Family Law Articles & Advice

A Form E does not form part of the no-fault divorce proceedings process so Form E isn’t compulsory in divorce. However, if you or your spouse can't reach an agreed financial settlement and one of you applies to the court for a financial order, you will be ordered to complete a Form E. In this article, our North West family law solicitors look at when you need to complete a Form E and why. For expert family law advice call our team of specialist divorce lawyers or complete our online enquiry form. What is Form E? Form E is a standard court form that must be completed if you apply for or respond to a financial application made under the Matrimonial Causes Act 1973 – when you and your estranged or ex-spouse have not been able to reach a financial agreement. In the Form E, you must provide standard personal and financial information. Form E is intended to form the starting point for any further questions about your finances or plans. It will stand as the basis for your evidence if you have to go to a final hearing and give verbal evidence. As Form E is a crucial document in the financial court process it is important to get legal advice from a specialist family lawyer on how to complete it. Form E and unmarried relationships The Form E only needs to be completed if you are or were married or in a civil partnership – you don’t need to complete Form E if you or your ex-partner were in an unmarried relationship. Form E during or after divorce proceedings There is a common misunderstanding that Form E forms part of the divorce proceedings court process and that you need to fill it in to get a divorce. You don’t. You can get divorced without either you or your spouse applying to the court for a financial order. The judge does not have to make a financial order before they grant a conditional order of divorce or final order. However, most family law solicitors recommend that you don’t finalise your divorce proceedings until you take advice from a divorce lawyer on whether it is in your best interests to do so. For example, if you get divorced you will not be entitled to money from your spouse’s pension if they die before you. Without a financial court order in place, you won't be entitled to a share of your former spouse’s pension fund through a pension sharing order. That’s why you may want to sort out your divorce financial settlement before you apply for the final divorce order. If you are divorced or are in the process of getting divorced, and you decide to apply for a financial order, the court will process your financial application and make a standard direction and timetabling order. This will include a date for filing and exchanging Form E. Form E if you have reached a financial agreement If you have reached a financial agreement with your husband, wife or civil partner you won't need to file a Form E if you are asking the court to convert your agreement into a binding financial consent order. Instead, you will both need to complete Form D81. Form D81 is the abbreviated name for a statement of financial information. It is a couple of pages long compared to the 30-page Form E but you still need to disclose the value of all your assets. The judge won't approve an agreed financial consent order unless you are either mid-way through a financial application and have filed the long Form E or you complete Form D81. [related_posts] Form E if you are applying to vary an earlier financial court order If you are asking the court to vary a financial order you will still need to fill in Form E but you may not have to complete all of it. For example, if your application is to vary the amount of spousal maintenance or to extend the spousal maintenance term. Form E if you signed a prenuptial agreement If you signed a prenuptial agreement or a postnuptial agreement, you may question why you need to complete a Form E. You won't need to do so if you and your spouse are asking the family court to make an agreed financial court order in accordance with the terms in your prenuptial agreement. You will both need to complete Form D81. If you or your spouse think that the terms of the prenuptial agreement are unfair and one of you is asking the judge to ignore the contents of your prenuptial agreement you may need to complete a Form E. The person who wants to rely on the prenuptial agreement can ask for a preliminary hearing for the judge to rule on whether Form E completion is necessary and justified. Compulsory Form E Form E is compulsory in a financial application. The court will give a date for completion and exchange of Form E as part of the financial disclosure process. If Form E isn’t completed on time this can throw out the court timetable. If you are ordered to complete Form E it's best to speak to a family law solicitor quickly rather than leave it to shortly before the Form E filing deadline. If you have left it late, or you are beyond the court deadline, it's still best to get advice. A divorce solicitor may be able to get your spouse and their solicitor to extend the deadline and will be able to advise you on how to complete Form E and represent you in the court application. Many people resent the compulsory nature of Form E. They think it is intrusive or irrelevant. For example, if they were only married for 12 months or signed a prenuptial agreement. Others think that they can ignore parts of Form E. For example, not include a pension because it was started before the marriage or an inheritance because it was received after the separation. Others don’t realise that they need to complete Form E fully and the relevance of questions about health or their plans to cohabit with a new partner. A family lawyer can explain why all these Form E questions are relevant and why all assets must be disclosed even if you have a good argument to say that the value of some assets, such as a post-separation inheritance, should be ignored when the judge makes their financial court order using the argument that the asset is not a family or matrimonial asset and should therefore be ring-fenced. Voluntary completion of Form E Many separating couples voluntarily agree to exchange Form E during solicitor negotiations, family mediation, or if they agree to participate in family arbitration or a private financial dispute resolution hearing. In many scenarios, it makes sense to voluntarily fill in Form E as unless Form E are exchanged your spouse may think that you are trying to hide assets or they will say that they don’t have the information they need to reach a financial settlement. Whether you are filling in Form E on a voluntary or compulsory basis our specialist family law solicitors can help you complete Form E and advise you on your financial settlement options or we can convert your agreement into a binding financial court order. For expert family law advice call our team of specialist divorce lawyers or complete our online enquiry form.

