For any family office looking to ensure that their family is protected against the possibility of a claim being made on divorce, there are a few key steps that need to be taken:
1. Review the structure regularly
It goes without saying that sometimes for tax planning reasons spouses and children can be included within a class of beneficiaries. If this has been done, it is important that the beneficiaries are aware that a change in their marital status must be looked at [can you elaborate?]. Are those relationships healthy? Are the children settling down with prospective partners?
2. Use agreements
Marital agreements can be a key weapon in the arsenal of a wealth protection lawyer. It is essential that any adult beneficiaries entering into a marriage, living with someone, or expecting children, have an agreement in place that protects the family structure. If that person lives internationally across multiple jurisdictions, it will be necessary to have a coordinated strategy to ensure that agreements work in multiple places.
3. Have a crisis strategy lined up
Although you don’t need a divorce lawyer on retainer, it’s usually a good idea to make sure that somewhere in your eco system you have the phone number of someone who can help in a crisis. Moving quickly in the early stages will be essential as that is most likely when freezing injunctions or other types of injunctive relief (occupation of the family home, non-molestation orders and so on) will occur. Likewise in the realms of children litigation, sometimes marriages break down and a move is made either within the jurisdiction or internationally. Being able to react swiftly to this will be very important.
4. Loop in a family lawyer if you are considering moving assets around
The recent case of Standish v Standish is a really good example of where the husband engaged in tax planning and the marriage subsequently broke down with his wife holding a significant tract of the family wealth. Fortunately for Mr Standish, the Supreme Court agreed with him that her holding the wealth didn’t make it matrimonial and therefore susceptible to being shared. However other litigants may not be so lucky. If you’re considering a restructuring, consult a family lawyer to see if it may be negatively impacted by a divorce or relationship breakdown.
If you’d like further advice on any of these issues, please contact the team at Burgess Mee.
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