A friend is currently in the middle of an increasingly acrimonious property settlement following separating from his wife late last year. What initially was intended from both sides was a simple amicable resolution, but his ex soon escalated things introducing lawyers etc (probably as a result of other parties suggesting she could get more). There are no children and both had jobs with similar incomes etc. Hers is a simple PAYE job whereas his is small business and hence variable plus the business has value too. She has made some outlandish claims but after some preliminary legal posturing it will probably ultimately be resolved not too far away from the 50:50 split that was initially the intention - less the legal fees of course.
With an earlier house they owned they clearly split everything 50:50, with a joint account for joint expenses and maintaining their own individual accounts. They upgraded houses several years ago (this property is now the bulk of the settlement value). When they went to the new house they then adopted a mortgage where all your money goes into it and you pay you expenses out of it (can't think of the official type of account right now), so as to minimise interest etc.
He was more of a saver whereas she was a spender - when he tried to discuss budgetting she apparently would stick her fingers in her ears and claim she needed all her consumer items. When they has separate accounts this was easily shown as she often had next to nothing in her account while he had quite a bit. But difficult to demonstrate this with one joint account where the nature of expenses isn't clearly identifiable. So even with a 50:50 split she will profit from his 'saving'.
Anyway, the point is, part of the discussions we've had over many a beer since has been how he could've 'protected' himself anyway. We presume that even had they maintained separate accounts she would've still been entitled to claim against his account, given they'd been married for maybe 4-5 years. Every other form of asset he could've directed money into would be readily identifiable as well. Apart from more complex schemes, the only things we could come with were basically hiding cash under the mattress, as it were, which would depreciate over the long term, or less readily identified appreciating things like collectables like wine or coins or art, or maybe gold?
Of course, he could've just lived it up and spent vicariously as well...but I thought it was an interesting point to discuss. Is there anyway he could have 'squirrelled' money away? I suspect in future he will be far more circumspect and probably insist on prenups or cohabitation agreements PRIOR to any future relationship but that wasn't possible after the fact...
With an earlier house they owned they clearly split everything 50:50, with a joint account for joint expenses and maintaining their own individual accounts. They upgraded houses several years ago (this property is now the bulk of the settlement value). When they went to the new house they then adopted a mortgage where all your money goes into it and you pay you expenses out of it (can't think of the official type of account right now), so as to minimise interest etc.
He was more of a saver whereas she was a spender - when he tried to discuss budgetting she apparently would stick her fingers in her ears and claim she needed all her consumer items. When they has separate accounts this was easily shown as she often had next to nothing in her account while he had quite a bit. But difficult to demonstrate this with one joint account where the nature of expenses isn't clearly identifiable. So even with a 50:50 split she will profit from his 'saving'.
Anyway, the point is, part of the discussions we've had over many a beer since has been how he could've 'protected' himself anyway. We presume that even had they maintained separate accounts she would've still been entitled to claim against his account, given they'd been married for maybe 4-5 years. Every other form of asset he could've directed money into would be readily identifiable as well. Apart from more complex schemes, the only things we could come with were basically hiding cash under the mattress, as it were, which would depreciate over the long term, or less readily identified appreciating things like collectables like wine or coins or art, or maybe gold?
Of course, he could've just lived it up and spent vicariously as well...but I thought it was an interesting point to discuss. Is there anyway he could have 'squirrelled' money away? I suspect in future he will be far more circumspect and probably insist on prenups or cohabitation agreements PRIOR to any future relationship but that wasn't possible after the fact...
