Personal

Dividing Foreign-Held Assets After A Divorce

If you and your spouse own foreign-held assets together, our divorce solicitors can help you come to an agreement that meets the best interests of you and your family.

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If you or your spouse has assets held abroad, it can make the challenging and emotionally-draining divorce process even more complicated. Forbes Solicitors, however, draw on years of experience to make your divorce as stress-free as possible, even when tracing foreign-held assets.

Assets such as property, possessions and money that are held overseas can be treated like any other asset in a divorce and considered for financial settlement. There are, however, some issues when dealing with these that make the process longer and more costly. Some of this arises from the difficulty in accounting for all assets held abroad. For instance, the well-known case of Michelle Young divorcing from her oil-tycoon husband went on for seven years, although she was eventually awarded £20 million.

Correct Documentation of Foreign Held Assets

As a case that lasts a long time is generally more expensive, it is a sensible idea (even if you are happily married) to keep all documents pertaining to assets held by either spouse in an easily accessible place where they can be found without trouble and expedite the process of tracing overseas assets. This will also ensure that neither of you are open to the accusation of hiding your assets abroad - something that can damage your case, resulting in you receiving a lesser settlement than you are entitled to, or even leave you facing prison time for contempt of court.

If you suspect your spouse is hiding assets overseas in order to reduce your divorce settlement, Forbes Solicitors can represent you to ensure all matrimonial property is accounted for. Equally, if you have assets abroad yourself, we can ensure you are disclosing everything that you need to and are not leaving yourself open to accusations of hiding assets.

Enforcement of the Court's Financial Order

Even once property, businesses, possessions or other foreign-held assets have been identified as part of the court's financial order, the actual enforcement can be a difficult process in itself. Forbes Solicitors will liaise with solicitors in the relevant countries as well as overseas courts to make sure the financial order is upheld and you get your full share of your divorce settlement.

We will also be able to advise you as to what constitutes matrimonial property. Generally, assets held abroad that were acquired by one spouse prior to marriage are not matrimonial property and so would be exempt from inclusion in the financial settlement.