There are different types of money issues when you separate or divorce/dissolve your partnership:
- Income or ‘maintenance’ issues.
- Capital e.g. your house, savings, shares.
- Pensions.
The burning question for most people is ‘what will I get?’ or ‘what will I have to pay?’.
There is no magic formula for this and it is not simply a case of arithmetic. Divorce/dissolution legislation sets out a checklist of things that a court takes into account when asked to make decisions about how to divide up family assets, income and pensions. In most cases, the court carries out a balancing exercise of different factors and there is often more than one answer - courts work in terms of bands of reasonableness. It is therefore important that you do not assume that information friends or relatives give about their own experience of financial matters will be the right advice for you.
We are experts in this area and can advise you once full and frank disclosure of both parties’ financial circumstances have been obtained on what would be a fair financial settlement for you. We consider all of the relevant financial circumstances and help you negotiate your financial settlement. Where it is not possible to reach an agreement with your former partner, we can represent you by robustly pursuing proceedings on your behalf, the objective being to obtain a successful outcome for you.
Prenuptial Agreements
You may want peace of mind and financial protection when entering into marriage and to regulate your financial affairs should you separate. For example, this can relate to inherited wealth or property and assets from a previous marriage. With the Supreme Court ruling about Prenuptial Agreements, couples are likely to increasingly want to protect themselves financially. We can give you expert legal advice about entering into a Prenuptial Agreement, or you can get a guide as to what difference one could make by using our prenup calculator.
For advice and support, please contact your Family Law Team on 0113 320 5000 or by email on family@winstonsolicitors.co.uk.
Child maintenance is usually governed by the Child Maintenance Service and there are only certain times when the court will make orders regarding child maintenance (child periodical payments). Spousal maintenance (spousal periodical payments) can be made in financial proceedings and will depend on the circumstances of the case.
A Pension Sharing Order (PSO) is an order made upon the conclusion of divorce/dissolution financial proceedings which allows a pension to be shared in accordance with the order, and the receiving party will receive this share of the pension to put in their own pension fund.
These are the court proceedings that you can apply to the court for following a divorce/dissolution which will ultimately provide orders for a financial settlement.