Why You Should Have a Prenuptial Agreement

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When people marry, it’s because they love one another and want to commit to each other for life. When things don’t work out, though, the marriage ends in divorce. The typical American takes precautions for all other things. We buy insurance for our electronics, jewelry, and cars, so why not have insurance for our marriage is to?

Many people seem to believe that a prenuptial agreement is like saying you plan for your marriage to fail. This doesn’t have to be the case, though.

A prenuptial agreement doesn’t automatically mean that your marriage is doomed. They are able to cover any of the items that you find important, such as your financial accounts, retirement, and your property. They are an easy fix for any financial issues that may occur in your marriage. A well-written prenuptial agreement can help protect the assets that you have worked for already. Perhaps each of you are beginning your careers and plan to purchase many assets over your lifetime. A prenup will be written with details on how any bank accounts, investments, and businesses are managed, as well as any of the assets.

A prenuptial agreement is not only for the wealthy. Not only does it protect your assets, but you can also use a prenup to ensure your estate or assets go to who they are intended to go to if you die before your time. It is imperative for anyone going into a second marriage to consider a prenup if they have children from a previous marriage. That way, you can determine who benefits from your estate and how much they benefit.

A prenuptial agreement can also protect you against any debts. When you get married, your debts come together as marital debt. If your spouse has debt, becomes yours and vice versa. Perhaps your spouse has an addiction to gambling and doesn’t tell you about it until after you’re married. It would be better for you to be prepared ahead of time than to spend the rest of your life paying off that debt. Paying for a prenuptial agreement is a lot less expensive than the money you could potentially spend without that protection.

If you decide to get a prenuptial agreement, make sure you find an experienced divorce lawyer. A Biloxi Personal Injury lawyer will not be able to help you with this sort of thing. You need a professional that is experienced in these matters.

Family Home and Divorce

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Home is where the heart is, right? It is a wonderful place full of memories for a family. Many firsts happen in the family home, from the birth of a child, to seeing your children off to college. A home is also one of the biggest expenditures that a couple will ever make. Because of this, the family home often becomes a hard issue to deal with during a divorce. You are left deciding who should get the house, if it is worth keeping in the first place, and if you can even afford to keep it. All these questions are important to consider before deciding what to do with your family home during a divorce. Below are some of the options and considerations about the family home:

  1. One spouse can keep the home: if this is the decision you make, you need to have the home refinanced under the name of whichever spouses keeping it. That spouse should be responsible for purchasing the other spouse’s share of the property also. The amounts for the buyout is typically negotiable, but the person who and up with the home will have to take on the responsibility of paying any taxes and fees associated with the property. If you are the one giving up your home to your ex-spouse, make sure you get your share, even if it is through other assets.
  2. Jointly owned the home together: joint ownership of the home only works if the divorce happens on terms that are amicable. Many times, couple will keep joint ownership up until a certain time, such as a child graduating from school, then sell the home at a later time. This will leave you attached to your spouse for a while longer financially, though, so you will need to be able to trust your ex-spouse to fulfill their end of the agreement.
  3. Sell the home: when spouses are divorcing, this is typically the easiest option. This can be a hard step, though, considering all the memories you have in the home. Many couples prefer a fresh start and are not as attached to the home and its sentimental value. There are still many financial issues that must be considered when you sell a home. You need to have the property value assessed and will need to be ready to share in the taxes with your ex-spouse.

What to do with your family home is a big issue with any divorce. Make sure you discuss the options with your lawyer and financial adviser before making any big decisions about the family home.

Getting Your Finances in Order for Divorce

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Everyone understands that a divorce can damage the finances of either spouse. Most couples who are divorcing go through the process without understanding fully how much of divorce will affect their finances.

Over the past 20 years, the divorce rate in the United States has been declining steadily. Still, approximately 40 to 50% of all US marriages will end in divorce. There are some things for you to consider to keep your finances in good health through a divorce, though.

Seek professional help: your emotions can take a huge hit through a divorce. You may feel sad and lonely at one point, then charged up with anger or fear the next. This constant roller coaster of emotions put you in a position where you are a lot more likely to make bad decisions. To keep you from making costly mistakes, you should consider getting advice from a financial adviser and divorce lawyer. Since women tend to be impacted negatively more by divorce than men are, this is especially important for them.

