Financial advice now husband has said he wants a divorce

WindfallWendy

If the starting point is 50/50, what are the justifications that the higher earner decides what they are willing to share?

My impression from the solicitor was that everything has to be disclosed and 50/50 would be an agreement that splits the value of everything down the middle. Which essentially boils down to the higher earner paying a proportion of their salary to the lower earner. Or giving up a property - or both properties in this situation - maybe?

I think the more pressing issue for my friend is that she hasn't a clue what he is going to expect from her from one day to the next. The other day he told her he had plans for the summer and therefore her son would need to be taken out of school before the end of term (too complicated to explain why here). He is also expecting to sign the family car over to her, saying he will continue to cover the car bills, but given he has literally thrown bills at her expecting her to pay them, I'm not sure how much she can trust him. 

Re. release of equity from the flat... This is on the basis of a remortgage so they will remortgage and borrow against the increased value of the flat, thus releasing some of the equity. It's just additional borrowing against the house which isn't necessary. Not an equity release scheme. So their age doesn't matter.

They are joint tenants, so if one dies it goes as automatically to the other.

Savvy_Sue

WindfallWendy said:

They are joint tenants, so if one dies it goes as automatically to the other.

Which is good, but she should be aware that either he or she can change the tenancy to tenants in common - you don't need to get consent to do this, you just need to inform the other that you're doing it. 

I'm not saying it's a good thing for her to do this, just that it is a thing which can be done.