If you own a Washington business, getting married is not as simple as saying “I do.” You need to think of your business ahead of time and what will happen to it if you get divorced. It is an unfortunate reality that the business you have built may be at risk in a divorce proceeding.
The Benefits of a Prenuptial Agreement
The way to protect your business in the future is to sign a prenuptial agreement before you are married. One of the main features of this agreement is that it will state in advance exactly what will happen to your business if the marriage does not succeed. The agreement can say that the business remains entirely yours, or it can assign a certain percentage to your spouse.
The Prenuptial Agreement and Your Business
The agreement can also cover other areas such as your future spouse’s role in your business. You may want to reinvest some of your business’ earnings into the business. This could have implications for the size of the marital estate, and it could become an issue in a divorce. These can all be addressed ahead of time. This is a difficult topic for many spouses, but it is one that must be addressed given the consequences of leaving these things to chance. Your business can become part of the marital estate and subject to division without an agreement.
In order to draft and negotiate a prenuptial agreement, you will need the services of a divorce lawyer. Trying to handle a prenuptial agreement on your own can be risky because there are some circumstances under which a prenuptial agreement can be unenforceable. In addition, an attorney can deal with the matter in the delicate way required because the issue can cause tension between future spouses before they are even married.
