Imagine you have a thriving professional practice. You might work as a doctor, dentist, carpenter, mechanic, plumber, air conditioner technician or psychologist. If you plan to get married, you run the risk of losing full ownership of your business in the unlikely event that you get a divorce. Even if you don’t believe divorce is possible in your future, you might want to consider drafting a prenuptial agreement to protect your business interests just in case.
If you don’t have a prenuptial agreement in place, and you and your soon-to-be spouse later get a divorce, you may need to divide ownership of your business, even if your ex didn’t have anything to do with the running or management of the business. This happens as a result of Florida marital property laws, which — if your business grows significantly in value during your marriage — will assign your wife part ownership of that increase in value.
There have been many cases in which doctors, lawyers or other professionals were forced to liquidate their businesses as a part of their divorces. Or, they were forced to surrender part ownership of their businesses over to their exes following the divorce process. A carefully drafted prenuptial agreement may prevent the threat of something like this happening to your business and source of livelihood.
If you’re considering a prenuptial agreement before getting married, it would be useful to learn more about the potential advantages and disadvantages of these documents before signing one. This will help you make a decision about whether such a document is right for you and your future spouse.
