Pre-Nup/Post-Nup

If you are planning on marrying and are concerned to preserve property and/or money you have acquired before your relationship began and which you don’t think would be fair to share equally with your future spouse if you ever came to divorce, then you can draw up a Pre-nuptial Agreement to protect your pre-acquired assets.

This may not be the most romantic start to your marriage, but it will put your mind at rest, you can store the document in a bottom drawer and hopefully never have to think of it again.

The general principle on divorce is that what is mine is yours and what is yours is mine, and the starting point of sharing them out will be 50:50.   There are many situations where this would not necessarily be fair but you need to protect such assets with a specific agreement.   This should be drawn up in good time before your marriage, start thinking about it at least 6 months beforehand.  It has to be with the full agreement of your future spouse as well who will also need to take legal advice before signing the deed.

It may also happen that during the course of a marriage one of the spouses comes into possession of a property or other assets through inheritance or gift from a family member.    A Post-nuptial agreement would be appropriate in this situation, again with the full consent of your spouse which would serve to ringfence the asset in question in the event of relationship breakdown.

Although Nuptial agreements are nowadays generally considered binding by the Courts, there are still complexities that you will need to discuss with your family law solicitor to ensure they will prove effective in ringfencing assets from the matrimonial pot.

Wednesday, June 2nd, 2021 Prenuptial Agreements