Anthony Gold’s Family team secures £7.75 million settlement for divorce client
Anthony Gold’s family law team has successfully secured a settlement worth almost £8 million for their client, following her divorce.
The couple, both originally from Scandinavia, met in England and married here in 2007. They had two children together. The husband was extremely wealthy, with assets worth approximately £76 million. These mostly consisted of inherited shares in his family company.
As is standard practice in Scandinavia, the couple had a marriage settlement drawn up before the wedding. This settlement provided for the wife to receive £850,000 to purchase a property in Scandinavia in the event of separation, but made no reference to either spousal or child maintenance. The settlement was agreed and signed by both the husband and the wife but it was never registered in Scandinavia.
When the marriage did break down there was disagreement between the couple as to how much weight should be attached to the marriage settlement. The husband relied strongly on it, but the wife contended that she needed greater financial support than was originally agreed. She sought an award of £12.38 million, whereas the husband proposed £4.6 million.
In hearing the case, the Judge applied the ruling in the recent case of Radmacher to the facts of this case, agreeing that “the court should give effect to a nuptial agreement that is freely entered into by each party, unless it would not be fair to hold the parties to their agreement.” The Judge determined that the husband and wife “were not on a level playing field” at the time of signing the settlement as the husband was much more financially astute than the wife. In addition, the couple had not returned to Scandinavia as they had previously agreed but had instead remained in the UK. Therefore, he found that the settlement should be disregarded, apart from the couple’s clear intention to protect the husband’s wealth. The court concluded that an appropriate settlement would be £7.75 million.
In determining the outcome, the Judge praised both the husband and wife, and also their legal representatives, for their approach which was to reach an amicable conclusion and keep costs down. Anthony Gold’s family team prides itself on adopting a constructive and conciliatory approach to the problems arising from relationship breakdown, and the team includes highly experienced mediators and collaborative lawyers who can smooth the process and help ensure discussions don’t break down.
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