Prenuptial Agreements

blondie_2-2

I found the best way to save money is firstly, of course, to make lots, but secondly, and more importantly, to stop anyone else grabbing it!

In the late ‘90s I started a successful recruitment agency working from home, and several years ago married a man who had an office job and no savings – a very expensive mistake! The marriage didn’t last long and I was gobsmacked to be ordered by the family law court to pay him a huge chunk of my savings, and remortgage my house, just because we got married! :mad:

My lawyer mentioned that if only we had drawn up a prenuptial agreement first, my business and savings would have been treated separately and would have remained intact. Apparently recent UK case law means the courts are now starting to take the view that responsible adults should be entitled to arrange their own financial affairs as they wish, and document their intentions in a prenup, provided their agreement is “fair and reasonable in all the circumstances” - recent developments under 'The Law' here: ** Given that you are new on these forums, and that no one specifically asked for this information, i think you can make your points without mentioning any specific law websites which you may or may not have a vested interest in. Edited by Abuse Controller **

I’m now seeing someone else and have made it clear that if ever I remarry it will only be with a prenup. Once bitten . . . . .

Another law website puts it like this:
"Getting married should be one of the happiest times of your life, and there's no reason why being prudent about your financial future should stand in the way of wedded bliss. Sensible couples, whose critical faculties are not temporarily disabled by love, plan for the fact that almost one in two marriages in Great Britain will end in divorce (we have the highest divorce rate in Europe).

Even if you believe that your marriage won't be one of them, would you even think twice about taking out an insurance policy against the extremely remote chance of your house burning to the ground or your car being written off? Yet divorcing without a prenup, which has the same odds as flipping a coin, could prove a bigger financial disaster than both your house burning to the ground and your car being written off on the same day without insurance!"

Prenups are like Marmite - you either love 'em (who in their right mind would choose to run a 50/50 risk of losing 50% of everything) or hate 'em (why bother getting married if you don't trust him?).

Whatever you think morally, surely prenups have to be in the top ten money saving tips on moneysavingexpert.com!?

Debbie

ceegee

This sort of thing is what prevents a few people I know from getting married or co-habiting.

It is a very sad state of affairs (!) and, as far as I am concerned, on a par with injury lawyers who feed on people's greed.

If only love could always supercede greed.....

Mrs_Thrift

Could this be Spam??

blondie_2-2

Mrs_Thrift wrote:

Could this be Spam??

Well ... if you think spamming is expressing a personal and informed opinon in a money saving forum in favour of a legal mechanism that saves people money then hey! lock me up and throw away the key! :rotfl:

Debbie

Spendless

This is all very well if you both remain in full-time employment and childless but what if one of you packs in work to look after children. Is their contribution worth less than a financial one?

me and hubby both owned our own property when we met. He sold his to move into mine as it was in the town where we wished to live and we couldn't afford to pay off the neg equity I was in.

Later on he bought a bigger house in his name for us and our baby son to live in as my place was too small. We rented my place out and by the time the tenants had left the houses had rocketed in price and we sold my hoiuse at a profit.

So assumming we'd split at that point. Should I have said to hubby thanks for moving home to be with me, changing your job, and buying a bigger house even though only you was in employment and had the tenants left you'd have also had to pay mortgage on my place but now it's gone up in value I shall be keeping the cash to myself??

And should hubby have said to me the bigger house is in my name only, the deposit came from an endowment that was originally from a place I had when single, I have worked, it's not my problem you've been at home looking after our kids I intend keeping this to myself??

Legal_Academic

In your case the law comes to the rescue in the form of constructive trusts and equitable remedies, so even if you had a pre-nuptial agreement that would not entitle your husband to behave unfairly. Joint ownership of property can easily be implied into the deeds by the courts, even if only one partner is listed and the other is not.

A pre-nuptial agreement is essentially a snapshot of the assets of a couple as they go into a marriage with a view to preserving whatever wealth they brought into the marriage to which their partner has made no contribution. The circumstances you describe, that occurred years after marriage, would not be affected by such an agreement, and your contribution towards the family would indeed be recognised, even though it is not financial.

