Prenuptial and postnuptial agreement solicitors

Fixed fee prenup / postnup costs £1,200 (including VAT)

Once we have provided you with a written fixed fee quote for the agreed work on your prenup or postnup agreement, that price will not change.

Included in the fixed fee prenuptial / postnuptial agreement:

• initial legal advice by consultation or detailed telephone call
• legal advice on the implications of signing a prenup / postnup
• informing you of the financial information needed and drafting a schedule setting out your respective financial positions
• drafting the prenuptial / postnuptial agreement to reflect the agreement you have reached with your partner

Not included in the fixed fee prenuptial / postnuptial agreement:

• advice on what agreement you ought to make as that would be based on a detailed consideration of all your financial information, and may require reports from other professionals such as accountants
• any work required to implement the terms of the prenup / postnup agreement for example transferring an interest in property
• any negotiations if there is a disagreement (that work would be conducted on an hourly rate basis)

Our fixed fee pre and postnup agreement packages are only suitable for:

• couples who have already reached an agreement
• cases without complicated assets such as property abroad

The package is not available to people with assets of over £1,000,000

A prenuptial agreement (prenup) allows people who are planning to get married to set out what would happen in the event they were to separate in the future. For people entering into a civil partnership the same type of document is called a pre-registration agreement.

What is a postnuptial agreement?

A postnuptial agreement (postnup) allows people who are already married to set out what would happen if they were to separate or get divorced.

Prenuptial, postnuptial and pre-registration agreements are particularly important when people have different amounts of money and/or property or are expecting to receive an inheritance. For example, someone who has divorced before and received a property as part of a divorce settlement, may want to keep that property separate if they decided to remarry.

Prenuptial agreements are commonly called ‘prenups’ and so we’ll refer to prenups on the rest of this page to provide information which applies to prenuptial, postnuptial and pre-registration agreements.

Are prenups legally binding in England or Wales?

Not under current law but recent family law and divorce cases have proved that a court can take a prenup into account when deciding how assets between a husband and wife or partners should be divided. See court upholds prenup case study.

This is the case where a prenup has been freely entered into by people who understand the full implications of what they are doing. There are exceptions though, for example where one person is under excessive pressure or can be dependent on issues such as the age or maturity of those involved.

What can a prenup include?

Prenups are written to fit your personal circumstances and may include:

• how each of you contributes to rent, mortgage or household bills until you’re able to vacate or sell your home, if this is what you’ve agreed
• how you will deal with any joint bank accounts or debts
• how you will deal with any property or the sale proceeds of a property, after paying off any mortgage or sale costs
• what will happen to any items you’ve bought together including cars and furniture
• what would happen to your pets
• maintenance for either of you or any children
• who the children will live with and arrangements for seeing the other parent

What we will do

We will provide clear explanations so you completely understand the process.

We’ll ask you to provide all the information we need and prepare the agreement and advise you on how to complete it and get it witnessed. You and your partner will then receive an original copy.

Once we have provided you with a written quote for the agreed work, that price will not change.

The family law team at Co-op Legal Services includes specialist family solicitors, divorce solicitors and children law solicitors with Resolution accreditation and accredited experts in child abduction, co-habitation, domestic abuse, property disputes, high net worth money matters and financial advocacy.

Resolution is a national organisation of family lawyers committed to non-confrontational divorce, separation and other family problems.

As part of the Co-op Group, our values of openness, honesty, social responsibility and caring for others are core to the service we provide.