The Advantages Of A UK Prenuptial Agreement

Unfortunately divorce is a fact of life, it is happening more now than ever before. It is however one of the most stressful and upsetting things that can happen to a couple. The dissolution of the marriage combined with dividing up the family assets can cause serious ill feeling between the parties involved.

One frequenty problem that crops up in divorce cases is where one party contributed a lot more financially to the marriage. The court can sometimes award a portion of this to the former spouse, which causes huge resentment.

There is however a preventative measure couples can take against this situation, this is by drawing up a prenuptial agreement. The Prenuptial Agreement is usually drawn up before the wedding and signed before this time. It will lay out a schedule of what wealth belongs to which party and can therefore look after money belonging to a wealthier party. If in the event of a divorce, what was yours beforehand remains yours.

A further use for a prenup is that you can define how your joint assets (gain during the marriage) will be divided should you get a divorce.

You might believe that prenups are only for those with lots of money or famous people, this is often what is put across in the media. This is not the case, many couples could have benefited from creating a pre-nuptial agreement before they were married. Making a prenup should be seen as a sensible form a protection taking by both spouses in order to safeguard their own future should the marriage breakdown.

Although at the moment prenups are not legally enforceable in the UK courts, they still carry a lot of weight. Take the recent case involving Karen Radmacher, where the German Heiress was able to reply upon her prenuptial agreement. Therefore this fact should not put you and your partner off from making a UK prenuptial agreement.

If you think that making a UK prenup there are some factors that you should be aware of. The first step is that the prenup should be drafted at least 21 days before the wedding. If it is signed later than this then one party could argue that they were under duress when they signed the agreement.

Once this is done, you should seek specialist advice from a solicitor. As a UK prenuptial agreement is a proper legal document, you should always get a solicitor to draft this for you. As is often the case, the court will not even consider a DIY prenup in a divorce case.

Lastly, even if your solicitor has drafted you a watertight agreement, if your marriage is surprisingly short lived, then you may find the court does not consider the agreement. However in order to give yourself the best chance of having your prenup stand up in court you must adhere to these basic guidelines.


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Bonallack & Bishop are solicitors specialised in making a UK Prenuptial Agreement. For information contact a UK prenup solicitor today. Senior Partner Tim Bishop is responsible for all major strategic decisions at the firm, which he has grown by 1000% in 13 years. TIm sees himself as a businessman who owns a law firm.