Pre-Nuptial Agreements – Romance Killer Or True Love Or Sign Of True Love?

Interest in pre-nuptial agreements has steadily risen as individuals seek to protect family wealth, particularly in family businesses, or their own acquired wealth. On the face of it, this seems to be a wise precaution. However, there appears to be an increasingly growing knock-on effect in that up to 25% of engaged couples that seek legal advice related to drawing up a pre-nuptial agreement do not go ahead with the marriage. So it seems that the fact that an engaged couple shine a light on their worldly goods, particularly when one individual has a great deal more in the way of assets than their intended, it has the effect of focusing their minds on the relationship and may bring out issues that had remained hidden.

Should the assets be in different countries, that is obviously another factor to be considered and expert professional assistance is required to ensure that all the correct procedures and actions are followed to guarantee that there is adequate protection for the overseas assets.

The lawyers at Giambrone try to focus on fair and equitable arrangements in a pre-nuptial or post-nuptial agreement, which aim to protect a variety of factors. If there are children involved their interests are paramount; the acquired assets built up by an individual or the assets of a family or family business or where the wealth is expected to cascade through the generations may be protected by finding an acceptable solution for the disadvantaged person such as providing a property for the less advantaged person that wholly or in part reverts to the other partner at some stage when the perceived need no longer applies. Such an arrangement may be made to provide the children of a marriage with an acceptable place for them to stay when they visit the absent parent for access visits during the course of their minority. It may be that once the children reach adulthood and the...

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