2013-05-24T13:01:02-04:00 Fiona Wood http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/author/index.php?author=fiona-wood Copyright 2008, HuffingtonPost.com, Inc. HuffingtonPost Blogger Feed for Fiona Wood Good old fashioned elbow grease. tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog//3.2320523 2012-12-18T04:10:55-05:00 2013-02-16T05:12:01-05:00

Fiona Wood http://www.huffingtonpost.com/fiona-wood/
Although the end of a marriage may not be characterised by acrimony and long drawn-out disputes about children and finances, it can often be a bitter realisation that a relationship between two individuals who were committed to one another and who tried to overcome their difficulties is finally at an end.

Even those people who might be regarded as capable of making tough decisions in their professional lives find it hard to accept what divorce actually means on a personal level.

For instance, the media tycoon Sir Martin Sorrell recently gave an interview in which he described being divorced from his first wife, Sandra, as the most stressful episode in his life (http://www.managementtoday.co.uk/features/1161352/feature-sir-martin-sorrell-losing-something-gets-me/).

He pointed out that it was more than the extraordinary size of the 2005 settlement which affected him, though one might forgive even a multi-millionaire's eyes watering at paying more than £23 million in cash, plus a large townhouse in London and two parking slots at Harrods (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1127055/City-tycoon-Martin-Sorrell--8216-used-45million-shares-pay-divorce.html) - an arrangement which, at the time, was the biggest of its kind in British history.

It marked, he has said, his failure to "successfully balance career and family" which contributed to the demise of his 32-year marriage.

Yet there are, it would seem, plenty of people who regard at least some of those who divorce as being too willing to exit their marriages when the romantic walk down the aisle leads to a path which is decidedly more rocky.

My colleagues and I at Pannone recently commissioned some research by the polling company ICM. Even though the vast majority (73 per cent) of those questioned considered divorce as a more acceptable part of modern life, more than half (57 per cent, to be precise) felt they were too easy to obtain.

Ours wasn't necessarily a survey of marital diehards. The 2,000 people we spoke to included those who were single, cohabiting, married, divorced and widowed. In other words, the broadest cross-section of opinion that we could find.

The results intrigued us because they contradicted what we were seeing in the divorces we found ourselves dealing with on a daily basis.

We concluded that people's perceptions of divorce had perhaps been influenced by reporting of celebrities, such as comedian Russell Brand and pop star Katy Perry, who separate after very brief marriages (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2080449/Russell-Brand-files-divorce-Katy-Perry-says-cares-her.html).

It is true that official figures show that divorce is once again on the increase. Last December, the Office for National Statistics revealed that the number of divorces in England and Wales in 2010 had risen to 119,589, an increase of 4.9 per cent on the previous year (http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/dcp171778_246403.pdf). The data for 2011 is due to be released shortly.

The same body also recently revealed that although the number of marriages in 2010 was 3.7 per cent higher than the previous year (http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/vsob1/marriages-in-england-and-wales--provisional-/2010/marriages-in-england-and-wales--2010.html), there were almost half a million fewer married couples than in 1996. That compared with a near doubling in the number of couples choosing to cohabit over the same period of time (http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/family-demography/families-and-households/2012/cohabitation-rpt.html).

Against such a toll of change in the shape of the modern British family, the reasons for divorce seem relatively unimportant but are still worth consideration.

Two-thirds of our respondents believed that infidelity by either spouse was likely to be the principal cause of divorce. Just over half felt married couples were most likely to break-up because they had begun to lead different lives while one-quarter named problems managing money as the main reason for separation.

Only 18 per cent considered disputes about domestic duties were mainly to blame for divorce.
What we discovered made for particularly interesting reading given that the Law Commission is currently preparing to close a consultation about how married couples divide their assets. The results of that process, which was launched in September, are to be included in a report scheduled for publication in early 2013.

I suspect that even if the changes stemming from the Law Commission's enquiries make the financial and property elements of divorce easier for some, they will not render it a totally pain-free process on an emotional level, regardless of whether married couples have the wealth of Sir Martin Sorrell or rather more modest means.]]> tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog//3.2163988 2012-11-20T07:32:39-05:00 2013-01-20T05:12:01-05:00

Fiona Wood http://www.huffingtonpost.com/fiona-wood/
Like him or loathe him, however, there are few people among the domestic ruling parties who seem as adept as he does in occupying the editorial columns in print and online.

'BoJo' has been at it again this week. In a speech at a conference staged by the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), he suggested that the "injured" wives of foreign billionaires who intended to divorce should have those proceedings heard in London "if you want to take him to the cleaners"

It may well have been merely the sort of tongue-in-cheek remark for which Mr Johnson has become renowned. However, it touched on what has become an accepted wisdom: that London is the divorce capital of the world.