Pre-nuptial agreements can provide valuable protection in the early stages of a marriage where there is an imbalance of wealth, but their significance wanes over time as the couple's circumstances change, and ideally the agreement should be reviewed every 3-4 years.

As a word of caution, it would be inadvisable for couples to attempt to write their own agreements, or fill in a DIY form downloaded from the web, since there are a number of essential prerequisites and safeguards that must be correctly complied with before the agreement will be recognised by the family law courts. The firms mentioned above are well known specialists in this field, but equally any family law solicitors in your area that are experienced in drafting pre-nuptial agreements will be fine. There is a searchable database on https://www.solicitors.co.uk or the Law Society's web site.

Mrs_Thrift

blondie wrote:

Well ... if you think spamming is expressing a personal and informed opinon in a money saving forum in favour of a legal mechanism that saves people money then hey! lock me up and throw away the key! :rotfl:

Debbie

Maybe it's just a total coincidence, then, that two very similar posts have recently been deleted from a wedding forum as Spam.......?

Oh and it's maybe just another complete coincidence that the link you included is trying to sell prenuptial agreements.

I only say as I see............

blondie_2-2

Mrs_Thrift wrote:

Maybe it's just a total coincidence, then, that two very similar posts have recently been deleted from a wedding forum as Spam.......?

Oh and it's maybe just another complete coincidence that the link you included is trying to sell prenuptial agreements.

I only say as I see............

Oh yes, sorry ... I should have mentioned websites selling gardening tools or cheap flights when discussing prenups ... Instead, when mentioning changes in the law, I illogically directed readers to the websites of law firms specialising in the field. Silly me! *slap* :rolleyes:

Mrs_Thrift

blondie wrote:

Oh yes, sorry ... I should have mentioned websites selling gardening tools or cheap flights when discussing prenups ... Instead, when discussing changes in the law, I directed readers to the websites of law firms specialising in the field. Silly me! *slap* :rolleyes:

Having fun? I'm off to have some real fun now, so I'm sure you'll be sorry to hear I'm leaving you to it......

(now where's the smiley for pinching your nose and shaking your head in despair at the silly things people say? Hmmm, this one will do......:wall: )

Nile

Marriage is an institution. But who wants to live in an institution? Boom, boom. The words of Groucho Marx I think.:D

Hello Blondie and welcome to the MSE site. Have you paid a visit to the Money Saving Arms yet? As a newbie, your first drink is on the house.

It's also the place to chill out and play in the sand pit or Wendy house......with the remedial class pupils like me. Come and play sometime.;)

Spendless

Legal_Academic wrote:

In your case the law comes to the rescue in the form of constructive trusts and equitable remedies, so even if you had a pre-nuptial agreement that would not entitle your husband to behave unfairly. Joint ownership of property can easily be implied into the deeds by the courts, even if only one partner is listed and the other is not.

A pre-nuptial agreement is essentially a snapshot of the assets of a couple as they go into a marriage with a view to preserving whatever wealth they brought into the marriage to which their partner has made no contribution. The circumstances you describe, that occurred years after marriage, would not be affected by such an agreement, and your contribution towards the family would indeed be recognised, even though it is not financial.

Pre-nuptial agreements can provide valuable protection in the early stages of a marriage where there is an imbalance of wealth, but their significance wanes over time as the couple's circumstances change, and ideally the agreement should be reviewed every 3-4 years.

In my case though they did not all occur after years of marriage. Son was born 8 and a half months after we wed. husband was buying the bigger house within 2 years of marriage, and I was selling my place shortly after our 4th W.A

I used children as an example in my case but what if the one coming into the marriage with the 'wealth' then finds themselves to be out of work, ill, needing to give up work to look after a sick/elderly relative and finds themselves being supported by the one who came into the marriage with 'less wealth'. What happens then?