If you or your husband or wife has a Will written before your marriage then what is its status after your marriage or civil partnership? It is best not to make assumptions and think that the Will either remains valid or that it is scrapped and invalid. Wills are governed by private client law and it is easy to get caught out. If you are the one who is left as a widow or widower assumptions can have devastating financial consequences for you. If you are a child from a previous marriage and your parent has passed away there can be equally devastating consequences from a parent not realising that they needed to make a new Will to protect you. In this blog, our Will solicitors look at what happens if you write a Will before your marriage or civil partnership. For expert Will and estate planning advice call our team or complete our online enquiry form. Wills written before marriage A Will can be written before marriage and be valid after the wedding BUT the Will must say it is being made in contemplation of marriage. When you make a Will in contemplation of marriage you include a clause saying the Will has been made in the full knowledge of your pending marriage to a specified person and that your marriage should not make the Will invalid. A Will made in contemplation of marriage is allowed under Section 18 of the Wills Act 1837. Since 2005 this also includes civil partnerships. Our private client solicitors recommend that you take specialist advice if you are thinking of making a Will in contemplation of marriage because if you get the wording wrong your Will could be invalidated by your subsequent marriage or civil partnership. The 1837 Wills Act says that you must: Name the person you are marrying – you can't say when signing a Will at age 18 that if you get married at some point in the future your brother won't get your estate and instead most of your estate will go to any future husband or wife The marriage or civil partnership must take place within a reasonable period. That’s normally at most a year. A long engagement or an engagement without a set ceremony date won't work for you If you made a Will in contemplation of your marriage but you are now not sure about its validity our Will solicitors can advise you on whether you need a new Will. For an appointment call our team or complete our online enquiry form. [related_posts] Wills invalid after marriage If you signed a Will before your marriage or civil partnership and it wasn’t said to be made in contemplation of your marriage or if it didn’t comply with the 1837 Act then the Will is invalid. That’s the case even if your Will left your estate to your fiancé. If there is no Will (because your old Will was revoked by your marriage or civil partnership) then your estate will be distributed under intestacy rules. This may mean that your husband or wife will get a lot less than you expected because of the way that intestacy rules work. It will also mean that any gifts to family, friends or charity won't be valid as your earlier Will was revoked by your marriage. Instead, other family members may end up sharing your estate with your husband or wife. That’s the case whether you were married for ten months or ten years at the date of your death. As well as your Will being invalid after marriage any careful tax and estate planning may be worthless. That means your estate could end up paying more in inheritance tax. Why the intestacy rules may not work for your family If you are getting married you need to consider: Signing a prenuptial agreement Sorting out insurance and pension nominations Writing a new Will in contemplation of your marriage or civil partnership or making an appointment to see a Will solicitor after your wedding If you die before your spouse or civil partner and there is no valid Will because your marriage revoked your earlier Will, the intestacy rules will apply. Under the current regime, your spouse or civil partner will either get all your estate or part of it. The rules say: If the deceased was married or in a civil partnership and has no children, all their estate goes to their spouse or civil partner If the deceased was married or in a civil relationship and has children, the first £322,000 of their estate and any personal possessions goes to their spouse or civil partner. Anything over £322,000 is then divided. The spouse or civil partner receives 50% of the balance over £322,000. The deceased’s children are entitled to the other 50% divided equally between them. This rule applies even if the deceased is estranged from adult children or an adult child is wealthy and has no need for an inheritance. However, if the deceased had step-children then under the law they don’t qualify as children so won't get anything under the intestacy rules Even if you think that the intestacy rules will result in fair estate provision you should still make a Will or a new Will after your marriage or civil partnership because: The intestacy rules could change Your assets could increase in value. For example, property prices or your receiving an inheritance You may want to cover what happens if you have children in the future. For example, leaving money in trust for them or appointing a testamentary guardian All your assets may not form part of your estate and be left under the intestacy rules. For example, if you bought a property jointly with a sibling as joint tenants then your share of the property will pass under the right of survivorship to your sibling and not under the intestacy rules You want to reduce the risk of your estate being the subject of an inheritance challenge as your spouse or child is unhappy with what they are receiving under the intestacy rules or a family member says the intestacy rules don’t make reasonable financial provision for them With the help of a specialist Will solicitor making a Will in contemplation of your marriage or after your marriage or civil partnership is straightforward - even where there are complex family dynamics or significant assets. Our private client advisors can focus on your goals and draw up a Will that does what you need it to do by reflecting your wishes and protecting all your loved ones. For expert Will and estate planning advice call our team or complete our online enquiry form.

