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If your financial situation is complicated and you are facing divorce or separation, you need advice from genuine experts to safeguard your interests. At Glanvilles, our complex family finance solicitors have many years of experience in helping high net worth individuals and families to manage difficult situations.
We can work with you and professionals in related fields to secure the financial settlement you and your family need. We will establish what is most important to you and take steps to protect those assets for the future.
Our team is widely experienced and, where necessary, readily engage experts such as pension actuaries, accountants, agricultural land valuers and financial advisers to ensure we have the breadth of advice and information needed.
You can contact us about complex family finances in West Sussex and Hampshire at your local branch in Chichester, Fareham, Havant or Petworth.
Alternatively, you can fill in our online enquiry form and a member of our team will be in touch shortly.
Our complex finance solicitors have the expertise to deal with a wide range of family finance disputes and high net worth divorce issues. Matters with which we can assist include:
In a divorce, all of the financial assets available to the parties are taken into consideration. Those acquired during the marriage or put into joint names during the marriage are classed as matrimonial assets.
Some assets may be referred to as non-matrimonial assets. This could include property owned by one party before the divorce which was ring-fenced and not shared during the marriage, or a family business. However, if the court decides that these assets are not off-limits and that they are necessary in order to adequately provide for the other spouse, the non-matrimonial assets may also be shared on divorce.
At the outset of divorce proceedings, all finances are usually disclosed to each party. If a case goes to court, the court will look at all assets when deciding what financial order to make.
The court generally expects a couple to make every attempt to resolve matters without litigation. This could be through negotiation or an alternative method of dispute resolution.
Mediation is commonly used to try and find a way forward, including in complex divorce cases, and it involves meetings with a neutral family law mediator who will help you to explore possible solutions. The mediator does not have the power to impose a result on you, so you will not be bound by an unwanted outcome.
You can meet with the mediator and your former partner, or, if you prefer, the mediator can shuttle between you and your former partner so that you only meet with the mediator.
Mediation can be very beneficial, particularly as it is usually a faster method of resolving matters. Even if you do not reach a final agreement, you may find some points that you can agree upon.
If you do manage to come to an agreement, this will be put into a draft order. The court will then approve it and seal it, so that you have a binding financial order.
Pensions are taken into account in divorce, so you will need to know how much all pensions are worth. Pension valuation is complex, and you will need a pensions actuary to deal with the valuation on your behalf.
The actuary will also be able to provide calculations that can be used by the court if it makes a pension sharing order. This is an order requiring part of a pension to be split off and awarded to the party who does not currently have a stake in it.
With regard to inherited assets, the court may look at issues such as when they were received, how they have been used during the marriage, and how long the marriage lasted.
If an asset was inherited but kept separately from any shared matrimonial funds, the court may be inclined to consider it a non-matrimonial asset and might decline to include it in the pot of matrimonial assets available for sharing. However, if money was inherited early on in a long marriage, put into a joint account and shared by the parties over the duration of the marriage, the court is more likely to class the money as a matrimonial asset.
If one party wants to retain a particular asset, it may be possible to do this by awarding the other party another asset instead. For example, if a spouse wanted to retain their pension, the other party could have a larger share of other savings, property or investment by way of compensation.
Generally speaking, the court will aim to provide fairly for each party. This could mean splitting assets that one party considers to be theirs.
The first step in resolving matters is to fully disclose all assets and work with a family law solicitor who has expertise in handling complex financial issues in divorce. If you ask us to represent you, we will go through your situation in detail and establish exactly what you want to achieve.
The next step is usually to enter into correspondence with the solicitor for your former partner and to start negotiations. It is often possible to make substantial progress in this way, by focusing on what you want to achieve and how your various assets can be dealt with.
If you are going through a complex divorce and some issues remain, we can arrange mediation or another form of alternative dispute resolution. If you go to mediation, anything discussed will be confidential and does not have to be disclosed to the court.
If mediation is not successful, then we can apply to the court for a financial order. In deciding how to deal with your assets, the court will prioritise the needs of any minor children. It will then consider the points set out at Section 25 of the Matrimonial Causes Act 1973, as follows:
For more information on the way in which we can help you secure a financial order on divorce, see our page on negotiating financial agreements and securing a settlement on divorce.
For more information on our services and expertise, see our family law solicitors page.
When you use our complex finances service, we promise:
You can contact us for advice and representation in respect of complex family finances in West Sussex and Hampshire at your local branch in Chichester, Fareham, Havant or Petworth.
Alternatively, you can fill in our online enquiry form and a member of our team will be in touch shortly.
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