Updating an existing marriage contract/prenup? - please advise me if you can

PuffingPanda12

Hi, Im not sure where to go with this one so hopefully someone can help me. My wife and I were married in South Africa 22 years ago. We were married with a form of prenup called "Married out of community of property with accruals" (which means everything we owned before the marriage remains ours but everything we gain after the marriage is split 50/50 in the event we split). We are still happily married and living in UK for nearly 20 years now, but we want to update that contract to take account of our new life circumstances. We have long ago lost the document and so want a new one in the UK. Is it possible to simply write out a new one (from a standard prenup template, if such a thing exists) and get it approved by a solicitor, or do we have to go through a solicitor from the start and get them to draw it up? Im asking because Ive approached several solicitors who won't even advise me on what I need to do unless I pay them upfront!!! And all the advice I can see online is for people who are not yet married. Greatly appreciate any advice you could give me.

Emmia

This type of agreement isn't legally binding in the UK, although the courts may consider them... in the event of a divorce, you may find that your assets (those acquired pre & post marriage, and held in joint or sole names) are split 50/50 - and this is more likely as you've been married for many years.

gettingtheresometime

Not an answer to your question but after 22 years of marriage, when you consider the assets each of you brought to the marriage 'ours' rather than 'mine'?

burlingtonfl6

gettingtheresometime said:

Not an answer to your question but after 22 years of marriage, when you consider the assets each of you brought to the marriage 'ours' rather than 'mine'?

I agree, unless there were some special circumstances or you both have something you really want to keep in ''your side of the family''  after 22 years does it really matter?

sassyblue

You can’t use a pre nup template because you are married. Depends how you want to update the document, if it’s a straight 50/50 split then that’s likely to be the case should you divorce (pending any children still in education, long term chronic illness of either of you, etc).

are there any lawyers who specialise in SA law, maybe they could draw something up? this of course depends on whether such a document exists in SA and of course the fact that you now live in the UK and, if you get divorced, will divorce under UK law?

people want free advice from solicitors all the time so it doesn’t surprise me that they are asking for money up front. It may not seem like it to you, but you are actually asking quite a lot, very few solicitors will be familiar with the SA document you have and it’s validity.

sheramber

If you get divorced you can come to an amicable agreement about how assets are split.

the legal  entitlement would  only apply if you could not agree.

PuffingPanda12

Thanks for this feedback, its all very helpful.  Yes, what we own pre and post marriage is now of no significance to us after all these years. The reason we want to update it is because some of our assets (investments) have different ownership structures for tax purposes. So if I were to divorce my wife, currently one of us would have a greater share ownership of the investments than the other. We can negate this apparently by simply saying in our marriage contract that all gains from investments are shared 50/50. We would want a new contract in the UK as we dont live, or plan to live, in SA in future.

Slinky

Can't this be covered by a simple agreement you make yourself stating that whoever's name the investments are held in, this is for legitimate tax reasons and you both consider them to be joint assets of the marriage, both sign and date the document.

PuffingPanda12

Slinky said:

Can't this be covered by a simple agreement you make yourself stating that whoever's name the investments are held in, this is for legitimate tax reasons and you both consider them to be joint assets of the marriage, both sign and date the document.

This is what I want to find out - would just the two of us be able to do this or do we need a formal marriage contract, in order to be legally recognised?

Savvy_Sue

PuffingPanda12 said:

Slinky said:

Can't this be covered by a simple agreement you make yourself stating that whoever's name the investments are held in, this is for legitimate tax reasons and you both consider them to be joint assets of the marriage, both sign and date the document.

This is what I want to find out - would just the two of us be able to do this or do we need a formal marriage contract, in order to be legally recognised?

Which aspect of law does it need to be legally recognised by? Is it a 'tax' thing? Or is it an 'in case we decide to divorce' thing? Or is it an 'after we die' thing? I may be wrong, but I think clarity on that would help. 

PuffingPanda12

Savvy_Sue said:

PuffingPanda12 said:

Slinky said:

Can't this be covered by a simple agreement you make yourself stating that whoever's name the investments are held in, this is for legitimate tax reasons and you both consider them to be joint assets of the marriage, both sign and date the document.

This is what I want to find out - would just the two of us be able to do this or do we need a formal marriage contract, in order to be legally recognised?

Which aspect of law does it need to be legally recognised by? Is it a 'tax' thing? Or is it an 'in case we decide to divorce' thing? Or is it an 'after we die' thing? I may be wrong, but I think clarity on that would help. 

I feel its definitely a "in case we decide to divorce" thing, as the other things are covered by our wills and investment regulations.