Pre-Nuptial Agreement

While it may seem like a very unromantic thing to do before you get married it could be in people’s best interests to have a pre-nuptial agreement. This is especially true if one of the parties has a large amount of wealth they want to protect. No one marries believing that their marriage will end in divorce, but statistics show that it does happen quite often. If you are the party entering into the marriage with family property or money that could be passed on to other family members you should consider a pre-nuptial agreement.

Basically a ore-nuptial agreement is a contract is a contract entered into prior to marriage by the prospective bride and groom. The pre-nuptial agreement will show how the separation of property or assets will be handled in the event of a divorce. Generally the pre-nuptial agreement will state that the assets of each party will remain the same as before they were married. This means that each party will keep what they went into the marriage with and perhaps nothing else.

They could agree that if there are assets that are realised during the marriage they could be divided separately from the pre wedding assets. It will be up to the parties to decide if this is something they want to put into the pre-nuptial agreement. The UK pre-nuptial agreements aren’t necessarily legally binding yet; however, the courts will usually take them into consideration.

If both parties are in agreement that they would like a pre-nuptial agreement they may want to have independent solicitors look at it before it is signed. When both parties use this option there can be no real question that they both understood the pre-nuptial agreement before it was written out and signed. Preparing and reviewing the pre-nuptial agreement should be done at least a month before the wedding so that there is also no argument that they were pressured into signing before the wedding.

Some of the terms that could be included in the pre-nuptial agreement would be pre-marriage finances, pre post-marriage property and post-marriage assets. If there have been gifts of value between the parties it could be part of the pre-nuptial agreement that each party can keep them or that they need to be sold and the profits split or returned to the giver of the gift. Once you have agreed on the terms of the pre-nuptial agreement both the bride and groom can feel more comfortable.