Prenuptial & Financial Agreements

The steps for reaching financial agreements

When you seek our assistance with your financial agreement, we will follow a process that involves 4 distinct steps:

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  Valuation

  We will work out the combined value of all the relationship’s assets and liabilities as described in the section above. This may involve having some professional valuations done on certain assets before we can arrive at an exact figure.

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  Contributions

  We will consider the contributions made by each of you to the relationship. This will normally be considered an equal contribution (50%), unless one of you has contributed significantly more than the other (i.e. bringing assets into the relationship such as the deposit for the family home).

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  Settlement Considerations

  We will look at what you both need in order to be able to move forward. For instance, if one of you needs more support because you have the care of your children or one has less superannuation than the other, the settlement may be adjusted to account for this.

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  Settlement

  We will check that the settlement proposal is ‘just and equitable’ and allows both parties to move on with their lives. This must be done before any financial agreement can be signed, and we will give you detailed letters of advice and guide you through the process so that we can make sure, as far as is possible, that the agreements cannot be overturned in the future.

You must apply for any property settlement or spousal maintenance (child support) within 12 months of the divorce becoming final, or the court may not accept your application.