Professionally I certainly have recommended them as a good idea. (Not really my area of law, but in all areas of law clients will get married). Personally, I can see how that is a hard sell. You can always fall back on the "my [family/lawyer/accountant] insists on me having one" line. That's what most people do. The reality of the situation is that about half of all marriages end in divorce, so prenups are something many people with assets contemplate. It is not very romantic to contemplate a failure of marriage before you start, but it is probably reflective of the reality of the divorce rate in the US.
Bear in mind that in some states, you probably will still lose half of what is accumulated during the marriage, but might be able to limit alimony etc. In some states there is case law that if you had a spouse during acquisition of your degree, the degree itself (or more accurately, what it yields financially) may be part of the marital estate. A prenup generally holds water only if both spouses have legal advice and representation so if you want it to be supported you may have to pay for an attorney of your betrothed's choice for her, as well as your own. Even then, if there is deemed to be an inequality of bargaining power, ie a rich uber educated physician marrying a poor high school graduate, the document may not be enforceable unless the document on its face seems fair to both parties. And also bear in mind that if you have kids and the spouse ends up with them we are actually talking about
more than half your income between community property, alimony and child support. And with kids in the mix, you may still end up paying significant amounts, losing the family home etc if you don't end up the primary caregiver -- the child support is not going to be part of the prenup. Best advice -- pick your spouses wisely.
On the positive side, physicians don't all do as well these days as they have in past years, so you may not have a million dollar home to lose for many years, if ever.
