We\u2019ve all heard of famous celebrities and their pre-nup deals to protect their fortunes \u2013 the latest reports regarding music mogul Simon Cowell suggest that he has allegedly already drawn up a pre-nuptial agreement which, should he marry girlfriend Lauren Silverman, would give her \u00a320million in the event they should divorce. <\/p>\n
Pre-nuptial agreements are drawn up before a marriage and allow couples to set the terms of any future divorce. Whilst not exactly romantic, it\u2019s certainly prudent for anyone wishing to protect any money or assets they bring to the marriage. <\/p>\n
At the moment pre-nups are very rarely recognised in the UK courts, with judges instead trying to divide a couple\u2019s assets on the merits of each case. However, that could be set to change as the Government\u2019s law reform advisors look set to recommend a shake-up of the divorce laws which would make US-style pre-nups legally binding here. The package of reforms is likely to outline a new law \u2018to consider the treatment of pre-nuptial, post-nuptial and separation agreements\u2019 and may also include rules to deter \u2018gold-diggers\u2019. This means that a bride or groom bringing their own assets to a marriage, for example an inheritance or family-owned business or property, would not lose these in the event of a divorce. <\/p>\n
The turning point came in 2010 when the Supreme Court judges ruled that German heiress Katrin Radmacher should keep her \u00a3100million fortune after her divorce in accordance with the terms of her pre-nup. <\/p>\n
Now, after four years of wrangling, the Law Commission has drawn up the \u2018Matrimonial Property, Needs and Agreements\u2019 proposals which could pave the way for pre-nuptial agreements gaining full legal status here in the UK. <\/p>\n
It\u2019s unlikely that there will be any changes to the law before next year\u2019s General Election as the Justice Secretary Chris Grayling will need to consider the proposals at length. But the Ministry of Justice has said that the Government will consider the recommendations when they are published.<\/p>\n
As we\u2019ve said, asking your beloved to sign a pre-nuptial agreement before your marriage or civil partnership may not be the most romantic gesture. But if you have interests to protect in the event of a divorce \u2013 and should the law be changed to fully recognise these agreements \u2013 then drawing up a pre-nup could be as sensible as making a Will or taking out Life Insurance. <\/p>\n
For advice and guidance on drawing up a pre-nuptial agreement, please contact our specialist Family Law lawyers on 0845 548 1007 for a free 20 minute consultation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
We\u2019ve all heard of famous celebrities and their pre-nup deals to protect their fortunes \u2013 the latest reports regarding music mogul Simon Cowell suggest that he has allegedly already drawn up a pre-nuptial agreement which, should he marry girlfriend Lauren Silverman, would give her \u00a320million in the event they should divorce. Pre-nuptial agreements are drawn… Read More »Will pre-nups be given legal status in the UK?<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[48],"class_list":["post-134","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-family-law","tag-pre-nuptial-agreements"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lundbennett.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lundbennett.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lundbennett.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lundbennett.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lundbennett.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=134"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lundbennett.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":135,"href":"https:\/\/lundbennett.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134\/revisions\/135"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lundbennett.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=134"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lundbennett.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=134"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lundbennett.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=134"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}