Cohabitation v Marriage- how can prenups help you decide?

When dealing with the breakdown of relationships, and the all too often acrimonious divorce, one is reminded of the difficulties that young couples today face when deciding whether to marry or not.

Over the past few years, we have witnessed a real shift in public perception of marital union in favour of cohabitation. Since 2001, the number of cohabiting couple families has dramatically risen, from 2.1 million to 2.9 million. It seems that young couples are avoiding legal commitment, perhaps due to their fear of marital breakdown and divorce.

There has also been a shift towards cohabiting couples starting a family. The Office for National Statistics recently reported that in 2011, 38 percent of unmarried cohabiting families had dependent children. This is now the same percentage of dependents to married couple families. Vardags has seen a concomitant increase in Schedule 1 Applications, and has successfully secured financial provision for numerous unmarried single parents who wish to adequately provide for the care of their child through family law.

For those young professionals and high-profile individuals who still have their hearts set on marital bliss, however, it now comes at what some might call a price. Having succeeded in changing the law by persuading eight Supreme Court Judges that prenuptial agreements should be binding, subject to being deemed fair, we at Vardags strongly believe that in the right circumstances the insurance of a prenuptial agreement is really the best legal option to take.

Young high net worth individuals now seek the protection of their inherited or pre-acquired wealth from division upon divorce by utilising the vehicle of such agreement. We work closely with our clients to determine the most appropriate avenue for them and work hard to ensure that a particular course of action fits. There is a range of solutions to matrimonial difficulties – and divorce is only one.

Our clients are no longer satisfied that the only option of protection should be to opt out of marriage altogether – indeed they see that gives them very little protection in any case – and are now signing up to prenuptial agreements with vigour.

To read more about prenuptial agreements, click here