Most homeowners are concerned about the cost of aging and funding later life care. If you have worked hard to buy a property the likelihood is that you want to be able to leave your property to your children rather than see your hard-earned equity disappear in paying care home fees. Our private client solicitors provide estate planning advice. We can advise you on your Will and answer your questions on estate planning. For help with your Will and estate planning call us or complete our online form. Trusts and care home fees  Our private client solicitors come across situations where parents have spent thousands in legal fees to transfer their family home into a trust in the belief that the money spent on fees represented good value for money because the trust would protect the family home from being sold to pay care home fees and ultimately save their family hundreds of thousands of pounds. When our Will solicitors come across these situations it is frustrating. We can often spot that the money spent on putting a home into a trust was wasted and would have been better spent on a luxury cruise for the homeowners or on helping grandchildren with a deposit for their first home. If something seems to be too good to be true it often is. You should ask yourself: If the trust scheme is so good why isn’t everyone doing it? If the trust scheme works why hasn’t the government closed the loophole?  If your parents or grandparents mention a care home scheme it should raise a red flag and sound the warning bells.  If you are tempted to put your family home into a trust or want to recommend a care home money-saving scheme to your parents, our private client solicitors recommend that you take advice from a qualified estate planning lawyer before you do so.    [related_posts]  Using trust companies to avoid care home fees  With many of these care home schemes, the idea is that a family home is transferred to a trust company so the homeowner is no longer the legal owner. The former owner therefore cannot sell the property to pay for their care home fees. That principle sounds fine as the homeowner is told they are legally protected by a trust deed allowing them to live in the property rent-free. The trust company is responsible for the management of the property and ultimately will hand over the property to the beneficiaries of the trust when the homeowner has passed away. There are many problems with setting up a trust and placing a family home into it. These include: You are no longer the homeowner. If you need to raise equity with a lifetime mortgage you cannot do so The local authority may say the trust is a sham and accuse you of intentionally depriving yourself of assets to avoid payment of care home fees. The local authority can refuse to accept that the property is really outside your control and you are then at risk of an expensive and time-consuming battle with the council. When conducting means testing for care home fees the local authority could say that as you have deliberately deprived yourself of an asset the value of the family home will still be counted and you are therefore ineligible for free care home funding. Ultimately, the council could claim costs in any civil litigation if they think the trust was deliberately set up to evade care home fees and you will have spent thousands in fees in a scheme that does not work and leaves you without control of your property  You may have placed your property in trust as part of an inheritance tax reduction scheme and thought the scheme costs were modest compared to the amount your estate could save in IHT. However, in some cases, homeowners have gone into these trust schemes without being aware that their estate would be exempt from inheritance tax or would only have a nominal bill to pay because of the available inheritance tax exemptions  An unregulated and unqualified advisor recommending a trust to you may not explain the inheritance tax implications of your passing away within seven years of placing the family home into the trust Estate planning  When our estate planning solicitors sit down with you, we will talk with you about your assets, family, goals and priorities. We will give you clear and honest advice about why getting a management company to place the family home in trust may be a bad and expensive idea. A trust may be a good idea for a limited number of people. However, anyone contemplating putting property in trust should take specialist advice from a qualified estate planning solicitor to ensure that you and your family fully understand the risk and come to an informed decision. For help with your Will and estate planning call us or complete our online form.

