Relationship planning
Our specialist family lawyers will draft and prepare various agreements to help you manage your relationships and organise your financial affairs. Upon your initial instructions, we draft and tailor your requested agreement based on your individual circumstances.
Our services include preparing and advising on:
- Pre-nuptial Agreements – A legal agreement made between two individuals before their marriage. This usually sets out how the couple wish their assets to be divided between them if they later separate or divorce. Some pre-nuptial agreements also detail how the couple currently arrange their finances and how they will arrange them during the marriage. Recent case law has firmly established that pre-nuptial agreements can hold force in the event of a dispute, more and more credence is given to pre-nuptial agreements by family judges in resolving disputes.
- Post-nuptial Agreements – Are made between a couple, who intend to stay married, and sets out how they wish their assets to be divided between them if they later separate or divorce.
This should not be confused with…
- Separation Agreements – Which are prepared in contemplation of imminent separation and is usually drafted nearer the breakdown of the relationship.
- Cohabitation Agreements – The term common law wife does not exist in any legal spectrum. Until there is a change in the legislation cohabitees do not have the same rights as married couples to a financial settlement. The shape of family arrangements is changing and more and more couples choose not to marry but live together. A cohabitation agreement can provide clarity on the ownership and distribution of assets should the relationship come to an end. A cohabitation agreement can go some way of recording the parties’ intentions at the time should there be a dispute later.