A post-nup is just what the Doctor ordered
HELL hath no fury like a woman scorned. If you don’t believe me, take a look at a few episodes of Dr Foster, the television drama currently gripping the nation.
The lead character Gemma is raging against her philandering husband Simon (who has run off with a younger woman) and over the episodes has been exacting all sorts of eye-watering revenge.
The final episode of the series is on Tuesday and it is clear the second marriage of Dr Foster’s former spouse is now in trouble too. The chances of reconciliation with either his new wife or ex (if he lives to tell the tale) look paper thin.
In the real world, such emotional upheaval when relationships break down can soon turn to undignified squabbles over money.
It seems, though, a growing trend among warring couples is to take a step back from the brink and hand out second chances. This act adds a new dimension to shared financial affairs. Seeing a relationship almost shatter once throws up the question how to stop it slipping back into the abyss – or preventing a partner from manipulating the family finances in their own favour for the future.
Jane Keir, a partner at law firm Kingsley Napley, has come up with a clever way of taking the sting out of the arrangements. She is promoting a new style of contract to help couples deal with these tricky money issues as part of a socalled ‘reconciliation contract’.
The contract is a form of pre-nup – or more accurately a post-nup – that sets out how assets like a property should be shared while a couple remains together. This includes new arrangements to ease their path ahead, such as setting up a pension plan for the party who did not have one – plus, crucially, outlining arrangements should they ultimately split up.
Keir tells me the contract, inspired by similar arrangements in the US, can include agreements on behaviour as well as property. A partner might agree to curb adulterous or addictive conduct or even pledge to spend more time with their other half or commit to taking an annual holiday together.
She says: ‘The pastoral arrangements cannot be enforced by a UK court. But the agreements over property are likely to be looked on more kindly by judges as they see the couple had previously tried to make the marriage work – and had made these pledges when on good terms rather than in the grip of an ill-tempered break up.’
In the event that the aspirations contained in the contract are not fulfilled, the practical details of a split will already have been agreed when heads were cool. Here is one I prepared earlier, you might say. MARRIAGE certainly seems to be less fashionable these days (recent figures show the number of couples tying the knot has fallen by more than six per cent since 2012). Cohabiting families are now the fastest growing household type over the last decade.
But couples who are not married do not have the same automatic rights to inherit assets and money when a partner dies as those who are married. Despite this, only a quarter have taken out life insurance. This compares to half of married people, according to research by Zurich Insurance. Life insurance pays out a tax-free lump sum that can go immediately to the person you choose who is left behind rather than wait for an estate to be wound up. A better way to ensure all your worldly goods will go to exactly who you wish is to put it in writing in a will. From tomorrow, those aged 55 and over can get their will written for free in a collaboration between solicitors and a range of charities as part of Free Wills Month. Since it costs the charities money, they will be hoping to be remembered in your will – although it is not compulsory. Find out more at freewillsmonth.org.uk. ESCAPING to Paris the other week on a boys’ weekend (just one way of keeping a marriage on the straight and narrow is to give your other half space), my husband bought the customary round of drinks on the Eurostar train.
He was surprised to be given the option of paying £14.50 or €19. I’m pleased to report that he protected our finances by paying in sterling. I am not sure what fantasy euro-pound exchange rate Eurostar was using, but at the market rate, the sum should have converted to €15.80. The lesson when travelling is to roughly know your exchange rates so you do not get stung.