Offshore/secret bank account to stash the cash ?????

Saeed

Why is he getting married if he thinks like that.
Feel sorry for his fiancee.

Assume this isn't serious.

It's very serious! This is money SAVING expert not money GIVING AWAY HALF expert. If you had worked hard would you not want to protect your money?? Why should you have to give half after 6-12 months of marriage if it does go wrong??? If things go wrong for you and your wife takes half, we'll see if you still think the same ....

If he isn't going to tell his wife I assume he also isn't going to tell the taxman in which case he will have more than his wife to contend with.

UK tax has already been paid on his earnings so they are not subject to further tax ...he works for the government. The basic question is one of protecting pre-marital assets, so both of them start from zero. Any money that they accumulate after marriage get divided up 50/50 in case of divorce but why should he part with his pre-marital assets???

Personally I think this is a valid question. Too many women have cleaned their ex-husbands out after a divorce. Of course you want the marriage to work out but we have to face the reality. All it takes is for the guy's wife to run off with another bloke and she could claim half his assets even if they were accumulated before the wedding. The law would probably rule in the wife's favour too. The taxman is the least of his worries.

Rich68 has hit the nail on the head and this is exactly the issue! How can you ever trust anyone completely??? I want to avoid the "don't get married then" type answers and I had stated that in my OP. So forget all that and concentrate on the security of pre-marital assets part. For all the posters on here ...is it not a good idea to think about this question??? Especially those that are still single. We are all on this site scrimping and saving but not thinking about how easily we could lose HALF or usually more that half just because his wife decides to run off with another man (which is not too uncommon ... divorce rate is over 30%). Just think about that over 30% will end in divorce and assets will be taken off the guy (usually). Is it not worth looking into and finding a way to protect them???? Martin should do a special feature on this ...forget the reclaiming bank fees!!!

Perhaps a pre-nuptial agreement would be better than being devious, and probably being illegal? But I agree that probably the best thing is not to get married at all if that's his attitude to it.

There is nothing devious or illegal about this!!!!!! You insure your house to protect it, don't you??? Why not take some steps to protect your other assets??? Pre-nups are not valid under UK law. The reason is very simple. If a couple split up and have children, they have to be housed. The courts usually screw over the guy and have him kicked out saying the wife needs it for her and the children (now that may be true) but they know the guy can live in rented accommodation, pay his way, pay his wife's mortgage and child maintenance. This is better in their view than the state paying to re-house the wife, forget that the guy may have paid for the house even before he got married!!!! How is that fair???

It's true with the european savings directive that the offshore banks provide info to the British authorities.

From what I can gather, some of the banks have said they will not disclose personal info if the account holder does not want this. What they do instead is pay the higher rate of tax on the account. Only if they want to pay the lower rate does the account holder info need to be declared to the UK Inland Revenue.

Currently thinking of Liechenstein, Switzerland, Isle of Man, or may be somewhere like Malaysia as reasonable places. I am sure people have done this, and when I have found a reasonable way I will post my method. This is something that does need looking at, not just for my friend but for everyone who has a few pennies. Why be a tight !!! with yourself and your family all your life just to lose half of what you have.

***Forget the rights or wrongs of it, whether it is fair or not, just think of any ways of stashing the cash somewhere safe *** Keep your suggestions coming........ Are there any IFA's/accountants on here and what do they have to say?

EdInvestor

You'd be better off in Europe where the divorce law generally ignores assets acquired before marriage and inherited wealth in divorce settlements.

http://www.manches.com/practices/family/article.php?id=140

Jennifer_Jane

What a shame that you feel this way, particularly the idea that your wife, who presumably will be having your children and looking after you, and perhaps does not have your opportunities to make money, as so many women don't, won't be considered to have been a valuable part of your life - I just hope that, if you divorce, your wife wins the lottery and you miss out!

Anyway, just Google 'Swiss Bank Account', and your questions should be answered. The Swiss are very concerned about money-laundering, but otherwise I think they (still?) are required to keep accounts confidential (Swiss law makes it illegal for anyone in a bank to divulge that you even exist. A bank manager, say, who reveals or even indicates that someone has a bank account can be imprisoned: so this is taken seriously by the Swiss). You could probably open some unit trust type fund with a Swiss Bank. It's not illegal to have a Swiss Bank Account, but it is illegal (UK laws) not to pay tax on any interest gained if you are a UK resident. So, so long as you declare the tax, no-one can say anything about you. The cost of the account (bank charges), may, however, be quite high I would think.

