“Our role is to assist the client clarify the current situation – and to plan ahead. As the divorce progresses from the pre to the post-settlement stage priorities evolve to making the best of the settlement – and adjusting to the financial constraints imposed by it,” adds Ormerod. “We can also attempt to minimise the tax consequences of longer-term decisions.”Such groups will have a team of specialists in different areas, with the most appropriate drawn on as required. North of the border, family and divorce law remains distinct, and the Family Law (Scotland) Act sets out principles to guide the courts in making financial orders.Meanwhile, Mr and Mrs K, from London, in their thirties with a child at private school, have joined the seasonal surge. But is this a luxury, the preserve of the super-rich? “Absolutely not,” says the group’s Mark Ormerod, who suggests a threshold figure of around pounds 100,000 in assets. Hill Martin Financial Management, for example, have a Matrimonial Litigation Support Service, which offers independent advice tailored to the individual – including their lifestyle and risk profile.
Mr K pays into a private pension scheme, Mrs K has no fund of her own. Like many couples they have built up their own particular financial profile of debts and assets. Mrs K feels particularly vulnerable, not just regarding pension provision, but since she also feels less au fait with matters financial.One course of action is to enlist specialist services. There is a family home – with a mortgage – one private car, one company car, a portfolio of shares, one joint and two individual bank accounts, a number of insurance policies, plus modest savings accounts. However, other charges are also low.Verdict: Very suitable for the risk-lover.Marks out of five: Four..
A peak of divorce petitions typically begins after the Christmas break. Traumatic enough in itself, the task of dividing the worldly goods can bring its own problems Gwenda Joyce-Brophy points out the pitfalls. Perhaps the glaring antithesis of the marriage to the happy image omnipresent at Christmas becomes just too painfully obvious. Or the elongated seasonal break forces an already fragile structure to fracture irrevocably, but as the crowds rush to the January sales, solicitors have come to expect their own queues – of those instigating divorce.
The current situation is one of “all change”. When the Family Law Act of 1996 is fully implemented (probably not until around 1999) arrangements over finance will need to be resolved before a divorce is granted. This could amount to more than the normal initial charge, which has been wiped from this product.
In contrast to most unit trusts, this could eliminate the benefit of the reasonable annual management fee of just 1 per cent. The risk could carry a higher reward – and the names are trusted.Drawbacks and risks: Withdraw your investment from an investment trust built into this PEP and it will cost you 1 per cent of your investment – no matter when you withdraw. According to Jayne Caudle, an adviser at the London-based Clark Conway partnership, “these are not middle of the road funds”. The rest can go into one of a range of seven trusts run by other investment managers, to cash in on prospects in Europe, the Far East and Japan. Plus points: Investment managers who offer this type of product commonly insist that at least 50 per cent of the money invested must be managed by them. Framlington, very reasonably, is only asking for 25 per cent.
