Binding Financial Agreements, Prenuptial agreements are extremely complex and need to be treated with care and caution. The law in relation to Financial Agreements continues to develop, and in some cases there is a degree of uncertainty attached to them.
Financial Agreements can apply to both de facto relationships and marriages, and can be completed any time before, during or after the marriage/relationship.
Financial Agreements are relatively commonly used post separation as a means to formalising a property settlement. There are two options to formalise a property settlement, a Financial Agreement and consent orders. The latter is more commonly used, but Financial Agreements are generally used in circumstances where for various reasons, the parties do not want a Registrar of the Family Court scrutinising their agreement, or the agreement involves excluding the possibility of spousal maintenance in the future for the parties. Financial Agreements require that both parties receive independent legal advice on the agreement.
Financial Agreements cannot properly deal with child support or parenting issues. Both of those types of issues can be formalised by agreements, however they should be in a different form to the Financial Agreement.