Family Law: Requirements for a Binding Financial Agreement

Written by James Frank | 17/07/17 1:12 AM

A Binding Financial Agreement (or ‘BFA’) is a written agreement between two or more people, setting out how property, financial resources and spousal maintenance will be dealt with in the event of a relationship breakdown.

There are strict rules and requirements in the Family Law Act 1975 (Cth) for BFA’s. This is because they take away the Court’s power to deal with the financial matters already agreed upon in the BFA.

Some of these legal requirements include that the agreement:

must be in writing;
specify the provision under which it was made;
must be signed by both parties;
deal with property, financial resources, spousal maintenance and/or other related issues;
must be made in the state or territory that the parties are usually resident in; and
must not have been terminated or set aside by a Court.

Both parties also must obtain independent legal advice for an agreement to be valid and the agreement must contain a statement to this effect. The statement of independent legal advice is then attached to the BFA.

There are also a number of protocols and procedures which lawyers who write up the BFA should follow in order to make sure that the BFA is truly binding.

To find out if a BFA is right for you, or if you have any other questions about family law, please do not hesitate to contact us on (02) 9688 6023 or email us at info@franklegal.com.au.

This article is provided to the reader for general information. It is not legal advice. It was written by Karla Elias and edited by Andrea Spencer.