Prenup Lawyers Melbourne

Full and frank disclosure of all significant assets, liabilities, superannuation and financial obligations is required. Parties should exchange full details of their financial positions to ensure the agreement is enforceable and fair, and to avoid future disputes. If a party is found to have failed to disclose a material matter, the agreement may be set aside and be unenforceable.

Prenup agreements allow parties to outline financial arrangements and asset division in the event of relationship breakdown, including family businesses and self-managed superannuation funds. By obtaining independent legal advice, couples can protect their assets during a relationship and ensure a fair and agreed-upon outcome if the relationship breaks down. 

To be enforceable, a prenuptial agreement requires:

• Each party to obtain independent legal advice
• The lawyer for each party sign a Statement of Independent Legal Advice
• Each party to provide full and frank disclosure of their financial matters
• Neither party is subject to coercion, fraud or unfairness

This legal framework prevents future family law disputes and sets out the requirements for the agreement to be binding under the Family Law Act.

A prenuptial agreement can outline agreed financial arrangements between parties, including spousal maintenance. Many parties enter into financial agreements at the end of their relationship or marriage to ensure that neither party can claim spousal maintenance in the future. They want to ensure a clean break.

Financial agreements can cover child support arrangements but do not usually do so. If parents want an agreement to set out the child support arrangements, they usually rely upon a Limited Child Support Agreement o a Binding Child Support Agreement.

A prenup can explicitly outline financial arrangements for inheritances, self-managed superannuation funds and other significant assets. Our Melbourne family lawyers can advise you about what to include and how to manage assets that may grow over time, or future gifts or inheritances. In some cases, agreements will need to be updated if circumstances shift significantly, or significantly more assets or debt end up in the property pool or children are born when not anticipated by the agreement or there are other changes in circumstances.

Without independent legal advice, a drafted agreement can be challenged in the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia, potentially leading to expensive court battles and legal fees. Ensuring each party has advice from their own lawyer and has a signed Statement of Independent Legal Advice from their lawyer helps to ensure enforceability.

Mistakes often include inadequate disclosure, skipping independent legal advice or # rushing the process so that one or both parties do not have sufficient time to consider their positions, or the agreement does not properly reflect their intentions. Using separate experienced family lawyers, and obtaining detailed legal advice help avoid expensive court battles and family law disputes, and ensures arrangements regarding financial matters are properly protected.

Although a prenup cannot be updated or altered, the original one can be terminated and a new financial agreement entered into.

If you need assistance with changing an existing prenuptial agreement, get in touch with our experienced lawyers in Melbourne for a chat about how we can assist.