Top 4 Reasons Why You Should Have a Prenuptial Agreement

Valentine’s Day is approaching… if you’re planning to pop the question, you may be focused on selecting a ring, ordering flowers, and making dinner reservations at Boca Raton’s most romantic restaurant. Another essential step you should take: meeting with a family law attorney to draft a prenuptial agreement.

A common concern about prenuptial agreements is that they make couples feel like they are planning for the marriage to fail. In reality, nothing could be further from the truth. Let’s consider two other situations:

• If you own a home, you purchase home insurance. Does this mean you are planning for your home to be destroyed?
• You wear a seat belt when you drive a car. Are you planning to be involved in a car accident?

In the above situations, you are looking the mitigate the negative impacts of a worst-case scenario, you are not “planning” for it to occur. Prenuptial agreements work the same way – you are not planning for your marriage to fail; you are mitigating the potential negative impacts of a worst-case scenario.

If you are still on the fence about whether a prenuptial agreement is right for you, here are four reasons why you should consider one:

Developing a prenuptial agreement forces you to discuss your finances.

Incompatible financial habits are one of the main reasons that couples divorce in South Florida. Developing a prenuptial agreement forces both parties to discuss their spending habits, financial aspirations, etc. This can help you to identify possible areas of future disagreements before they occur. If you find that you are not financially compatible, you may consider going through counseling or delaying your marriage plans.

Florida divorce law is not always fair. Having a prenuptial agreement lets you develop an agreement that you feel is fair.

For example, if your partner has a significant amount of debt, the Florida courts may force you to pay off your ex-spouse’s debt even though you were not the one who incurred it. In contrast, if you have a prenuptial agreement, you can state that each of you will be responsible for paying off the debts that you each incurred.

If you own a business, a prenuptial agreement can help you keep it.

If you own a business, the Florida courts may require you to give your ex-spouse a portion of the business or force you to buy them out. This can be an ugly, time-consuming, and expensive situation to manage. A prenuptial agreement lets you avoid this whole situation.

If you have children from a prior relationship, a prenuptial agreement is essential to protect their inheritances.

A prenuptial agreement protects your children from losing their potential inheritance to your spouse if you were to divorce or predecease your spouse. To provide even more protection for your children, you can combine your prenuptial agreement with a robust estate plan.

This Valentine’s Day, contact Troy Legal to learn how a prenuptial agreement can protect you and your partner before you officially tie the knot in South Florida.

Troy Legal, P.A. was founded in 2009 and serves clients throughout South Florida. Troy Legal, P.A., specializes in Marital and Family Law, providing reputable legal services for prenuptial and co-habitation agreements, paternity cases, adoption matters, alimony and child support, time sharing and parenting plans, drafting of qualified domestic relations orders (qdros), mediation services, equitable distributions, collaborative law, post-judgement modification and enforcement, domestic violence cases, and dissolution of marriage or divorce.  Troy Legal, P.A. is dedicated to serving clients through compassionate and aggressive representation, while upholding the highest degree of ethical standards.