Our family law solicitors encounter several situations in which parents, grandparents, or extended family help a loved one with a deposit for a first or new family home. In this article, our family law solicitors offer guidance on how to protect a gifted deposit. For expert advice call our team of specialist divorce and estate planning lawyers or complete our online enquiry form. What is a gifted deposit? A gifted deposit is where a friend or family member provides all or part of the deposit for the home you are buying. It may be your first home, relocating or upsizing with the arrival of children or trying to get back to home ownership after a separation or divorce.   An alternative to a gifted deposit is a family loan. A loan agreement can state whether interest is payable and either give a specific repayment date or state that the loan must be repaid when the property is sold. Gifted deposit or family loan? A home buyer needs to know if they are receiving a gift or loan because of the mortgage and tax implications. If you are buying with a mortgage, the mortgage company may not agree to lend you the amount required unless the deposit monies are gifted rather than lent. Some mortgage providers are happy to lend if your family or a friend is providing the deposit so long as the family money is protected by a second charge that ranks behind the mortgage provided by the mortgage lender. If extended family are giving you money as part of their estate planning and inheritance tax strategy the plan will not work unless the money is gifted rather than loaned. There may also be tax implications under current inheritance tax rules if the family member dies within seven years of giving you the money. If money is given, rather than lent, the giver does not retain any control over the money once it has left their hands. The extended family cannot legally insist the money is returned if they later find that they need extra cash or if there is a family fallout. These are considerations to be discussed with your family with the help of an estate planning solicitor. [related_posts] Who is the recipient of the deposit gift? If you are buying a house with a partner, fiancée, husband or wife you need to know if the gifted deposit is a joint gift or not. Whether the gift is joint or not you need a relationship agreement if you are buying a property jointly with a partner. The type of agreement you need depends on your relationship status: Unmarried – a cohabitation agreement  Engaged to be married or to enter a civil partnership – a prenuptial agreement  Married – a postnuptial agreement  In a civil partnership – a civil partnership agreement  The agreement is between you and your partner and should record whether the gift is a joint one or not and what happens to the family home and the equity if you split up. What’s fair will depend on your financial and personal situation. For example, your family may have provided the gifted deposit but as your partner earns more than you, they will be paying a greater share of the mortgage payments. For example, both your families are gifting you money for the deposit but in unequal amounts. A family law solicitor can help you work out what should go in your relationship agreement so that it feels fair to both of you and gives you both peace of mind. In addition, it should give your family confidence that you are respecting their deposited gift and sensibly protecting their family money. If your circumstances change the relationship agreement can be reviewed and changed. For example, you may decide to get married, to have children or to extend the property. Any significant life event could prompt a review.  Gifted deposits and divorce  If you are buying a property on your own after a divorce with a gifted deposit you need: A financial court order (preferably a clean break) order with your ex-spouse  A relationship agreement if you go on to form a new relationship and your new partner spends time at your property even if their name is not on the title deeds or mortgage   Does a relationship agreement protect a gifted deposit?   Legal & General has carried out some research on trends in family gifting. 57% of mortgaged buyers buying a first home in 2020 received financial help from their parents or family members. By 2024, around 335,000 property purchases proceeded with the help of family money. With the significant rise in property prices and gifted deposits, it isn’t surprising that parents, grandparents and extended family want to know if relationship agreements work and if their gifted deposit is protected or is shared with your partner or spouse if you split up after buying the house.   The answer to whether a relationship agreement works depends on a few factors: The status of your relationship – if you are unmarried a cohabitation agreement is binding providing safeguards are met. If you are engaged to marry or married a prenuptial agreement or postnuptial agreement will carry weight in any future divorce provided the terms are fair and meet reasonable needs and safeguards when drawing up the agreement were met How the agreement was drawn up  What the agreement says  Speaking to a family law solicitor will help you understand the safeguards a cohabitation agreement or prenuptial agreement offers to both you and the family member gifting the money to you.  It is best to talk to a family law solicitor before you talk to your partner about a relationship agreement. That’s because your solicitor will discuss a range of options of what goes in the agreement and how best to protect the gifted deposit. It is therefore wise to understand those options rather than have one fixed idea of what your agreement should say from one discussion with your spouse or partner.  Our friendly family lawyers aim to provide a relationship agreement solution so your parents, grandparents, extended family or friend feels confident in gifting you money to buy a property whilst protecting your interests and providing a fair and equitable agreement between you and your partner. For expert advice call our team of specialist divorce and estate planning lawyers or complete our online enquiry form.

