THE ENGAGEMENT RING

            Congratulations! Your girlfriend has just accepted your proposal to marry her, and you are now placing the engagement ring on her finger.  If your Relationship Bliss ends prior to the marriage, what happens to your engagement ring? The law is different in all states, but in Florida you are entitled to have the engagement ring returned to you. If your fiancé does not return it to you, you may sue her for a Court Order that it be returned to you, or a judgment for the fair market value of the ring if it has been claimed to be lost, etc.  If you enter into Marital Bliss, then the minute you are husband and wife the ring now belongs to her solely, even if you divorce, because the ring is a non-marital asset since it was given to her prior to the marriage, and any assets tendered to your wife prior to the marriage are 100% hers upon divorce. So, you can tell a man who has been divorced many times when he buys his most recent fiancé an engagement ring, and there will be a fake 3-carat diamond in it, and he will tell his fiancé that it is fake, and the real one has been ordered and it will not be in until after the wedding, and at that time the fake diamond in her ring will be replaced with the real one. This way, the husband has purchased the diamond during the marriage, and it is now a marital asset, so if and when divorce occurs, the husband is entitled to one-half the value of the ring. So, for all the girls out there, beware if your fiancé gives you a fake diamond intending to replace it with a real diamond after you are married, because that means he is well versed in the law of engagement rings and is foreseeing a direct possibility of dissolution of your marriage, and at least one-half the value of that ring will be returned to him.

            Enjoy your honeymoon!