Ultimate Guide to Financial Settlements

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Financial settlements are incredibly complex legal matters because family courts in the UK are widely discrete and hence every case is considered on its own circumstances. The financial settlement law in the UK is focused on providing the courts the ability to offer the best financial outcome for each party. These laws offer the courts the flexibility to give the order based on the specific circumstances in question, as generalized laws often lead to unfair court orders.

So, What’s a Financial Settlement?

A divorce settlement can be defined as a financial settlement between the partners to separate their assets and money after the finalization of the divorce or when the marriage is over.

Once the couple seeking a divorce reaches an agreement, we recommend hiring a professional solicitor to draft a consent order so both of them can acquire legal proof thy agree to the distribution of the finances and the division of assets.

Important Note: In Wales and England, you can make financial claims against the future earnings of your ex-partner even after getting a divorce. This is true for both of you.

In Scotland, however, you can make such financial claims after divorce.

Disclaimer: The information provided above is only meant for educational purposes and shouldn’t be used as a substitute for legal advice.

Fundamental Asset Division Rules in a Divorce

Fair Division

When there’s a divorce, the family court primarily focuses on dividing the assets fairly. While you need to remember that fair division doesn’t necessarily mean equal division. It means that both of the sides get a fair share and there’s no discrimination between the roles of the homemaker and the breadwinner— both of them will be regarded equally.

Children’s Needs

The court typically gives the first consideration to the needs of the children. This means that the child's accommodation is one of the major concerns and the child gets to live with the parent who takes care of them for a majority of their time. To ensure this, sometimes one of the parents needs to keep living in the child’s matrimonial home. However, if there are sufficient assets available, the Court’s first option is to accommodate both the partners (taking a divorce.) If you and your ex have decided to equally share the child agreements there’s a strong chance that housing needs will also be equal.

Section 25

The courts are required to consider all the circumstances related to your case and apply Section 25 factors to reach the final verdict. Based on the Section 25 factors the court may also order an unequal division; but generally, the ‘yardstick of equality is implemented, according to which the assets must be divided equally unless the court has a very good reason on the contrary.

Future Needs

The court always gives an order on financial settlements, based on the needs of both sides. If both of the partner’s needs can be covered from the assets available and if there’s are some additional assets as well, the court may also consider dividing the remaining financial assets. However, while making the divisions, they also consider the origin of assets. For this, they often divide the assets into the non-matrimonial and matrimonial property.

Important Note: Generally, the courts seek to achieve financial separation between the divorcing partners and this financial separation is called, a clean break. A clean break means that there will be no ongoing financial links between them.

Are You Getting a Divorce? Seek Legal Support!

If you’re getting a divorce, we can understand how difficult the situation might seem. Dealing with emotional trauma isn’t easy on your own and because of this, a majority of people tend to neglect financial issues at the time of divorce. This negligence often leads to severe consequences for both partners. If you want to avoid getting into any legal problems in the future, we highly recommend you seek help from an experienced divorce solicitors uk as they won’t only help you have a smooth divorce but they’ll also assist you effectively deal financial matters and child custody matters if you have any.

Wembley Solicitors has a team of expert divorce solicitors, who provide legal advice and representation to our clients at affordable prices.

Want to File for a Divorce? Their divorce solicitors can make the process of getting a divorce simple and less cumbersome for you. They can help with several other legal matters as well.

Feel free to contact them for legal advice.

The author of this post has been writing for the official website of Wembley Solicitors for a decade. He offers legal solutions to his clients for issues related to family law.