Forget about getting married? :-)
I think it is an excellent idea to understand the options before getting married. Like any contract, it is there for the possibility that things might go wrong which, as has been pointed out above, might not be in a separation or divorce, but could also be when death you doth part (and you or your spouse and your children, come to inherit).
I don't think contracts cast a bad light on any venture, not even a marriage. They are not unromantic, or unloving, or negative. Just very sensible. After all, this forum is full of threads, for example, by people trying to get out of a tenancy contract. And over and over and over again, the answer is: You are bound by what you signed.
Any contract is there, on paper, to help everyone understand, at the start, to what they are committing. And so they will know how to sort things out if the arrangement ever needs to end, be it with tears, or just with a hug and a handshake. In the same way, business partners who firmly believe that their new business has a good chance, also sign contracts... so that, if they ever need to split up, even for another successful projects, they will be able to refer to the contract to know how to do take their business apart with the minimum of damage to everyone.
Here is the offical Swiss government site, with links about marriage contracts:
Financial consequences of marriage – matrimonial property regimes
The matrimonial property regime sets out what belongs to whom during the marriage and how assets and debts will be divided up in the event of divorce or death. In Switzerland, there are three different property regimes: Contribution to jointly acquired property, joint estate, separate estates
Contribution to jointly acquired property
This regime applies to married couples who have not expressly arranged another type of regime.
During the marriage the property of the spouses remains separate. They each retain ownership of their own estate, i.e. the property which they contribute on marriage or which they personally inherit or receive as a gift during marriage, and manage their own estates separately. The savings made during the marriage (‘acquêts’, e.g. salaries, interest) can be used and managed independently by each spouse. On dissolution of the matrimonial property regime (divorce, death or new marital property regime), the jointly acquired property is divided equally between the two spouses. The spouses are in principle only liable to pay their own debts with their own estate, unless the other spouse agreed to share the financial burden or the debt arises from every-day expenditure.
Joint estates
A marital agreement (marriage contract) must be made if you want to have this type of marital regime. Marital agreements must be certified by a notary. It allows for three types of property:
The wife’s property (separate estate); The husband’s property (separate estate); Joint property (joint estate). The joint estate includes the spouses assets and income, with the exception of objects classed as belonging to separate estates in the law or marriage contract. The joint estate is jointly managed by the spouses and divided equally between them when the marital property regime is dissolved.
The husband or wife are in principle only liable for the payment of their debts with half of the joint estate and their own separate estate. In certain cases one spouse may have to pay debts with the whole of the joint estate, for example when they were contracted to pay for every-day expenses or when both parties agreed to take on the debts.
Separate estates
There is no joint ownership of goods or liability for debts in separate estates. The husband and wife retain individual ownership of their own property and manage it themselves. Nothing is divided up between the ex-husband and wife if the marriage ends. Separate estates can be established by a marriage contract. Marital agreements must be certified by a notary.
Reminds me of this joke...
A man says to his wife, "What would you say if I told you I'd won the lottery?"
She says, "I'd take half and then leave you."
"Excellent," the guy says. "I had three numbers come up and won a tenner. Here's a fiver... now f*** off!"
I completely agree and could not have written it better. Love is wonderful and so is a well-thought out marriage contract . Note the emphasis on the word CONTRACT.
I wish more people realized that, while the two often co-exist nicely, they are inherently two separate things. Love does not need a marriage contract to be. Some would even argue that a marriage contract does not need love. I personally beg to differ on the latter, but I understand the rationale of the argument nonetheless.
The sooner people start thinking about what they sign up for in a rational way, the better. From the multi-year gym membership contract to the marriage contract.