Joanne Hall summarises the courts’ approach to post-separation growth in assets and the diverging views of the judiciary ‘The judgment in JB v MB reinforces that the law on post-separation accrual is highly fact specific and discretionary but must also be consistent and predictable.’ If the title of this article sounds like a Star Trek …
Continue reading "Financial Provision: Continuum or new venture?"
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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 …
Continue reading "Pre-Acquired Assets: Setting apart"
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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 …
Continue reading "Non-Matrimonial Assets: A question of inclusion"
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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 …
Continue reading "Financial Provision: Building fences"
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Wills & Trusts Law Reports | April 2012 #118The 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 ...
Wills & Trusts Law Reports | April 2012 #118The husband (H) and the wife (W) were both 65, having married in 1980. There was one child of the marriage (C), aged 25. The former matrimonial home was Green Farm, a substantial property set in 72 acres in Kent. Trust assets fell to be divided following divorce.
In order to mitigate tax on the floatation of his company (ABC), two Jersey trusts were created by H in 1994 (No. 1 Trust and No. 2 Trust) and a company incorporated in the British Virgin Island called Giloch Investments Ltd (Giloch). No. 1 Trust was a discrertionary trust for a class of beneficiaries comprising H, W, C, ...
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 …
Continue reading "Non-Matrimonial Assets: Sharing windfalls"
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Sofie Hoffman assesses the current state of play with trusts and divorce ‘The judge decided that the wealth of the couple was not the product of their endeavours; the husband’s inherited wealth was non-matrimonial and so the sharing principle should not apply.’According to the latest statistics for marriage and divorce in England and Wales (2009 …
Continue reading "Guest Editorial: Love and marriage"
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Philippa Cunniff compares Scottish law with family law in England and Wales At a time when minds are focused on the harmonisation of laws across Europe, it can be easy to overlook the fact that even within the UK, the laws relating to financial provision on divorce or dissolution of civil partnerships are very different. …
Continue reading "International Focus: Notable differences"
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Kirstie Gibson studies the courts’ approach to pre-acquired wealth in a long marriage ‘Pre-marital property should be taken into account because it represents a contribution made by one party unmatched by an equivalent contribution from the other party.’ In Charman v Charman [2007] the court said that for nearly five years, since White v White …
Continue reading "Pre-Acquired Wealth: Counting contributions"
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