The Good Business Argument for a Prenuptial Agreement
Prenuptial Agreement Attorney San Diego
If you own a business or a professional practice, there are at least three spectacular reasons for entering into a prenuptial agreement with your spouse-to-be.
Keep your property separate.
Without a prenuptial agreement, all of your personal assets including all of those of your company become community property, and are judged as such in case of separation or divorce. More importantly, profitability or growth claimed during the time you spend married is also vulnerable to community-property laws, even if your spouse had nothing to do with your success in business or as a professional. On the flipside, a prenuptial agreement can isolate you from the potential risk of an unfortunate failure of your partner's business.- Protect your business as separate.
There are other people who depend on the viability of your operation. Family members, employees, clients and customers would all be affected by any division of the company's control structure, profits, business model or outright dissolution. A prenuptial agreement will protect the network you've created, and help isolate those who depend on you from the legal vagrancies and liabilities of a separation or divorce. - Avoid expensive and invasive business appraisals.
Consider the sheer cost of appraisal. If you were to ignore the purely functional value of a prenuptial agreement, and something as unfortunate as a divorce was to come to your marriage, that business or practice would be square in the crosshairs of any divorce lawyer. A two-tiered appraisal of the full assets and financials would be in order (and possibly court-ordered), and that would cost well in excess of $50,000 for a before & after picture of the company's fiscal situation.
