From your point of view, your engagement ring may signify a happy moment in your life; as the beginning of a lovely life shared with your partner. So, even if your marriage is short-lived and ends in divorce, you may still look at your engagement ring as a significant memento you want to protect at all costs. Well, you may put your best efforts toward establishing a prenuptial agreement to ensure that it stays in your possession under any given circumstances. With that being said, please continue reading to learn how a prenuptial agreement may protect your engagement ring and how an experienced Morristown prenuptial agreement lawyer at Graves Andrews, LLC can help you work on these clauses.
What usually happens to an engagement ring in a divorce?
Usually, as per New Jersey family law, an engagement ring is categorized as a conditional gift. Meaning, it is conditional on whether a marriage takes place. And once it does, it becomes the receiving spouse’s separate property. Therefore, an engagement ring will not be vulnerable to equitable distribution proceedings in a divorce. Further, the receiving spouse may keep it, sell it, or do whatever they want with it without a valid say from the giving spouse.
How can a prenuptial agreement protect my engagement ring?
To reiterate, an engagement ring is contingent on a marriage. So if a wedding is called off, the giving fiancé has grounds to request the engagement ring back. And if the receiving fiancé already sold the ring, they have the right to be compensated with its monetary value.
However, if you truly want to keep your engagement ring even if your wedding never happens, you may set up certain clauses within your prenuptial agreement. That is, you may state that a “buy-out” will be arranged so that you may keep the ring while paying its monetary value back to the giving fiancé.
In the most ideal scenario, you may state that the giving fiancé waived their rights to ask for your engagement ring back. With this, though, you must not unduly coerce your fiancé into signing off; otherwise, your contract may be invalid and impermissible in court.
But in an arguably fair negotiation, your prenuptial agreement may state that you are to sell your engagement ring and split the proceeds between you and the giving fiancé. This way, you may buy a similarly beautiful ring or piece of jewelry, without the constant reminder that your wedding never panned out.
On the flip side, it is worth mentioning that the giving spouse may also protect their rights to an engagement ring through a prenuptial agreement in similar ways in the event of a divorce. For example, they may write a clause that states the ring becomes their separate property if the receiving spouse initiates a divorce action.
In conclusion, for more information on if and when to pursue a prenuptial agreement, please don’t hesitate to contact a skilled Morristown family law attorney from Graves Andrews, LLC. We look forward to hearing from you and later on helping you.
