Could Divorce Destroy Your Business?

6 Feb 2008 09:00 Africa/Lagos


Could Divorce Destroy Your Business?

LONDON, February 6/PRNewswire/ --

2008 will be the "Year of the Postnup", according to family law specialists at online law firm, Agreements.co.uk, following a string of cases indicating judicial support for private agreements regulating finances within marriage. This January, Lord Justice Thorpe ruled that couples who try to back out of private financial agreements are now stuck with them unless they can show good cause why they should not be followed.


Like prenups, post-nuptial agreements deal with the difficult issue of how to divide money and property if a marriage goes sour, but are taken out during marriage rather than before. However postnups are subject to particular judicial scrutiny as to motive - spouses making threats if not signed, inducements if signed, those taking unfair advantage or trying to divorce on the cheap need not apply.


With the divorce courts' starting point now being an equal split - a worrying prospect for ex-Beatle, Sir Paul McCartney, who stands to lose a fortune if his divorce goes to trial - lawyers are reporting an unprecedented demand from couples taking out both prenups and postnups to soften the financial impact of divorce.


Postnups are even insisted upon by some hedge fund managers who now refuse to take on new partners until they sign one barring their spouses from making any claims on the fund.


Business is rife with risk - whether from competition, market fluctuations or plain bad luck. But what is often overlooked is the effect divorce has on a successful business. Usually funding a divorce settlement necessitates the sale of some or all of a business to accommodate the 50/50 share of overall assets that the courts now impose within divorce.


So could your business be wiped out by divorce? Statistically, in the UK, you are more likely to divorce than to stay married for life. So the bad news for any divorcing entrepreneurs is that your spouse may be entitled to half or more of the value of your business - irrespective of whether it was yours before marriage.


However there are legal solutions that the courts are now following (subject to following the correct protocols). The 'prenup' (taken out before marriage) and the 'postnup' (during).


Website, postnups.co.uk, puts prospective clients through a rigorous online 'Post-nuptial Agreement Evaluation' to ascertain their motives before agreeing to draft a postnup. "The courts have spelled out what they won't accept, and unless a couple's motives tick all the right boxes, we cannot agree to act", explains Mark Andrew, their Agreements Coordinator.


So what's the cost of having a postnup? Between GBP1,500 and GBP3,000 from most family law solicitors, and GBP450.00 online at http://www.postnups.co.uk (Tel: 0800-1955500)


http://www.prenuptialagreements.co.uk


http://www.postnuptialagreements.co.uk


Source: Agreements.co.uk Limited

Mark Andrew LL.B (Hons.), Agreements.co.uk Limited, Agreements Coordinator, Direct line: +44-(0)20-7235-3180, mark.andrew@agreements.co.uk

I Thank God for My Birthday!

Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things; so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle's.
~ Psalm 103:5

I am a year older today.
I am very glad and grateful to God for all the beautiful and wonderful things He has been doing in my life from birth.
I thank God for my mother, Gladys Eke of blessed memory and I thank God for my father, Sunday Eke of blessed memory.
I thank God for my brothers and sister and others God has brought into my life.

I thank God for making me one in a million.
I thank God for making my future secure.
For God is my life insurance.

I thank God for the Queen of my heart who called me this morning from Abuja in Nigeria, and for loving me like no other woman has ever loved me since I was born.
She is one in a million.

Psalm 103 (King James Version)

1. Bless the LORD, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name.

2. Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits:

3. Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases;

4. Who redeemeth thy life from destruction; who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies;

5. Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things; so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle's.

6. The LORD executeth righteousness and judgment for all that are oppressed.

7. He made known his ways unto Moses, his acts unto the children of Israel.

8. The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy.

9. He will not always chide: neither will he keep his anger for ever.

10. He hath not dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities.

11. For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him.

12. As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.

13. Like as a father pitieth his children, so the LORD pitieth them that fear him.

14. For he knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust.

15. As for man, his days are as grass: as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth.

16. For the wind passeth over it, and it is gone; and the place thereof shall know it no more.

17. But the mercy of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him, and his righteousness unto children's children;

18. To such as keep his covenant, and to those that remember his commandments to do them.

19. The LORD hath prepared his throne in the heavens; and his kingdom ruleth over all.

20. Bless the LORD, ye his angels, that excel in strength, that do his commandments, hearkening unto the voice of his word.

21. Bless ye the LORD, all ye his hosts; ye ministers of his, that do his pleasure.

22. Bless the LORD, all his works in all places of his dominion: bless the LORD, O my soul.