Sue Harwood: I think if you consider that
entering into a marriage is entering into
a legal union, I think it is imperative that
you take legal advice to understand how that
is going to affect your legal position if
that marriage ended. Especially if you are
marrying for the second time or the third
time, you may have children from a previous
relationship that you may want to cater for
by way of any future inheritance and I think
it is really important that you understand
how your new marriage is going to affect that.
Ian Giddings: Sometimes people don’t necessarily
know what it could do to their position. For
example, if you are remarrying after getting
previously divorced, then how is your new
marriage going to have a bearing on the assets
that you have got? Is there anything that
you need to do to perhaps protect those assets?
Karen Agnew-Griffith: If a couple asked me
for advice before they were about to get married,
I would say to them that I would congratulate
them on the fact that they have decided to
get married. They have obviously had the nice
experience of falling in love and deciding
on a future path. They now need to have a
difficult conversation for “just in case”
the worst happens and that difficult conversation
should be how they should treat their financial
assets, how they are going to practice raising
their children, dividing up their assets,
should the worst happen. And that might be
if one of them dies or it might be if their
marriage breaks down. So, they should, once
they have had that difficult conversation,
together, go and see a lawyer and find out
what they need to do to make sure that if
the worst happens they can know what their
future then will be and plan for it.
Nick Wiseman: What I would say to them, whilst
it might seem unromantic is consider whether
you need to protect assets particularly if
you are bringing assets or property into the
marriage itself. Have an agreement. That might
seem unromantic but I say to clients, look
at it as an insurance policy. Hopefully you’ll
never need it but it is there if you ever
should.
