Pre-Nuptial Agreements – Press Information

Hylton-Potts - London Based Law Firm Helping People Across the UK since 1999

Pre-nuptial agreements are quite topical at the moment. Pre-nuptial agreements are an American creation, but they’re coming into Britain now, they can be very useful and are enforceable.

People sign them but the important thing is to make sure that they work. Both parties have to understand them, have separate advice and not feel under pressure.

For example there was a case recently when a husband, (or a fiancée as he then was), presented the document to the wife the day before the wedding, the invitations had gone out and she felt under huge pressure to sign, so that did the husband no good at all.

The mistake that people make I suppose is it doesn’t seem romantic; it sort of rather spoils the run-up to the wedding, and all those exciting arrangements. What we say is that we hope things will go well with the marriage but supposing, and this has happened, somebody has a serious car accident and a personality change; Alzheimer’s can produce a gambling addiction, all sorts of terrible things happen; somebody might be permanently injured and then the Government wants to make a claim for that spouse.

So even if you’re convinced, as Sir Paul was, that nothing can go wrong, just pause for a moment, talk frankly to your partner about this matter and give it thought. Because what we have found is this: sign the thing, stick the thing in a drawer and you never look at it. But if you do happen to have a split in, in the marriage, you pull it out and it helps a proper fair framework and that crucially helps the couple with the children. There’s nothing worse than a battle where children and money are mixed and it gets quite bitter. So if you’ve got a clear framework for money, it helps you stay together as parents for the children, and that we think is worth a lot. In terms of cost, a typical fee is £250 plus VAT and covers joint property, inheritance and all the other things you’d expect it to.

Rodney’s direct line is 020 7381 8111. Give him a ring if you think he could take it further.