Pre-Nuptial Agreements/Financial Agreements
Financial Agreements, otherwise known as pre-nuptials, are extremely important legal
methods for protecting assets. Whether you’re in the stages prior to marriage or
in a relationship, developing a Financial Agreement is a sensible decision.
The Pre-nuptial Agreement falls under the Family Law Act 1975. There are a number
of reasons and categories of people that particularly benefit from drawing up a
Pre-nuptial Agreement. Some of these include:
- Protecting assets in case of relationship breakdown
- Inequality of assets and other resources. That is, one party has substantially more assets than the other
- If one party is expecting to inherit and wants to protect it from claims by the other party
- One party has had a prior marriage/relationship, has children from this union, and the assets will be passed down.
No Financial Agreement: The Consequences
Many parties have experienced the negative consequences of not entering into a Financial
Agreement. The facts are that if the marriage falls apart, all assets – no matter
their origin, ownership or circumstance – will be placed into one large asset pool.
From this pool, and according to the Family Law Act 1975, all these assets will
be targeted for distribution.
Financial Agreement Components
Prior to a marriage, the drawing up of a Financial Agreement will set out how the
property or financial resources will be divided up should the relationship breakdown.
The specific components of a Financial Agreement could include having each person’s
assets safeguarded or quarantined. That is, they will not be put into the asset
pool in preparation for division should the marriage end. A Financial Agreement
can also relate to the maintenance of each party.
In order for a Financial Agreement to be legally binding, there are certain requirements
that must be adhered to. One of the most important of these is that each party must
have received independent legal guidance.
Other Services:
- Children's Issues
- Child Support
- De Facto & Domestic Relationships
- Domestic/Family Violence
- Property Division
- Separation