the original value, and how will this be tracked and documented over time?

The Family Home (If One Partner Moves In)

If one partner owns a home and the other moves in, questions arise that are easy to overlook in the early excitement of a new relationship: does the non-owner partner acquire any interest in the home over time simply by living there and potentially contributing to expenses? What happens to the home if the relationship ends — does the non-owner partner need to find new housing immediately, or is there a transition period? These questions can be addressed in advance, removing ambiguity if the relationship later ends.

Inheritance and Estate Intentions

For partners with children from prior relationships, a cohabitation or prenuptial agreement can complement (though not replace) estate planning documents by clarifying intentions: that each partner intends for their own assets to ultimately pass to their own children, for example, even while providing for the new partner during their lifetime. This kind of clarity, established early and discussed openly, can reduce the likelihood of estate disputes later — both between the surviving partner and the deceased partner’s children, and between the children of each partner.

Ongoing Financial Arrangements

Beyond what happens if the relationship ends, these agreements (particularly cohabitation agreements) can also address how finances work during the relationship: how household expenses are shared, whether and how a joint account is used alongside individual accounts, and how major purchases or financial decisions are made jointly versus individually.

Why This Matters More After 40

Several factors make these agreements particularly relevant for couples re-partnering later in life, compared to a first marriage at a younger age:

• More accumulated assets. A first marriage at 25, for many people, involves combining relatively modest assets that have been built together from that point forward. A new relationship at 50 often involves combining assets — homes, retirement savings, sometimes businesses — that were built separately over decades, raising more complex questions about how those pre-existing assets are treated.
• Existing children with their own expectations. Adult or near-adult children from a prior relationship may have expectations (reasonable or not) about inheritance from their parent. A new partner entering the picture can create tension if these expectations are not addressed — and a cohabitation or prenuptial agreement, combined with clear estate planning, can help manage this proactively.
• Less time to "rebuild" if something goes wrong. A divorce at 28 leaves decades to rebuild financially. A divorce at 58, closer to retirement, leaves considerably less time — making the financial protections (or lack thereof) established by an agreement more consequential.
• Pension and retirement income considerations. If either partner has, or is approaching, pension income (CPP, workplace pensions, RRIF income), questions about how this income and any associated survivor benefits would be treated in the new relationship — both during the relationship and if it ends — are more immediately relevant than they would be for a younger couple.

Common Concerns — and Reframing Them

"It Feels Unromantic"

Many couples report that, while the initial conversation about a cohabitation or prenuptial agreement felt awkward, the process of working through it together — understanding each other’s financial situations, values, and intentions for their children — ultimately deepened mutual understanding, rather than creating distance. Approaching it as "let’s build a shared understanding of how we want to handle these things" rather than "let’s protect myself from you" can shift the framing for both partners.

"It Suggests I Expect the Relationship to Fail"

An agreement addressing what happens if a relationship ends is not a prediction that it will end — in the same way that having a will is not a prediction of imminent death, or having insurance is not an expectation of an accident. These are documents that provide clarity for scenarios that may or may not occur, precisely so that if they do occur, there is already a framework in place rather than a difficult negotiation happening during an already difficult time.

"My Partner Might Be Offended"

How this conversation is raised matters considerably. Framing it as a mutual step — "I think we should both have our own lawyers look at this together, so we both feel clear and protected" — rather than one partner unilaterally presenting an agreement for the other to sign, tends to be received very differently. For couples where both partners have assets and both partners have children from prior relationships (increasingly common for couples re-partnering after 40), the mutual benefit of clarity is often easier to see.

These Agreements Work Alongside Estate Planning, Not Instead Of

A cohabitation or prenuptial agreement addresses what happens if a relationship ends through separation. Estate planning documents — wills, beneficiary designations — address what happens when someone dies. For blended families, both are typically needed, and ideally coordinated, since intentions expressed in one document that conflict with another (for example, a prenuptial agreement stating certain assets remain separate, while a beneficiary designation on an account names the new partner) can create exactly the kind of confusion these documents are meant to prevent.