In this article, our family law solicitors answer your questions on what a mesher order is and explain how the order works. If you are splitting up from your husband or wife and need advice on reaching a divorce financial settlement or need your financial agreement converted into a court order our Northwest family lawyers can help. For expert advice call our team of specialist divorce lawyers or complete our online enquiry form. What is a mesher order?  A mesher order is one way a family judge can deal with a family home when a couple split up. Alternative orders include an order that the family home is sold or transferred into the sole name of the husband or wife. A mesher order is best described as an order for the deferred sale of the family home but family law solicitors call this type of order a ‘mesher’ as the order was first made in a case involving Mr and Mrs Mesher. When the property is sold the financial court order will set out how the equity in the property is to be shared between the former husband and wife. One ex-spouse may get a larger percentage than the other so they can rehouse themselves or an ex-spouse may get less than 50% of the equity because they kept their pension or the family savings at the time of the divorce proceedings.  How does a mesher order work? A mesher or deferred sale order works by delaying the sale of the family home until a specified date or trigger point occurs. Until the trigger point, one former spouse can live in the house to the exclusion of the other, even though both are still legal owners.  Normally a mesher order is made by the court when a couple has children and there is not enough equity in the family home for the property to be sold and the equity to be split so both the husband and wife can afford to buy new properties. A mesher may be necessary if one spouse cannot rehouse themselves because they have no or limited mortgage capacity and housing is a priority for them as they are caring for the children. A mesher order is normally only appropriate where the spouse staying in the family home cannot raise money through a mortgage to rehouse or remortgage to pay off the other spouse’s share of the equity in the family home and the spouse cannot get the mortgage company to agree to transfer the mortgage on the family home from joint names to their sole name. A mesher order maintains property ownership and financial links between a separated couple. Even if no spousal maintenance is payable, they continue to be financially linked through the joint mortgage. The mesher order can say who is responsible for the mortgage payments but if the payer defaults on the mortgage the credit rating of all those named on the mortgage will be affected. What are the trigger points for a mesher order? You can agree on the trigger points with your ex-spouse if you negotiate an agreed financial settlement or the court can decide on the triggers if it makes an order for a deferred sale after a court hearing. Some of the usual trigger points are:   The youngest child finishing their secondary education The re-marriage or cohabitation of the spouse living in the property with the children. Cohabitation is normally defined as living with an unmarried partner for a specified period, such as three or six months The children no longer living with the spouse who has the right to stay in the family home. For example, if the children are older teens and vote with their feet to live elsewhere or if the court makes a child arrangement order    The spouse who occupies the property leaving it. For example, because they decide to move elsewhere  The spouse who occupies the property passes away If you are negotiating a mesher order through solicitor negotiations or family mediation you can ensure that the trigger dates work for your family circumstances. [related_posts] Is a mesher order a good idea? A mesher has good and bad points. The good points are: The spouse living in the property has a secure home for the children and is not at risk of having to keep moving the children between different rental properties   Keeps the mortgage in situations where the mortgage is on favourable terms or neither spouse  would qualify for another mortgage  Means the ex-husband and ex-wife remain on the property ladder and they may both have enough to re-house once one of the triggering events occurs  Some of the negative things about mesher orders are: The spouse in occupation may feel unsettled knowing that they will have to sell the property when a trigger point occurs. This may make them reluctant to invest in improving the property knowing that their ex-partner will get a share of the equity The former spouses are financially linked to one another by having a joint mortgage. If the spouse in occupation does not pay the mortgage this will affect the credit rating of both spouses The spouse not living at the family home may not be able to get another mortgage while their name remains on the joint mortgage on the family home and they will not be able to use their share of the equity in the family home to use as a deposit to rehouse themselves  Family law solicitors emphasise the importance of taking specialist advice before agreeing to a mesher order so you can fully weigh up the advantages and disadvantages of a deferred sale. Applying for a mesher order If you and your former spouse agree that the children should stay in the family home then your family lawyer can draw up an agreed court order for approval by a family court judge. If you can't reach a financial settlement either of you can apply for a financial court order leaving the judge to decide if a mesher order is the most appropriate solution for your circumstances. For expert advice call our team of specialist divorce lawyers or complete our online enquiry form.

