Tips to help you be money prepared before you get married or live together.
Before you start down the romantic path to an expensive fairytale wedding really check with a lawyer what you have, where you own it and who brings what assets to the relationship. Be money prepared. The Divorce and Super laws include all relationships.
With almost one in two marriages going through the divorce courts in Australia, actually 50,000 it would be a savvy idea to think through what that might mean for you.
Really go through your finances with help from a financial adviser or accountant to find out where you really are.
Check in with the financial adviser in team with a family lawyer. Check that you know that living with a partner in a joint relationship as a de-facto for either a two year period or one year in some states of Australia that he is entitled to claim some of your assets in a split. And if you own an investment property he could go for that too.
Be certain that the family lawyer understands the financial rules of all assets being in the pool to be assessed including your partners’ super. Don’t get caught like Diane who visited four family lawyers and not one of them knew that she could claim half of her ex –husband’s super and after all his debts were paid, was left with nothing. She could have applied to have half his super paid over to her fund as part of the assets.
Even though you think that drawing up a financial agreement is unromantic now and looks as though you don’t trust your partner, you need to look out for your input, hard work and protect yourself and your future as much as he does for himself. If you both bring in assets then these need to be accounted for at the start. Deciding on a joint effort after that point is a great start together.
The financial adviser and the family lawyer will likely recommend that you set up a Binding Financial Agreement that sets out ownership of assets. Super sits outside this in terms of your Will however, you need to count this in.
Also this BFA can be done while you are in the marriage/relationship so it’s not an absolute necessity beforehand. However, it is a good idea to have it set up.
If you are both starting out together with joint assets built together then you do the agreement along the way.
Research by the Australian Institute of Family Studies Lixia Qu found that divorced men and women also tended to have fewer assets before they separated than couples who remained together.
“We haven’t fully investigated why that was,” says Qu. “Financial stress may be an indicator of other things not going well, and financial difficulties can also make a relationship difficult and cause a lot of stress. We found that before they separated, there were already signs people were feeling lonely and less happy. [Divorce] is not something that just happens.”
Philippa Hunt is a Woman on a Mission.
WiseGirls Money Academy was created after working as a qualified Financial Adviser for many years and deciding it was time to assist women who desired to learn and develop the self-empowerment to understand their emotional relationship with money, the skills and knowledge to save and invest. They wanted to learn how to create their own financial future and become financially capable.
The WiseGirls Money Mission is to provide the opportunity and place for growth and development of women of all ages in personal and financial skills in a supported female environment so that they take control of their future to reach their own financial independence.
