Pre-marital agreements can now be highly influential in the Court of England and Wales and there is a presumption that they will be upheld in certain circumstances. They are not yet contractually binding, although this is currently being looked at by the Law Commission, and it is possible that statutory reform will be introduced at some point to make certain types of pre-marital agreements binding. Pre-marital or post-marital agreements should be considered if any of the following apply to you.
- If you would like reassurance about what will happen in the event of a divorce and so reaching an agreement with your partner on this at the start of your marriage, rather than when the marriage gets into difficulties.
- If you wish to protect certain assets, for example business interest, trust interests, inherited assets or assets that you owned before your marriage.
- If you would like reassurance about what will happen in the event of a divorce before you make a life changing decision, for example, giving up your career to have children.
- If you wish to reduce the likelihood of incurring significant legal fees in the event of a divorce.