Potentially, your ex-wife could claim against your estate. That’s why when you are separating or getting divorced you need joined-up advice from a family lawyer and a Will solicitor. In this article, the estate planning lawyers at Evolve Family Law answer your questions on what happens to your estate if you pass away leaving an ex-wife. For expert advice call our team of specialist divorce and estate planning lawyers or complete our online enquiry form.  Ex-wife's claims against an estate   An ex-wife's claims will depend, to a large extent, on whether you are divorced or not. No-fault divorce proceedings are not finalised until your final order of divorce is pronounced. If you divorced before the divorce law reform you may have received a decree absolute from the court ending your marriage. If you have not completed the divorce process you may still be married at the date of death. Therefore, your estranged wife is your legal next of kin. However, you may have made a new Will when you separated so she is no longer a beneficiary of your estate. Your ex-wife can claim your estate or a share of it even if: Your divorce has been finalised  You have a separation agreement  You have a financial court order  You are not paying your ex-wife spousal maintenance  You have remarried You have children  You have made a Will excluding your former wife  The only circumstances when an ex-wife cannot bring a claim against your estate is when the court has made a clean break financial court order preventing any further monetary claims by her or your ex-wife has remarried. Do you have a clean break financial court order? If you got divorced some years ago you may not be certain if you secured a clean break financial court order. If you are unsure, you should ask one of our specialist family lawyers to review the order for you. They can look at the technical wording and advise you.  If you do not have a financial court order our family lawyers can help you obtain a financial court order to give you peace of mind. Your Will solicitor can then prepare a bespoke Will for you, confident in the knowledge that your ex-wife cannot make a claim or the risks of her doing so are reduced. If you have a financial court order, but it is not a clean break order, our family law solicitors can advise on whether it would be sensible to ask the court to vary the order to make it a clean break order. Their advice will depend on your circumstances and those of your ex-wife. [related_posts] Does making a new Will prevent my ex-wife from making a claim on my estate?  If our Will solicitors make a new Will for you then an ex-wife could still bring a claim against your estate if there is no clean break order in place from the family court. A Will solicitor can advise on the prospects of an ex-wife successfully challenging your Will after your death. There are ways that you can minimise the risks of an estate claim or reduce the amount payable. The law on your ex-wife making a claim on your estate The law on people making a claim against your estate if you die without making a Will (called dying intestate) or die with a valid Will  is contained in the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependents) Act 1975. An ex-wife can claim against your estate if the intestacy rules or your Will does not make reasonable financial provision for her. Reasonable financial provision depends on her and your circumstances. For example, your former spouse may rely on your spousal maintenance that ends on your death. Alternatively, your estate may be modest and you may have dependent children from your first and second marriages who need providing for. The 1975 Act says that all the following people could bring a claim against your estate:  Your husband, wife or civil partner – this includes someone who is separated but not divorced from you  A former husband, an ex-wife or a former civil partner if there is no clean break order in place and if your ex-spouse or civil partner has not remarried A child or someone treated as a child by you   Someone who was living with you for 2 years before your death  Anyone who immediately before your death was financially dependent on you. For example, an unmarried partner    Worst case scenario, a current cohabitee, your children and an ex-wife could all be disputing who gets your estate. This level of conflict could be stopped or reduced with a Will prepared by a specialist estate planning solicitor. For expert advice call our team of specialist divorce and estate planning lawyers or complete our online enquiry form.

