How to save your pre-marital assets

Saeed

A friend of mine has a query relating to pre-marital assets and I was hoping some of you may be able to help. The story is that he has approx £100,000 in savings as well as a house now worth £200,000 mortgage free. He is due to get married in the next year or so and is wanting advice on how he can protect these assets if things didn't work out as obviously all these assets have been accumulated before marriage. His concerns are that if he gets divorced he may lose £150,000 or when she realises that he has this money that she may blackmail him ... be a doormat or pay up! Now I know he should be careful and settle down with the a nice person but you never know what is around the corner. Apparently pre-nups are not valid in UK law so does anyone have any other idea(s)???

Thanks

Saeed

Bump.... Come one someone must have some ideas. Don't you married people stuck in poor relationships worry about this stuff???

bristol_pilot

When I asked my solicitor the same question a few years ago he told me there is only one answer...don't get married. That's it. So I didn't.

Timmne

Surely if there are any doubts at all one shouldn't get married.....

These days people seem to just get married in case it works out rather than seeing if it works out and then getting married!

Sorry it didn't help your original question but I'm surprised you're not giving your friend this advice! Don't trust your girlfriend, don't marry her!

hobo28

I agree with Bristol. Don't get married. If thats his attitude to his future wife, the alleged love of his life then simply don't do it.

moanymoany

Tell him to find someone with the same amount of money and marry her.

suffolkb

Or somebody worth twice as much and then take it off her.

pusscat

Under UK law if a couple have been married they have no automatic right to keep any asset - if they cannot agree on how to divide the "assets of the marriage" on divorce then a court will intervene and impose a settlement on them.

Pre nup agreements have no standing in law in England, but they MAY be taken into account if the court chooses, especially if they were made with full legal advice, as it shows the intenetions of the parties at the time the agreement was made - however there is nothing that says the court have to do this - they have full rights to split the assets as they see fit.

At least that is how I understood it from my solicitor - I agree with the other posters, if you don't trust your future spouse then you probably should not be getting married to them........

Puss
xx

Spendless

Saeed wrote: »

A friend of mine has a query relating to pre-marital assets and I was hoping some of you may be able to help. The story is that he has approx £100,000 in savings as well as a house now worth £200,000 mortgage free. He is due to get married in the next year or so and is wanting advice on how he can protect these assets if things didn't work out as obviously all these assets have been accumulated before marriage. His concerns are that if he gets divorced he may lose £150,000 or when she realises that he has this money that she may blackmail him ... be a doormat or pay up! Now I know he should be careful and settle down with the a nice person but you never know what is around the corner.Apparently pre-nups are not valid in UK lawso does anyone have any other idea(s)???

Thanks

His marrying someone who he thinks capable of blackmailing :eek:

Welshlassie

Saeed wrote: »

A friend of mine has a query relating to pre-marital assets and I was hoping some of you may be able to help. The story is that he has approx £100,000 in savings as well as a house now worth £200,000 mortgage free. He is due to get married in the next year or so and is wanting advice on how he can protect these assets if things didn't work out as obviously all these assets have been accumulated before marriage. His concerns are that if he gets divorced he may lose £150,000 or when she realises that he has this money that she may blackmail him ... be a doormat or pay up! Now I know he should be careful and settle down with the a nice person but you never know what is around the corner. Apparently pre-nups are not valid in UK law so does anyone have any other idea(s)???

Thanks

Sounds more like he's marrying someone without either party knowing the financial situation of the other. If he has a mortgage free house and she doesn't know about this. Where exactly are they planning on living. If its there, was he plannig on charging her rent!!

If he doesn't trust that it is going to work then don't get married. I went into my marriage with my husband already having substantial assets (not quite on the same scale mind) but what he had became mine and what I had became his. I married him because I love him not becuase he has financial assets.

margaretclare

Saeed wrote: »

A friend of mine has a query relating to pre-marital assets and I was hoping some of you may be able to help. The story is that he has approx £100,000 in savings as well as a house now worth £200,000 mortgage free. He is due to get married in the next year or so and is wanting advice on how he can protect these assets if things didn't work out as obviously all these assets have been accumulated before marriage. His concerns are that if he gets divorced he may lose £150,000 or when she realises that he has this money that she may blackmail him ... be a doormat or pay up! Now I know he should be careful and settle down with the a nice person but you never know what is around the corner. Apparently pre-nups are not valid in UK law so does anyone have any other idea(s)???

Thanks

No, pre-nups - as understood in the USA and some other countries - don't apply in English law (I can't comment on Scottish law - remember English and Scottish law differ in many respects).

Well, can I tell you something? When my present husband and I got together nearly 10 years now, I had a lot more than he had. I had my own home (even though I still had a mortgage) and he walked out of a terrible marriage virtually in what he stood up in. He arrived on my doorstep one wet night aged 62 with nothing.

I was warned about everything that could go wrong by all the 'well-wishers' round about - more like Macbeth's Witches most of them. 'He's only coming because you're a port in a storm. He's left 2 women, he'll leave you'.

Fast-forward to today. In fact we've now been married for 5 years last January. As part of our marriage service we spoke the words to each other 'All that I am I give you, all that I have I share with you, within the love of God, amen'.

This is the only way it can be. Whether I owned, or he owned, anything before we made those vows, is completely irrelevant. What we had before, what we've gained since we've been together, it's ours, not his, not mine, ours.

I can't imagine living any other way. Otherwise, why get married?

HTH

Margaret