Wedding rings have a long and important history in human relationships. When you marry the person you think you are going to spend the rest of your life with, you exchange rings to show your commitment. Not all married couples live happily ever after, though.
According to Lending Tree, Tennessee has the sixth-highest divorce rate in the country. If you have decided to end your marriage, it is natural to wonder what happens to your wedding ring and to your soon-to-be ex-spouse’s ring.
Division of assets
When married couples divorce, they must divide all marital assets. Because Tennessee is like the majority of states, you can plan to distribute your marital estate equitably. This means you should wind up with a fair share of everything you and your spouse acquired during your marriage.
Separate property
There is a notable exception to the Volunteer State’s equitable distribution approach, though. Specifically, you do not have to divide any property that is separate from the marital estate. As a gift from your current spouse, your wedding ring is most likely to be separate property in the eyes of the law. Therefore, you can probably keep your ring, give it away, sell it or toss it in a river.
Marital agreements
Like many other aspects of law, there is an exception to the exception. If you and your spouse entered into either a pre- or postnuptial agreement, your agreement may affect what happens to the ring. This is likely only to be true, however, if the agreement expressly addresses it.
Ultimately, provided you do not have an agreement that says otherwise, you can probably forget about having to negotiate ownership of your wedding ring when you divorce your spouse.