'Pre-nups' on the rise
12 October 2007
The number of unmarried couples making pre-nuptial type agreements is on the rise, according to the financial planning company Best Advice.
Kelvin Lillywhite, a financial consultant at the firm, said that today there are lots of cohabiting couples and they often own large assets and liabilities together, such as a house and a mortgage.
And, he explained, since they have few legal rights to one another's assets in the event of a break-up, many are choosing to make contractual agreements outside of the normal marriage setup in order to decide who would get what.
"A lot of people, rather than necessarily going down the marriage route, are quite happy to make [the equivalent] of a pre-nuptial agreement, so if they ever split up they can say 'I'll get this amount of the house and you'll get this amount'," he said.
Figures from the Office for National Statistics show that the number of unmarried but couples living together has risen by 65 per cent in the last decade.
