Florida operates under equitable distribution rules in a divorce. This means that you could lose a business, home or other items that were acquired in a marriage. If you’re not careful, you could also lose assets that you acquired prior to the wedding. However, there are several strategies that you can use to ensure that you retain important assets.
Put assets in a trust
Assets that are placed in a trust are considered to be held outside of the marital estate. Therefore, they won’t be eligible to be divided in a final divorce settlement. Of course, it’s critical that you create the trust long before divorce proceedings begin to minimize the risk that it will be invalidated. Ideally, you will create the trust as soon as you know that you’re getting married or as quickly as possible after acquiring something that you want to keep.
Use a prenuptial or postnuptial agreement
A prenuptial agreement can be used to stipulate that an item is to retain its separate status after the marriage becomes official. A postnuptial agreement is a document created after you get married that stipulates that an item inside of the marital estate will remain in your possession after a divorce. Assuming that these documents are created properly, state courts will generally recognize and enforce them.
Negotiate
The final method of protecting assets in a divorce to simply negotiate with your spouse to keep a prized asset in exchange for other marital property. For instance, you could agree to give up the family home in exchange for retaining full control of your business. You could also agree to a higher alimony payment in exchange for keeping funds in a brokerage or joint bank account.
In addition to keeping your home or bank account in a divorce, you may also be entitled to alimony or other forms of support. If you are the custodial parent of a child born during the marriage, you may be entitled to further payments to defray the cost of raising that child.