Prenuptial agreements can prove invaluable in many ways, especially for business owners. When individuals with complex assets like a business decide it is time to marry, it is wise to take precautions to ensure that both the marriage and the business remain safe from each other, strengthening both in the long run.
If you are a business owner approaching marriage, you want to make sure that your future spouse enjoys protection from your debt. Specifically, you want to make sure that creditors cannot come after your spouse’s property to satisfy your debts. With proper use of a prenuptial agreement, you can legally distinguish your property from your spouse’s ensuring that he or she does not put their own property in danger by marrying you.
Similarly, you should protect your business from your marriage. If you do not use a prenuptial agreement to designate the business as separate property, you may lose the whole thing if divorce comes knocking. This means all your customers, suppliers, and employees will depend on the strength of your marriage for their security. If you have to divide the business during asset division in a divorce, you may have no choice to but to dissolve it to make the numbers work.
These two parts of your life should not depend on each other. By creating these protections, you offer both your marriage and your business relief from the pressure of performing to the satisfaction of the other. Be sure to begin your marriage on solid footing by protecting yourself, your business, and the person you love from such conflicts before they even arise.
Source: Findlaw, “Pros and Cons: Premarital Agreements (“Prenuptials”),” accessed Nov. 17, 2017