Our family law solicitors are asked if it is possible to divorce your wife and keep everything. In this blog, we explain your options if you want to keep all the assets after your separation. For expert advice call our team of specialist divorce lawyers or complete our online enquiry form. Can a husband divorce his wife and keep everything?  It is technically possible for a husband to divorce his wife and keep everything but most divorce solicitors will tell you that it is an unlikely outcome in financial settlement negotiations or financial court proceedings unless your circumstances are unusual. If you are a husband your best bet to keep all your assets after a separation or divorce is to sign a prenuptial agreement before your marriage or a postnuptial agreement after your marriage. Even if a wife has signed a prenuptial or postnuptial agreement the document is not legally binding on a spouse under English law. The agreement will carry weight provided both husband and wife took independent legal advice on the contents of the agreement and there was no coercion to sign the document and completion of the paperwork only took place after husband and wife disclosed their assets. If these safeguards were not put in place the court may disregard the terms of the prenuptial or postnuptial agreement. Even if you ticked all these safeguarding boxes, the court may conclude that if the wife gets nothing, as you are keeping everything, the outcome is unfair because the wife’s needs are not being met. The court may therefore disregard the terms of the agreement. A prenuptial agreement solicitor will normally recommend that your prenuptial agreement or postnuptial agreement does not allow you to keep everything as it is better to have an agreement that works and therefore one that gives your wife a modest financial settlement that meets her financial needs rather than sign a prenup that says you will get to keep everything if you divorce but the prenup then doesn’t work in practice if you split up from your wife. [related_posts] If my wife agrees that I will keep everything, can I get a financial court order? The court can be asked to make an agreed financial consent order. The agreed order is lodged by your divorce solicitor after your conditional order of divorce has been pronounced. The order must be accompanied by a standard court form (called a statement of financial information) summarising the details of your marriage and your personal and financial circumstances. If this prescribed form is not completed the court will not approve your financial court order. If, for any reason, the figures provided in the form are wrong (for example you say your company shares in a family business are worth £10,000 rather than a more realistic 1 million) your wife will be able to reopen her financial claim at a later date because of inaccurate financial disclosure that led to the financial court order being made. Your ex-wife could ask the court to make another financial court order giving her a reasonable share of the assets. Therefore, inaccurately valuing assets on the form does not give you the financial security you need. If the shares in your family business continue to increase in value, then by the date of your wife's further financial settlement application, your company shares could be worth 10 million.  Providing inaccurate information in the court paperwork could cost you a lot of money if your ex-wife is advised to reopen her financial claims. If you complete the prescribed form to accompany your application for an agreed financial court order and include accurate asset figures, and the document shows you will be keeping everything and your wife will be getting nothing, the judge may refuse to make the agreed order. The judge may ask questions in an email or letter to your divorce solicitors or may invite you and your wife and your family lawyers to a court hearing so the judge can understand the rationale behind the making of the financial court order.  You may think that the answer to keeping everything lies in making a deal with your wife that she doesn’t get anything but neither of you ask the court to make a financial court order. However, you then run the risk of your ex-wife deciding to apply for a financial court order at a later date and asking for money or property or a share of your pension. This could work against you if your property or other assets have gone up in value from the date you agreed with your wife that she would walk away with nothing whilst you keep everything. What should you do if you want to keep everything after your divorce?  If you want to leave your wife with nothing the best option is to talk to a family law solicitor about whether you can achieve this and how to do so. Your family lawyer may tell you that it will be an uphill task and that you may be better off focussing on a lowball offer that meets your wife's reasonable needs but is pitched at a level where you can get a clean break financial court order from the family court.  A clean break court order means your wife can't come back later on and ask for more spousal maintenance or a share of your pension or equity in your house. That’s why it’s crucial to secure a court order to give you future financial security so you can plan for your future and not have concerns that your wife years later could come back and ask for money because she had nothing at the time of your separation. For expert advice call our team of specialist divorce lawyers or complete our online enquiry form.  

