Tennessee has seen tremendous economic growth in recent years. This means that prospective spouses may have more assets that they have accumulated by the time they are married. This increases the risk that you may lose some of this property in a divorce. You can protect yourself by signing a prenuptial agreement with your future spouse before you are married.
How a prenuptial agreement helps
While Tennessee is not a community property state, marital property is still subject to division in a divorce. The property that you had before marriage could become part of the marital estate if they mix with marital assets. For example, if you have an investment account and traded it and earned dividends during the marriage, the entire account could become subject to division in a divorce. The same holds true for a business that you owned beforehand or a family inheritance. A prenuptial agreement would dictate beforehand what would happen with this property in the event of a divorce.
Why more millennials are signing prenuptial agreements
People are getting married later in life these days if they are even getting married at all. As a result, they may have had the time to build some savings and wealth that they do not want to risk to a divorce. In addition, millennials may have also lived through their parents’ divorce and had a firsthand look at some of the angst that comes with dividing assets. Thus, they want protection for themselves.
If you are considering a prenuptial agreement, you should consult with a prenuptial agreements attorney for advice on how to draft an agreement. It is vital for the contract to be drafted in a way that it could withstand scrutiny if it were ever challenged in court. This means that the agreement must be balanced and not so one-sided as to be unenforceable. Hiring a family law attorney could also reduce the stress level involved in negotiating an agreement.
