Postnup independent assessments 3 August 2022 at 2:31PM in Marriage, relationships & families 3 replies 281 views

julieahodgson

My wife wants a Postnup.
So instead of each doing the Financial Assessment with each of our solicitors. 

For them to argue over!! 

 Is there someone/an independent person/company that will work out a fair Postnup which we both agree on. Then send it to the solicitors? 

tightauldgit

 If you are able work out a fair postnuptial you both agree on then just do that and then have a solicitor write it up. 

You would probably both want your own solicitors to advise on it though before signing.  

Have you been advised that postnups are worth doing as I thought they had no legal standing here anyway? 

Brie

If she's already your wife isn't it a bit late?  Even prenups have no legal standing so why would a postnup?

TBagpuss

Brie said:

If she's already your wife isn't it a bit late?  Even prenups have no legal standing so why would a postnup?

It's not correct that Pre-Nups don't have any legal standin. Both Pre- and Post-Nups have boradly similar standing. Bsically, they are not legally enforceable, , so they are not a 100% cast iron guarantee,. 

However, under the Matrimonial Causes Act which is the legislation which governs fiancial settlements in divorce, when a Judge is deciding a fainail settlement they must consider all relavant circumstnaces. The existance of a pre- or post-nup is a relvant circumstaces, and tjhere is good case law about how thye are treated. 

Broadly peaking, if there is an agreement then the Judge's starting point is to look at that agreement, They still have to consir the other relevant factors, and things like changes in circumstnaces, but the starting point is effectively 'why should I *not* hold you to the terms you agreed?" ratehr than "I am am starting from scratch" 

@Julieahodgson - what do you / your wife want to achieve? Is it a situation where she has had an inheritance or put more in and wants to protect them, or something different?

If you and she know what you want then one of you would see a solicitor and tell them what's agreed, and they will draw up the documents, the other can then rrevie them with thier own solicitor .

If you can't agree on what would be fair then no-one else can impose an agreement on you. You could cosnder mediation to discuss your differing perspectives. You could probably arrange for a barrister to act as arbitrator and tell you what they would expect a JUdge to order if you were getting divorced, and use that as your statrting point , but that would still only be advice,

Equally, you could both find solicitors who are trained collaborative lawyers and ask for a reround table meeting to discuss options and viewpoints to ry to reach an agreement with the benefit of advice. However,  neither of you woukd be bound to then enter into an agreement if you didn't want to.