People are asking our estate planning solicitors about the UK rules on gifting money to family members as it is widely reported that the new Labour government may change the inheritance tax rules in the October 2024 budget. In this article, our estate planning lawyers and family solicitors outline the thought process that should go into gifting money to family members. For expert family law and estate planning advice call our team or complete our online enquiry form.  Why gift money to your family members? In 2020-21, the latest year for which data is available, families received over £2 bn of cash gifts from their loved ones. There are many reasons why money is given to family members, such as: You have more than you think you need  You don’t want your estate to pay inheritance tax or you want to reduce the IHT bill Your family needs a helping hand and could do with all or part of their inheritance now rather than waiting to inherit under your Will  All these reasons need to be aligned and work together. For example: You don’t want to maximise your inheritance tax savings but leave yourself short because you don’t have enough to live on or to meet unexpected expenditure  You don’t want your gift to a family member to end up being shared with their husband or wife as they have decided to separate or divorce  That’s why it is essential to carefully think through what you are planning to do and why and to get the timing of your gift right. That’s just as important as understanding the UK rules on gifting money to family members. How much money can you give family members? You can gift any amount of money to your family or friends during your lifetime but there are rules on whether the money will be notionally added back into your estate when you die and when your estate’s inheritance tax liability is calculated. If you gift money or assets and inheritance tax is payable on the gift when you die then the liability for the IHT may end up with the recipient of the gift – not your estate. The inheritance tax rules say that the estate pays the inheritance tax on gifts unless the deceased gave away more than £325,000 in gifts in the 7 years before their death. Once that limit has been reached the person receiving the gift pays the tax if the deceased dies within 7 years of the gift. The IHT rules can have unanticipated consequences. That’s why it is important to understand the UK rules on lifetime gifting and how they could impact your decision-making and your relatives. [related_posts] Inheritance tax rules and family gifting Not all estates are liable to pay IHT so it is important to understand your estate’s potential IHT liability before you start estate planning. If your estate is likely to have to pay inheritance tax you can currently give money or assets to the family as a tax-efficient way to give money to your children, grandchildren, other family members or friends. Gifts given less than 7 years before your death could still be subject to IHT depending on: Who you made the gift to The amount given  The date of the gift For example, if you give any amount of money or property to your husband, wife or civil partner during your life then those gifts are IHT-exempt provided your spouse or civil partner lives in the UK. For example, you can give money away that will be IHT free provided you stick to rules on the amount. Under the annual exemption rule, you can give away a total of £3,000 of money or gifts each tax year without the £3,000 being taxable when you pass away.  In addition to the £3,000 annual exemption, there is a small gift allowance of £250 per person or a gift allowance for weddings and civil partnerships. The wedding gift allowance is:  £5,000 to a child £2,500 to a grandchild or great-grandchild £1,000 to any other person There are rules on what allowances can be combined in one tax year so it is best to take legal advice.   If you make regular payments to help a family member with their living costs these can be IHT exempt provided they are normal expenditures out of income and you can: Afford the payments after meeting your usual living costs Make the gifts out of your regular monthly income rather than savings Other gifts to family members might fall within IHT liability but the recipient may benefit from IHT reliefs using the 7-year rule. The 7-year rule No IHT is payable on any gifts you give if you live for 7 years after giving them as part of the 7-year rule. If you die within 7 years of giving a gift and the gift does not fall within another IHT allowance then the amount of IHT payable at the date of your death depends on when you gave the gift. Gifts given in the 3 years before your death are taxed at the IHT tax rate of 40%. Gifts given 3 to 7 years before your death are taxed if your estate is over the threshold to pay IHT. The IHT rates taper: Time in years between gift and death Rate of inheritance tax   3 to 4 years 32% 4 to 5 years 24% 5 to 6 years 16% 6 to 7 years 8% 7 or more 0%   The IHT rules mean it's important to keep a record of gifts made, the amount or value. Why gift money to your family isn’t just about inheritance tax  Inheritance tax mitigation is not normally the main driver for gifting money to family. For example, you may want to give your family money because: They are on an NHS waiting list and you want them to have private treatment  They can't afford to buy a home and are finding it impossible to find an affordable rental property  Grandchildren are in private education and their parents can no longer afford the school fees because of cost-of-living pressures and the VAT hike Your child is getting divorced and they can't afford to buy a decent house with the money they are getting in their divorce financial settlement  There are other reasons why you may want to gift money to your family but whatever the reasons it is essential to get comprehensive estate planning and family law advice. Protecting your wealth  Protecting your wealth isn’t just about sensible IHT planning. It also involves input from a family law solicitor to make sure that your loved one is protected by a suitable relationship agreement such as a cohabitation agreement, prenuptial agreement or postnuptial agreement. Our team of specialist estate planning and family agreement solicitors can provide you with the comprehensive estate planning and family relationship agreement advice needed to safeguard your family.  For expert family law and estate planning advice call our team or complete our online enquiry form.