Should I Ask My Fiancé To Sign a Prenup Agreement?
Should I ask my fiancé to sign a prenup agreement? London Family Law Solicitors say, ideally, yes, you should do so. In this blog, our specialist Prenuptial Agreement Lawyers explain why you should consider signing a prenup before your marriage or civil partnership.
Contact OTS Solicitors Today for Expert Prenuptial Agreement Legal Advice.
What is a prenuptial agreement?
A prenup agreement is a document that records your agreement with your husband, wife or civil partner if you split up after your marriage or civil partnership.
A prenuptial agreement can be comprehensive and cover all financial matters or ringfence a specific asset, such as a business, an inheritance or money held in a trust.
A prenuptial agreement is signed in advance of the wedding or civil partnership. In contrast, a postnuptial agreement is signed after the marriage or civil partnership.
Why should I ask my fiancé to sign a prenup agreement?
You may think you do not need a prenup agreement, as you do not own property or have investments. However, a prenup agreement is usually designed to protect you by recording how you will divide your assets, whether you are together for five months, five years or twenty-five years.
Prenup Solicitors say that there are many reasons why a prenup agreement is a particularly good idea. These reasons may apply to you or to your fiancé or to both of you. The reasons include:
- You have been married before and have children from a previous marriage. You want to protect your children in case of a separation or divorce.
- You have been living with your fiancé and have a cohabitation agreement. You therefore want the same sort of protection as a cohabitation agreement.
- You already own a house.
- You own shares in a family business.
- Your family are wealthy and you think you may receive large lifetime gifts or a big inheritance.
- You are a beneficiary under a trust.
- You have a significant pre-marriage accrued pension or investments.
- You have been married before and gone through a bitter divorce court settlement, and if you separate, you do not want to spend thousands on legal fees in going to court.
- You or your fiancé is from overseas, and you want the prenup agreement to say which court jurisdiction will hear any divorce proceedings or financial claims.
There are many other reasons why a prenup agreement may be a good idea. If you are uncertain about the need for a prenup, it's best to talk to a Family Lawyer about how a prenup could help your family and protect you.
Do I need a prenuptial agreement if we signed a cohabitation agreement?
You need a prenuptial agreement if you signed a cohabitation agreement. That is because a cohabitation agreement is not legally binding after your marriage or civil partnership.
When you marry, the legal status of your relationship changes. When an unmarried relationship ends, the court will follow the terms of a cohabitation agreement if it is properly drawn up. If there is no cohabitation agreement, the court will divide the assets of an unmarried couple in accordance with property law. This may mean a long-term cohabitee gets nothing after a long relationship where their partner owned the family home.
In divorce proceedings, the court has broad discretion to divide property and other assets in accordance with the principles of needs and fairness. If the couple sign a prenuptial agreement and the terms are fair and meet their needs, the court may uphold the terms of the prenup. This means either the husband or wife could get a reduced financial settlement in comparison to spouses in the same financial and personal circumstances where no prenuptial agreement was signed.
When should I ask my fiancé to sign a prenup agreement?
When it comes to the timing of signing a prenup, most Prenup Solicitors recommend that the agreement is signed at least 28 days before the wedding or civil partnership ceremony. You therefore need to start discussing the idea of a prenup well in advance of the wedding to give your Family Law Solicitors enough time to finalise the agreement for you.
Sometimes, prenuptial agreements are discussed just before the wedding. If you are running out of time before your wedding, ask your Family Lawyer what your best options are. For example, you could decide to sign a post-nup agreement after your marriage. However, once you are married or in a civil partnership, will your spouse or civil partner be happy to sign the postnup document?
How should I ask my fiancé to sign a prenup agreement?
A London Prenup Lawyer cannot tell you the best way to broach the subject of signing a prenup agreement with your fiancé, but it's undoubtedly best not to leave things to the last minute. At that stage, your fiancé will be focusing on the wedding and, for example, stressing about the seating arrangements.
It's often sensible to speak to a Prenup Solicitor about an agreement, so you know what the options are and know how you need to go about getting an agreement finalised.
Asking your fiancé to sign a prenuptial agreement should not be seen as a negative thing or cast doubt in anyone’s minds about the strength of your feelings toward your fiancé or your commitment to the marriage or civil partnership. Asking a fiancé to sign a prenup agreement doesn’t mean you think that you are going to split up or that your fiancé is a gold digger.
Signing a prenup agreement should be presented as a positive step for both of you. Often, a prenup agreement forms part of your relationship and life planning. For example, as part of your wedding financial planning, you are (or should be) thinking about:
- Writing a Will or, if you already have one, making a new one in contemplation of your marriage or civil partnership.
- Checking your pension nominations to make sure they are up to date.
- Preparing a Lasting Power of Attorney or, if you already have one and your fiancé isn’t named as an attorney, consider naming them as an attorney.
- Looking at your life insurance or your critical health insurance and seeing if your level of cover will be sufficient for your new circumstances.
- Whether your fiancé can be added to your private health cover. If your employer offers private health insurance, the company scheme may cover a fiancé, spouse or civil partner at no extra charge or at very modest cost to you.
- Looking at your money management and whether you intend to open a joint bank account or buy a property together.
- Family members gifting you money, for example, to provide a deposit so you can buy a house to live in after your marriage or so you can upsize to buy a family home. Your family or your fiancé’s family may only be comfortable in making lifetime gifts as part of their estate planning if there is a prenup agreement in place.
A carefully worded prenup can cover these scenarios and others, such as whether you have children or one of you stays at home as the home-maker. If your personal or financial circumstances change significantly, so that the terms of the original prenup agreement are no longer fair to both of you, then you can sign a postnuptial agreement (an after-marriage agreement) with your husband or wife.
What should be included in a prenuptial agreement?
The contents of a prenuptial agreement should be bespoke to you. The agreement needs to consider your current and potential future financial or personal circumstances. A Family Law Solicitor is experienced in preparing an agreement that covers the issues of importance to you and your partner, and one that is flexible enough to cater for some changes in circumstances.
You may want to use your prenuptial agreement to protect:
- The interests of children from a prior relationship or marriage.
- Pre-marriage purchased property.
- A family business.
Changes in future circumstances you may want to cover include:
- Having children.
- One spouse experiencing serious ill health.
- Receiving an inheritance.
- Being given income or capital as you are the beneficiary of a discretionary trust.
- Receiving a gift of shares in a family business because a relative decided to engage in inheritance tax planning.
At OTS Solicitors, our expert Prenup Lawyers in London can help you with the wording and contents of your relationship agreement.
Contact OTS Solicitors Today for Expert Prenuptial Agreement Legal Advice.
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