Prenuptial Agreements: providing more certain financial outcomes on divorce
04 July 2016
How can prenuptial agreements be used to avoid sharing claims and to create more certain financial outcomes on divorce?
When a marriage breaks down, the divorce court has a very broad discretion and wide-ranging powers to redistribute the couple's income and assets in order to achieve a fair financial outcome.
The wide-ranging nature of the court's discretion makes it difficult to predict the outcome of the financial aspects of divorce proceedings in any individual case. However, at least in the case of longer marriages in the bigger money cases, so long as both parties' income and housing needs are taken care of, it is usual to divide all the couple's assets broadly equally.
Although prenuptial ("prenups") and postnuptial ("postnups") agreements are not yet legally binding in England and Wales, they will now be taken into account by the court as one of 'the circumstances' of the case and, in the right case, may be determinative of the financial outcome on divorce and avoid equal sharing of the couple's financial resources.
In a recent article, Maeve O'Higgins explains how prenuptial agreements can be used to avoid equal sharing claims and create more certain financial outcomes on divorce. She also explains the situations in which prenuptial agreements are particularly appropriate and what matters to consider when drawing up a prenuptial agreement.
To read the article in full, please click here.
This blog is intended for general information only and should not be considered as giving advice in relation to any individual case nor be taken as applying to any particular case. No liability is accepted for any such use of the information contained.