Pre-nuptial agreements

A pre-nup helps to protect the assets you bring into a marriage if you do ever separate at a later date. It isn't just about financial value. You might have possessions with sentimental value you want to keep in your family, or a business in which you want to remain control.

These templates allow you to write your own private agreement. Note that this type of document is not currently legally binding (whether you write your own, or have a solicitor write one for you), but if reasonable, is likely to be upheld in court.

Templates

Prenuptial agreement

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This document should help you to retain your ownership of important assets such as your house, sentimental possessions and your business should you split up with your partner or spouse in the future.

It sets out who brings what into the relationship and on what basis you will divide your current and future wealth between you if you decide to divorce or separate.

Prenuptial agreement: protection of property

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This document has the strong purpose of enabling each of the new marriage partners to protect ownership of the assets he and she brought into the partnership.

It is a simpler agreement for couples who are independently financially secure before the marriage or partnership, and for whom the concern is the retention of ownership of personal assets such as heirlooms or a business, rather than the financial support of one by the other.

Of course, the agreement does provide for assets jointly bought during the marriage, full disclosure, and other elements which are likely to be crucial to acceptability by a court.

The document is drawn to meet the latest prospective requirements for enforceability in court.

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What is a prenuptial agreement?

A prenuptial agreement (also known as prenup, prenup agreement, premarital agreement, or prenuptial contract) is a legal contract used when two people, who intend to get married or enter into a civil partnership, want to sort their financial affairs in case they decide to divorce or separate in the future.

Particularly, they will want to decide now how future property owned will be divided, make sure that current property that they bring into the marriage remains theirs, and whether one should provide spousal support to the other.

Why do I need a prenuptial agreement?

No one goes into marriage or a civil partnership expecting it will end in divorce. Separation can be made less emotionally stressful by removing the need to negotiate over many things at the same time that your life changes in many other ways.

Making a prenup is also a way of keeping your real reasons for being together separate from financial matters, which might otherwise introduce doubt into the relationship.

A premarital agreement can:

  • set out personal assets that belong to each person
  • separate property acquired before marriage or civil partnership that is intended to remain under original ownership should the marriage fail
  • separate debts owed by each partner so that they remain separately liable for their debts
  • lay down a procedure for the division of any shared property and assets (property acquired and assets accumulated during relationship)
  • deal with business ownership issues, so far as possible given any shareholders agreement
  • spell out the financial obligations that will be owed by each partner to the other
  • ensure that children from previous marriages are financially secure and do not lose their rights to inheritance
  • if you are remarrying, protect the settlement you may be receiving from your previous relationship

Above are just a few examples of the important matters you need sorted before you go into a marriage or a civil partnership.

After you are married or in a civil partnership, you cannot create a prenuptial agreement.

You will be able to create a post nuptial agreement. However, you should be wary of it as, while similar to a prenup, a post nuptial agreement may offer lesser asset protection.

The reason is that once you are married or a civil partnership, some of your assets could already be considered marital property.

Are prenuptial agreements legally binding?

Prenups are not binding in law. However, that it not to say that a court will not consider an agreement if there was sufficient financial disclosure by both parties and it was freely entered into by them after seeking independent legal advice.

However, in all matters of family law, the judge has the final say as to what is fair, particularly if there are children whose welfare needs to be taken into account.

The case of Radmacher vs. Granatino is the landmark decision which highlights the increasing importance courts give to prenups. In this case, Mr. Granatino was initially awarded 5.8 million pounds of Miss Radmacher's personal wealth. Miss Radmacher appealed and this amount was reduced to 3.6 million pounds, 2.5 million of which was just a loan to be paid back after their children reached the age of 18.

Their prenuptial agreement was the decisive factor leading to the appeal judgement so much so that the appeal judge said that it had become 'increasing unrealistic' for courts to disregard prenups.

How to make sure your prenuptial agreement will be upheld in court

For a prenuptial agreement to be considered by court, it must not conflict with the overriding requirements of section 25 of the Matrimonial Clauses Act 1973.

First, provisions must have been made in the agreement for the welfare of children in the family who under the age of eighteen (or any other dependents).

Other requirements of section 25 are:

  • the agreement must be made at least 28 days before marriage
  • there should be no pressure or duress to sign - the parties must sign the agreement freely
  • full disclosure must be made by both parties of their assets
  • it should be fair and realistic
  • provisions should be made for children, alive or yet to be born, for child support payments and welfare generally

When will a court not consider a prenuptial agreement?

The court can disregard a premarital agreement if it deems that there have been a change of circumstances that render the agreement inappropriate, for example, birth of children, loss of employment or disability.

About our prenuptial agreement templates

Net Lawman provides two prenuptial agreement templates that help in finding the arrangements that best suit your needs, while also complying with legal requirements so that if your agreement ever comes in front of a judge, it is likely to be upheld.

What is included in these prenuptial agreement templates?

Our full prenuptial agreement template extensively covers property, possession, and investments. It includes detailed provision that guides you in coming to an agreement on, amongst other things, the basis on which you will divide your current and future wealth between you two, spousal support, property rights, children arrangements, dealing with family company or a jointly owned business, and provisions for if one party dies.

Further, it also includes matters to be agreed during your marriage.

Alternative document

As an alternative, we provide a simpler version for couples who are financially independent and where their major concern is the retention of ownership of personal assets they will bring into the marriage, rather than financial security. 

While this prenuptial agreement template is focused on protecting ownership of wealth, it also provides for jointly owned assets, full disclosure and other elements crucial to acceptability by a court.

What customers thought
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The download was straight forward and the document matched my requirements, setting out our agreement clearly and in plain English.
John Fishlock
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Using Net Lawmen has been invaluable and informative and points you in the right direction in setting up these type of documents . I will be coming back to Net Lawmen to make a will later.
Andrew Nicholson
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I found the whole experience with net lawman was exceptional. I thought the forms would be too complicated for me but they were not, the whole thing was easy, straight forward. There was always someone on hand to answer any questions and they are very friendly. I would definitely recommend net lawman to others.
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