Getting married soon, need help on financial implications please

Soledad19

We didn't know MSE forum was about judgement and morality, I thought it was about practical advice and sharing expertise, silly us!

We would strongly advise anyone to read carefully our words before replying, as anything can be said except that we're getting married for tax reasons. Stick to the spirit of our question please, and keep your judgements for yourself, nobody requested that, especially if you can't read properly or mis-interpret our query.

Many thanks.

Siebrie

In The Netherlands (I know this is a British forum..) some people are actually getting divorced when partners are in a long term health care facility, to prevent the couple's savings from getting depleted.

Sea_Shell

My understanding is that the courts here, may take into consideration a pre-nup, but I think "Time Married" carries more weight.

At the end of the day, I think a short marriage would be viewed very differently than one which lasts 30+ years, and if you're only in your 50's, that's doable.

A court may view all assets as "marital assets" if the marriage had lasted a long time.

Mojisola

Soledad19 said:

me and my partner are getting married in a month. We don't plan to live together

Would this cause any issues?  Don't a married couple have to designate one home as their permanent residence for tax purposes?

Soledad19

Mojisola said:

Soledad19 said:

me and my partner are getting married in a month. We don't plan to live together

Would this cause any issues?  Don't a married couple have to designate one home as their permanent residence for tax purposes?

Oh, we haven't been asked when we submitted our notice, I'm not aware of that.

[Deleted User]

Soledad19 said:

TBagpuss said:

You can enter into a pre-nuptial agreement - you would each need to get separate legal advice and provide (at least in summary form) disclosure of your current financial position.

A pre-nup is not strictly legally enforceable but has a couple of key benefits:

1. It forces you to think about, and discuss, your assumptions and expectations about marriage and finances so that you can, hopefully, identify and address and major differences in your assumptions / expectations

2. If the marriage does break down, then having the agreement in place reduces the risk of there being acrimony over the finances, as in most cases you can simply do what you agreed.

3. If the marriage breaks down  and you don't agree, because one of you wants to change the agreed terms, then a court has the over-riding requirement to come to a settlement which is fair to you both, and reasonable in all the circumstances. The existence of the pre-nup is part of  the circumstances they take into account, so they would normally tart rom the position of "justify to me why moving away form the agreement is fair" rather than "we start at 50/50 of everything and adjust to take account of needs and other factors)

A court can make an order which is different to what s in the agreement, particularly if the marriage is along one or where there have been significant changes since the agreement was signed, but courts in general tend to start rom the point of view that if you have agreed to something you should normally be expected to keep to your agreement, unless there is a very strong reason why that would result in an unfair outcome 

In your case, as you don't plan to live together, an agreement could include provisions that you would each retain any property or assets in your sole names, and could also explicitly state that if you do cohabit in future you will own any joint property in the proportions in which yo contribute to it's price, for instance. You can also explicitly state that it is your intention to continue to keep your finances separate and that you don't intend to have any financial claims against any new assets either of you acquires in your sole names. 

None of this stops you making arrangements in your wills to leave assets to each other, or from making financial gifts while you are together.

It's also possible to have post-nuptial agreements so if in the future you chose to buy a property together or to move in together you could have a new agreement drawn up at that time. 

Thank you, that's very helpful. I know from friends that some countries in Europe ask you to choose between the option of sharing what you had before the marriage or keep it separate, and this choice has to be made before the ceremony and is an integral part of it. I take it UK law has none of this?

Would you happen to know where we can find reliable but not extortionate legal advice to draft such agreement?
Thanks again.

There is no UK law. There is Scots law, English law, Northern Irish law and more recently Welsh law for certain devolved issues. Scots law and English law do differ when it comes to divorce and pre-marital assets. 

Is getting married the only way to secure your rights should one of you require help in your relight years? 

CookieMonster

Soledad19 said:

Hi all,

Is there anything that could threaten our financial positions should we divorce?

If you are able to give some details on what you are trying to achieve, and in which jurisdiction, you will find that we can give better advice.

Kindly understand that by getting married you are complicating your current relationship by involving the government and the legal system:
doubly-so if you do divorce later on. 

74jax

Soledad19 said:

Hi all,
me and my partner are getting married in a month. We don't plan to live together, we're doing it to secure our rights as a married couple in case one of us needs help in older age.
I have some doubts regarding the financial implications of getting married though. We wouldn't want anything to change and, more importantly, we wouldn't want things to get nasty and sour, from an economical settlement point of view, in case, as it happens, the marriage breaks down.
We both work and have our own economic independence. We both own our own places with savings on the side.
Is there anything that could threaten our financial positions should we divorce?
Thanks for your expertise....

What 'rights' is it you are hoping to achieve.  I really don't think marriage is the answer you are looking for.

Have you taken financial planning advice?  There's loads of things you can do with Trusts, Power of Attorney, Wills, etc.  Have you looked into these rather than marriage which seems to be offering the exact opposite of what you are wanting (I think).

I'm all for marriage, if it gives you what you want - my husband and I will a little similar to you in that we had various trusts / pre-nup etc, but ultimately we knew the marriage was what we wanted, however in your case it doesn't seem so.

If you let us know what 'rights' you are wanting we can maybe point you in the direction you need?

Keep_pedalling

Although an unusual arrangement it is not as uncommon as some of our posters think. It sounds  like you have similar assets and are both financially independent, so the chances of squabbling over assets is a lot less likely than a couple with a single home they end up fighting over. 

The main tax advantage in doing this is with inheritance tax. If you have no children, either estates exceed your NRBs and you plan to leave everything to your spouse if you die first then it could save a lot of tax. The other advantage is that the survivor gets spousal benefit on any defined benefit pensions you have.

It does complicate things if in years to come one of the houses gets sold, as a married couple can only have one primary residence, therefore whichever house is not declared as the primary residence becomes subject to capital gains tax on any increase in value from the date of marriage.

if you do this than make sure you both make new will, as any you have in place now will become invalid when you marry. This can be done in advance. 

pphillips

It's not just tax advantages to marriage but there can also be some tax disadvantages, like the additional 3% SDLT that you'll need to pay if you want to move home. The tax system expects married couples to live together.