Jeannie Suk Gersen

It's so exciting.

On the other hand, I have to factor in what the cost is for my partner.

And if Deb incurs this cost, what will be owed to her?

What will I owe to her?

So let's go back to Lisa and Andy.

Lisa had an inheritance from her grandmother before the marriage.

And when they got married, they bought a home, and Lisa put that inheritance toward a down payment on that home.

And then Andy, of course, worked to make the mortgage payments.

And all of their premarital and marital property became joint.

So in a split, what's going to happen?

They're going to have to sell the house and split the proceeds, or one of them can buy the other out.

So this marriage mediator, if they had talked to them before all of this happened, that person would have asked, what do you want to keep separate?

And what do you want to keep together?

And how does that choice actually support the security of the marriage?

Because you have to remember that what's yours probably will become ours unless you actually are mindful and take steps to do otherwise.

I can see Lisa thinking like, this is incredibly unfair.

That's right.

That might seem incredibly unfair.

And in Andy's mind, if a different role were to pertain, he would think, hey, I made all that money and we were able to make mortgage payments.

So that it would seem unfair to him.