Non-Matrimonial Assets: Further distinction

Fiona Turner considers whether inherited wealth is more likely to result in a departure from equality than earned wealth ‘Assuming the parties’ needs are met, the courts may distinguish between different categories of non-matrimonial property.’ Parties on divorce usually have a strong claim to share in the matrimonial property that has been built up during …
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Pre-Acquired Assets: Setting apart

Fiona Wood outlines the courts’ approach to assets acquired prior to marriage and the factors to be taken into account Need cannot be assessed in isolation of the factors that are the key to the performance of the sharing principle such as pre-acquired wealth. The issue of pre-acquired assets arises in many divorce cases. While …
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Financial Advice: Complete picture

Graeme Fraser and Mark Penston highlight the importance of financial advice when structuring and valuing an award in a financial remedies claim on divorce ‘An initial discussion with an IFA who is conversant with the issues on divorce can be helpful in giving direction early on in the process.’Obtaining independent financial advice is increasingly important …
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Non-Matrimonial Assets: A question of inclusion

Jane Booth analyses the factors the courts will take into account when considering non-matrimonial assets ‘When considering the division of assets, where the assets are neither matrimonial assets nor jointly generated by the parties, the duration of the marriage might be a significant factor in the determination of the distribution.’ The decision in G v …
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Financial Provision: Building fences

Tracey Dargan and Nathaniel Groarke summarise the courts’ approach to pre-acquired and inherited assets In N v F, Mostyn J stated that he would have excluded more of the husband’s pre-marital assets were it not for the fact that such assets were required to meet the wife’s needs. A number of recent reported cases have …
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WF v HF [2012] EWHC 438 (Fam)

Wills & Trusts Law Reports | July/August 2012 #121

H and W married in December 1993 when W was 32 and H was 62. They have three children aged between 17 and 12. H’s first wife died and he had four children, (the elder children) from that marriage – all now adults aged over 35. His second marriage ended in divorce, but he had no continuing financial ties to his second wife. W had not been married before. Her limited assets, £152,000, the net sale proceeds of her flat, had been invested in an investment portfolio supplemented by contributions from H (including a transfer of shares worth £2.477m). H was the chairman of a com...

Lilleyman v Lilleyman & anr [2012] EWHC 821 (Ch)

Wills & Trusts Law Reports | July/August 2012 #121

Mrs Barbara Lilleyman applied for reasonable financial provision from the estate of her late husband Mr Roy Lilleyman pursuant to the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975 (1975 Act). Nigel and Christopher Lilleyman, who were Mr Lilleyman’s sons from a previous marriage, were the executors of Mr Lilleyman’s estate under his will dated 20 May 2008. Nigel and Christopher Littleman were the principal beneficiaries of Mr Lilleyman’s estate and were the defendants to Mrs Lilleyman’s application.

Mr and Mrs Lilleyman had each been married previously and each had two...

AR v AR [2011] EWHC 2717 (Fam)

Wills & Trusts Law Reports | April 2012 #118

The parties separated after a relationship of approximately 25 years and the wife commenced divorce proceedings (decree nisi being pronounced in October 2010). They had one child who was aged 18 (the husband had three children by his first marriage). The husband was aged 66 and the wife 54.

The total wealth was in the region of £21-£24m (all but approximately £1m was in the husband’s name). The source of the husband’s wealth was a business that his father bought shortly after the second world war, which floated in the 1950s and sold in the late 1980s. From his father, the husband ...

Non-Matrimonial Assets: Sharing windfalls

Frances Bailey considers the latest case on lottery winnings and the courts’ approach to non-matrimonial assets ‘Much, it is clear, hinges on whether lottery winnings can be deemed matrimonial or non-matrimonial property.’ In ‘Money Can’t Buy You Love’, FLJ100, October 2010, I lamented the very limited guidance on the treatment of lottery winnings by the …
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