Divorce

Not every marriage ends in divorce but many do. Shockingly the UK divorce rate is estimated at 42% and over 100,000 British couples got a divorce in 2019. In addition, in 2019, nearly 1,000 civil partnerships were dissolved in England and Wales. Unreasonable behaviour is the most common grounds for divorce in the UK.

The fixed fee for a divorce in the UK is £550 but in 2018, divorcing couples on average spent upwards of £14,561 on legal and lifestyle costs. So, on balance if you decide that a good relationship decision will be to cease the one you have, then you are certainly not alone or unusual. But you need to be realistic and have a plan.

You really need to consider the work, stress and hard feelings created by divorce. These can be minimised by planning and advice.

The people we meet who are thinking about, in the process of , or just past a divorce, all have one thing in common. Either totally or in parts of the process they have found themselves in desperate need of sensible support and advice.

Its also true that we see some asset splits on divorce that have actually damaged both parties. This is because the valuation event (Form E) has been superficial and has not considered the true value of assets (especially investments or pensions).

Where Brooks Wealth can help:

Calming you down and keeping you focused. In a divorce its only too easy to get side tracked over irrelevant areas of finance or small financial impacts, meaning the process cannot proceed easily. We specialise in telling you directly and clearly what can be influenced and what cannot. For example, if your partner is taking a proportion of your pension, we cannot stop that, but we can certainly look at ways to minimise the damage if possible or suggest offsetting.

Slowing you down or speeding you up.  Some clients rush to get it over with, others become paralysed and cannot move forward. We help the process to move forward at a sensible rate by ensuring it’s not rushed whilst also by avoiding delays due to arguments over asset values.

We can offer an experienced view of how differing financial assets can be valued.

We can also look at taxation to create a reasoned net value to you, so that you do not shoot yourself in the foot retaining something that in part will suffer a loss due to taxation.

Pensions are complex and we are able to offer real world information on how to value them in the asset split.

Refinancing of homes to aid divorce and a real view on potential cost savings, needs careful advice without bias.

Income or capital needs are quite often an area of dispute so we can help bring these back to basics considering the income and asset base available.

We can act as expert witnesses to ensure that you do not miss passing the correct information on in form E, allowing as far as possible the courts to avoid making the wrong decisions over asset shares. We prefer to act as a joint single witness representing both parties as this tends to avoid some of the arguments and this will mean the cost to you both is less.

We can attend court! We can come to court as an expert witness but we tend to believe that agreeing matters before the court becomes involved is cheaper for you both. But if its needed we can offer a view for the court in relation to financial assets.

We can supply quotes to ensure the benefits conferred by a court order ensuring that death or illness of an ex-spouse does not damage the remaining family.

We can help you both plan your financial situation post-divorce and this can be one of the most important steps to moving past the divorce and restarting your lives.

We know the other professionals you might need such as wellbeing consultants, lawyers, accountants and other professional services.

We offer male or female advisers of varied ages dependant on your preference.

These are just some of the areas you might find useful if you are involved in a divorce, but there are many more.

Overall like most things in life a good plan aided by good advice could just make your and your families lives much more settled if divorce comes your way.

For a free no obligation meeting to discuss your needs please contact us.

Tel 01733 314553            Email info@brookswealth.co.uk                Web www.brookswealth.co.uk