You and your ex will have important medium and longer term financial decisions to consider but some you may need to make very quickly.
In the immediate aftermath of a separation, it's best to try and keep your usual financial arrangements running. That way, things are kept stable and you hopefully avoid getting into debt. Things can be difficult though, especially if you or your ex has moved out and there are more household outgoings to pay. Ideally, you need to plan your finances together and agree as much as you can
However, you may be concerned that your ex will simply stop supporting you or will sell, transfer or somehow get rid of money and property deliberately to prevent a fair financial settlement from being reached. Speed - and specialist legal advice - will protect yourself and your family.
The court has a range of powers to deal with this including:
- freezing orders (also called injunctions) which prevent your ex from dealing with their assets in a way that might jeopardise your claims. These can be notified to third parties such as a bank and are capable of being enforced ultimately by imprisonment if intentionally breached by your ex
- emergency maintenance, also called interim maintenance or maintenance pending suit (MPS) which you can apply for if your ex is not supporting you and you are struggling to pay your reasonable day-to-day outgoings
- setting aside transfers of assets that were deliberately made to undermine your financial claims
Applications that can also be made to HM Land Registry to protect your interest in your family home or other property.
Our experience
We understand how distressing a divorce can be and how this can be exacerbated by financial difficulties early on. You need sensible, straightforward advice and you can be confident in our ability to deliver that. We have recently helped clients by:
- negotiating emergency maintenance and the reinstatement of the usual financial arrangements until an overall deal could be reached
- obtaining worldwide freezing injunctions to prevent assets from being sold or transferred to someone else, helping to ensure that our clients received their fair share of the family's assets
- successfully setting aside transfers of shareholdings made by majority shareholders
- advising trustees on their options in relation to the re-structuring of family trusts
- preventing pension assets being transferred abroad, enabling our clients to get the pension sharing order they needed as part of their divorce settlement