New Year approaching, love is in the air | Family law

Will you be one of the many partners who will be proposed to this Christmas? Christmas Eve holds the record for the one day of the year most likely to be proposed to on!

But before rushing in to setting your big day and writing your checklist for your honeymoon, do you have assets which need to be protected in case your future spouse is not your dream husband or wife when the honeymoon period washes off? For example –

• Do you run a business, which you work hard in?
• Have you received or are likely to receive inheritance that you would like to remain yours?
• Do you have children from a previous relationship, whom you would like to preserve assets for specifically?

If the answer to any of the above is yes, then you probably need to think about a pre-nuptial agreement to ensure that what is yours now, does not become part of your partner’s assets through marriage. It is a simple and effective document which can provide crucial should your marriage breakdown at any point in the future. Legal case law has caught up with modern times and the modern family and so pre-nuptial agreements as long as drafted correctly, in advance of the wedding and with legal advice and assistance are being upheld by the courts, meaning that you can rely on them.

Hollie Styles says that “these are an effective and cost effective way for parties to make arrangements themselves in case their marriage breaks down and to avoid bitter resentment in the future and avoids the thousands of pounds that a defended divorce and settlement can cost”.

So once you have said “Yes” to the ring, consider saying yes to a prenuptial agreement which will protect you throughout your married life.

For further advice contact Hollie Styles on 01299 827517 or email hstyles@thursfields.co.uk