Pre-marital agreement advice
Agreements before marriage
Pre-marital agreements or PMAs used to be associated solely with celebrity marriages, until people began to realise how sensible it is to protect your interests in the event of a marriage ending. PMAs, apart from giving personal security, can help to smooth separation and divorce and reduce the stress caused should a marriage come to that. We are experts in representing the interests of anyone wishing to take this sensible precaution and have significant experience in working with individuals to negotiate agreements that perfectly fit your requirements.
About pre-marital agreements
A PMA is an agreement reached between two people who intend to marry and who wish to organise their legal position if they subsequently divorce. An expert from our family law team will negotiate and finalise the agreement on your behalf with your partner’s solicitor.
PMAs are not legally binding in the UK, even though they are in some European countries, like Sweden and France. However, they are influential in assessing the division of income and assets on divorce.
PMAs mainly cover the division of property, bank accounts, insurance policies, shares or other assets owned solely or jointly by the parties. The PMA can also provide for the payment of maintenance by one party to the other, it can fix the level of maintenance and the length of time which maintenance is paid. It can determine not only ownership of property but also occupation of a home and its duration.
Creating a pre-marital agreement
It is crucial to a PMA that both parties are independently represented by separate solicitors. It is also important that neither party is put under any unreasonable pressure to agree to the terms of the PMA. Additionally there should be a complete disclosure to each other of the party’s financial circumstances.
If these three elements are not present in a PMA then it will have no binding effect and will not even be treated as "an Agreement".
The cost of creating a PMA depends on the complexity of the document. Contact us to discuss your needs and a personalised quote.
For more information call 0870 1500 100, or use the links above to drop us a line.