How a Lack of a Prenuptial Agreement Can Impact Your Divorce
Many couples decide to get a prenuptial agreement before getting married for very good reasons since it helps address how all property will be divided and what the financial rights are for both people. However, a lack of a prenuptial agreement can cause your divorce to become much more complicated. Here are some potential problems that you can run into.
Distributing a Lot of Wealth
If there is one person in a marriage that has a significant amount of wealth compared to the other person before entering the marriage, a prenuptial agreement makes sense to protect those assets. Without a prenuptial agreement, it becomes very challenging to decide on property division during the mediation process. One spouse is always going to feel like splitting things 50/50 will not be fair and try to fight for more of their fair share. A family lawyer can help fight on your behalf. You should get what is fair rather than split things straight down the middle.
Dividing a Business
Owning a business can become very complicated if a couple gets a divorce. If you want to make sure that your business continues to operate as normal and that a former spouse does not gain any control of the business, then a prenuptial agreement is a necessity for that to happen. The problem you'll run into without a prenuptial agreement is protecting the business, your employees, and making sure that things keep running. Your lawyer can help come up with an amicable way to divide a business, which will prevent a spouse from getting control and can negatively affect the business.
Passing an Inheritance
Another reason that a prenuptial agreement is helpful is if one person enters the marriage with kids from a previous marriage. It is reasonable that the parent would want to protect some assets that they own for their children if a divorce were to happen, and a prenuptial agreement can ensure that it will happen. Without a prenuptial agreement, your lawyer will essentially be fighting on behalf of you and your children so that you do not lose everything in a divorce
Protecting You From Unwanted Debt
A prenuptial agreement can also help one person protect the other from debt that they have before the marriage. That is because debt can become a shared asset once the marriage begins, and the other spouse may want to be protected from having to pay that debt if a divorce were to happen. Your lawyer will assist with using that debt as a way to negotiate for other things that you want or to limit how much debt you need to take on after the marriage ends.