Standard Contracts For A Financial Agreement
Financial agreements could be entered by any two people who are married or are preparing to marry. Financial agreements are binding - in that sense they are very difficult to overturn - but they need to satisfy the formal requirements specified in section 90G of the Family Law Act 1975 (“the Act”) to achieve this status: the agreement must be written. An oral agreement won’t suffice. This is because they are quite intricate documents, and specificity is essential; both sides must receive independent legal advice from a legal practitioner. These tips must tell you both what the agreement means for you, when it comes to your rights, and the benefits and down sides of the agreement. It is suggested that you get these tips in writing; the agreement must have a clause saying you have each obtained such advice; a signed certificate from the legal practitioner attesting to these tips must be coupled to the agreement; each party must sign the agreement; finally, each party must have either a copy or the original of the financial agreement.
These steps fundamentally prevent either party from saying they were not conscious of the consequences of the agreement when they accessed into it. When is a Financial Agreement Not Binding? Although they offer comparable assurance, financial agreements are not dependable and they can be overturned in certain very specific occasions. Section 90K of the Act lists the first few conditions, notably where: any of the above formal steps have not been satisfied; you have not disclosed, or have concealed or misrepresented, the extent of your assets and resources at the time you accessed into the agreement; it is impracticable for the agreement to be completed, for example; a modification has occurred concerning a child which will cause that child to undergo difficulty; or you entered into the agreement by fraud, or for the purpose of defrauding another.
Your legal advisor can provide more details on these, especially as certain standard clauses in financial agreements may potentially be void. For example, section 90F overturns any clause that forbids the courts from instituting a maintenance agreement if, at the time, the other party was unable to support themselves.
A financial agreement can also be overturned by contract law, since they're, in essence, a contract. A full breakdown of these situations is past the scope of this article, but in conclusion, they arise in the act of getting one party to sign the agreement, the other party engaged in conduct that was highly unethical or fraudulent; the agreement is vague and it is unclear what it promises to do; either party forced the other person to sign the agreement; or both parties sign a new agreement terminating the financial agreement.
Most of these factors, however, should be handled by your legal practitioner when you receive advice as to the financial agreement. Due to the difficulties associated with drafting a relatively complex document, it is recommended you also use your practitioner to draft, or help draft, your financial agreement. This will help ensure it is binding, and provide the required safety to both of you if the relationship falter.