You would need to take into account this confidentiality in case you still have the account when you die. But your executor can provide the probate documents and the money would not be lost.

There has been some pressure for Switzerland to conform to European Union rules, but I think this has been avoided so far. My information is a few years' old, hence my suggestion to look at the website.

Perhaps this will help you - but I despise the thought behind your post. Marriage is a contract between equals.

agent_orange_2

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 ....so the plan is to put them offshore for approx 5 yrs and by that time he will know if the marriage is going to last and if it does he can bring them back to UK.

The question is does anyone have any ideas on putting these assets in an offshore bank account where they will be safe and relatively easy to get to and how to go about it?? [forget the marriage advice - eg don't get married etc I have already had that...just concentrate on where to hide the stash and how to do it!]

Many a marriage break down after five years, one of mine included.

borosteve_2

Jennifer_Jane wrote: »

Perhaps this will help you - but I despise the thought behind your post. Marriage is a contract between equals.

Absolutely this is true. Although I think there may be a certain Scouse musician that wishes he'd thought about it a bit more...:rolleyes:

I don't think that there's anyone on here that has said they wouldn't want to look after their children or share assets from a business or life made together, but what say, if someone gets married, has no kids, and finds out within a year or two that their partner has been unfaithful/turns out to be a complete fruitloop, why should one person benefit from being married whilst the other one loses? I know the op mentioned his friend is male but this could just as easily apply the other way around. Why should someone benefit from hard work you did BEFORE you married them?

neil324

You think id walk into marriage with 350,000 with my eyes shut :rotfl:trust yeh but thats pushing the boundaries to the limit.
My advice dont get married :j

jamesd

Saeed, I suggest that he accepts that the law strongly discourages marriage with this treatment of assets and doesn't get married, while complaining to his MP about the law as it is today.

Sillychuckie

Jennifer_Jane wrote: »

What a shame that you feel this way, particularly the idea that your wife, who presumably will be having your children and looking after you, and perhaps does not have your opportunities to make money, as so many women don't, won't be considered to have been a valuable part of your life.

The OP already stated he would accept parting with his assets 50/50 which are accrued DURING the marriage.
As you put it, this would be more than fair, as during this time the wife would be 'having children' and 'looking after you', and giving up 'opportunities to make money'... and certianly a 'valuable part' of the OP's life.

However, departing with half of all assets accrued BEFORE the marriage?? That is simply unfair. Why should he part with the £1000 pound he earned and saved doing a paper route as a 16 year old boy, before he even met the woman?
Divorce law in the UK is extremely unjust. I can appreciate circumstances where children are involved (and they must be the priority), but where they are not, women still come out, more often than not, with far more than the share with which they entered the marriage.

The OP is entirely correct to be asking these questions, and he didn't come to MSE for relationship advice.
Unfortunately, there are no easy answers. Also, the answer 'don't get married' will often mean you lose the woman.
"Lose half your money" or "Lose the woman" are both awful options, and the government needs to provide alternatives.

Things to consider are a 'decrees' that can be drawn up prior to a marriage making clear the wealth status of each partner prior to the marriage. Whilst they are not guaranteed to save your money, they may prove useful should a divorce ever go through the courts. You need to seek professional advice.

When you get it, pass it on to me. I think I'll be asking the same questions in a few years time. Thanks.

movingforward2010

:hello:.................;)

Jennifer_Jane

Sillychuckie - the OP did say this: 'Pre-nups are not valid under UK law. The reason is very simple. If a couple split up and have children, they have to be housed. The courts usually screw over the guy and have him kicked out saying the wife needs it for her and the children.'

I think this comment and the deviousness of the decision got to me. Just seems to me to be so easy to keep the account going for longer than the 5 years, year 7 he gets the 7-year-itch and decides he wants to divorce and has hidden all his assets, including the pre-nuptial assets.

As it happens, I believe that pre-nups should be a choice, marriage is essentially the contract drawn up regarding a split of assets anyway. And, when I was engaged, I was, in fact, going to get a pre-nup that said that what's mine remains mine/what is his remains his - in other words even through the marriage we would have kept separate estates. I agree he had a problem with this (I was the better off one), but my point really is the deceit from the OP's friends' potential spouse.

Anyway, getting back to the thread - I hope what I posted was helpful.

PS - I do realise that the OP said this was a friend of his, not himself.