Get insured for support payments: when a divorce involves children, one partner is typically told to pay spouse port and/or child support to the other partner. The recipient of the support is typically the parent taking the most responsibility for raising any children. Liquidity can be a challenge over the long term with making these payments, though. Many times, the ex-spouse left paying the support may find themselves unable to continue making payments, leaving the other former partner shouldering the responsibility of paying the bills. When this happens, a financial adviser can run estimates on the assets from the marriage and take into account any risks, taxes, and liquidity to help the divorce lawyer come up with a settlement that is reasonable.

Take tax implications into consideration: in many divorce cases, taxes are overlooked. The ex-spouse is typically focus all their attention on dividing the assets. For example, if the 401(k) has $1 million in assets, it is worth a lot less than if the $1 million is in an account that is taxable. All this information needs to be taken into consideration as the assets are divided.

Follow the steps above to help you keep your finances in good health you ever face a divorce.

 

 

 

 

Protecting Your Assets and Finances in Divorce

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If you are currently going through divorce, you are too emotionally drained to deal with any complicated financial matters. Unfortunately, you can’t afford to avoid these issues and allow someone else to is about your finances that will impact your future. If you want to keep your assets and finances intact, below are a few strategies to help.

Document everything: documentation is an extremely important factor when your property is being divided. Generally, whichever side has the most records and paperwork on their side is the one that walks away with their interests protected. You should, at the very least, have three or four years worth of paperwork from your joint or individual accounts. If your spouse is made a big purchase before the divorce is final using your joint account, this documentation will help your lawyer include their purchase in the process of property division.

Hire a good divorce lawyer: it is always best to have a good divorce lawyer on your side helping you protect your finances, even in a situation where you are divorcing your partner under good circumstances. Most common financial mistakes can be prevented by hiring a lawyer. This is especially important when you are going through a tumultuous divorce, or when your ex is unreasonably making demands for asset division or alimony.

Hire a financial planner: a financial planner will be able to help you in ways that any divorce lawyer is unable to. A financial planner better understands fees, interest rates, taxes, and all the other important numbers that divorce lawyers typically don’t. When you have your attorney work with a financial planner, it can expedite the process of having your assets divided and help make sure you are on top of your credit obligations and future tax. A financial planner can also help you protect your credit score through the divorce, preventing the financial decisions of your former spouse from affecting your ability to make financial decisions in the future.

As you can see, when you are prepared for a potential divorce, you can plan ahead to have your assets and finances protected.

Divorce and Your Business

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If you are a business owner, there are many things you must think about every day. Have you ever thought about what would happen to your business in a divorce, though?

If you and your spouse manage a family owned business together, your company may be facing jeopardy in the event of a separation. If your entire net worth as a couple is tied up in your business, your financial health can be completely ruined, leaving you with an insufficient amount of cash to buy out one another.

It’s possible you will be forced to keep your business running, depending on the circumstances, something that is often not an option when a divorce happens on bad terms. You can also choose to entirely shut down the business and split up any assets, or split the price of selling the business.

There are some ways around this, though, with options to protect the business.

Start your marriage with a prenuptial: a prenuptial can be done before you marry to determine what happens with your business in the case of a divorce. This can protect your company from laws own property division. You need to make sure your prenup is in a written document, executed voluntarily in front of witnesses, and both spouses have full disclosure.

Create a trust for the business: by creating a trust, the next generation in your family will be protected if they go through a divorce. When the business is put into a trust, and the trust is put in the child’s name, the spouses never allowed to touch the money, even in a divorce where other property is divided.

Become co-owners of the business: you can remain a co-owner with your spouse even after your marriage is dissolved. Of course, this is easier said than done. Most couples don’t want to be left having to see the other, much less continue in business with them. If you divorce on amicable terms, though, you should consider this as an option.

If you have a business and are in the process of divorcing your spouse, your best option is to get a divorce lawyer. That way, you can make sure your business and your finances stay healthy.