Introduction
Although the legislation relating to Financial Agreements seems clear-cut, Financial Agreements are often overturned or set aside by the Court for a variety of reasons. This makes it more difficult to guarantee that a Financial Agreement will indeed be ‘binding’. When considering the application and utility of Financial Agreements in practice, it is therefore prudent to weigh the advantages of entering into a Financial Agreement against the drawbacks or risks associated with it.
Introduction
On American television shows and in movies, the term ‘pre-nup’ is often thrown about. You may be interested to know that there is actually no such thing as a pre-nuptial agreement in Australia. Rather, under Australian law, people can enter into a Financial Agreement at any stage of their relationship to deal with their financial settlement or financial support after the breakdown of the relationship.
Spousal maintenance is ongoing financial support paid by a party of a marriage to their former partner in circumstances where the former partner is unable to support themselves. In de facto relationships, this is called de facto partner maintenance. For the purposes of this article, both types of maintenance will be referred to as ‘spousal maintenance’.