The city's courts have earned a reputation for being 'wife-friendly' because of a succession of big-money settlements, including the £48 million awarded to Beverley Charman, the ex-wife of insurance tycoon, John Charman.

Add to that the increasingly international flavour of many relationships, which has enabled more foreign wives to successfully argue that they should be allowed to file for divorce in London as opposed to elsewhere. This practice, which is known as "forum shopping", predates the Charman case and was even being remarked upon nearly a decade ago.

Earlier this year, the Times reported that it had grown so common that one-in-six of all divorces heard in London had a foreign element to them.

That research, in turn, followed work by one of my fellow partners in Pannone's Family department, Vicki McLynn, which revealed how spouses were competing with one another to have their divorces heard in countries where the outcomes might be more favourable to them.

This situation, though, is not just international. Even within England and Wales, there appear to be local or regional disparities in the settlements which husbands or wives are likely to be able to secure, as another colleague, Andrew Newbury, has found

Andrew has also pointed out on the pages of The Huffington Post how the possibility of prenuptial agreements finally being given the full weight of law by the Government and a greater emphasis on what a less well-off spouse's needs might be after divorce, could stem the tide of foreign wives heading to the UK to divorce.

Certainly, courts are conscious of what are seen as extravagant settlements. A few weeks ago, one of the most senior family judges, Lord Justice Thorpe, was reported as suggesting that the sums demanded by some wives far outstripped what their actual needs were.

The proportion of foreign cases being heard in London remains high, even if there is evidence that the kind of settlements being awarded are slightly less generous than they were in previous years.

Whether he was being entirely serious or not, Boris Johnson's stated desire for more big-money divorces to take place in London in order to benefit the city's legal fraternity may not meet with the favourable reception he might have expected.

Divorce is not a competition and, when there are children involved, the idea of parents vying to secure the billions becomes even less appealing.

While government ministers, judges and family lawyers like myself are trying to take the heat out of an already emotional situation by using constructive methods such as mediation, those trying to stoke the 'forum shopping' phenomenon - even in jest - risk making headlines but appearing sadly out of step.]]> tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog//3.2077762 2012-11-05T13:38:40-05:00 2012-11-06T13:16:27-05:00

Fiona Wood http://www.huffingtonpost.com/fiona-wood/
Pretty soon, as far flung destinations and once-remote parts of the globe came within easy reach of the casual traveller, a fortnight's vacation wasn't quite enough to satisfy our demands for a taste of life overseas.

Instead, we actually wanted to own a corner of some foreign field. As Britons' confidence grew, buying property just across the Channel in France gave way to the acquisition of homes in Spain, Italy, the Greek islands, parts of Eastern Europe, the United States and even further away from the UK.

In good times, such properties can provide families with what is literally a home-from-home: the welcome feeling of being in familiar surroundings even while away from the environment in which we might spend the majority of the year.

However, when times - and relationships - are tough, they merely become another asset to be argued over. In fact, foreign home ownership has become so common that more than one-sixth of the divorces handled by myself and my colleagues at Pannone feature overseas property.

To some, walking away from a failed marriage with a home in a foreign sun trap might still not sound a totally unattractive proposition. In the last few years, though, there are many who would disagree.

Many of us will be all too familiar with the effect of the recession on house prices in the UK. Its negative impact on values here, however, is considerably less than in other countries. In the last few years, there has also been a steep drop in property prices in many parts of Europe, as tracked by the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors European Housing Review (http://www.rics.org/us/knowledge/research/research-reports/european-housing-review-2012/).

The report detailed how, since 2007, homes in Spain are said to have fallen by 27 per cent and in Italy by 13 per cent. Portugal had also seen a five per cent drop in prices whilst the market in France was down by 7.6 per cent.

Those findings coincided with a study reporting that enquiries by Britons looking to sell their European homes had risen by 200 per cent since the credit crunch began to bite in 2008 (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/offshorefinance/9297024/Britons-rush-to-sell-European-properties.html).

As a result, what might have seemed like a decent divorce settlement when a couple split only a few years ago might now appear to be something of a millstone. Foreign properties which might have been viewed as a real asset in 2007 are not only worth less but might not be sellable.

Some divorcees have attempted to revise the terms of their settlements to take account of the drastic consequences which the downturn has had for Continental homes which they had taken as the principal part of their settlements.

On the face of it, their prospects are, frankly, rather bleak. Courts are unwilling to revise settlements for individuals who might have taken foreign property in much the same way that they have been reluctant to unpick the divorce settlements of those like investment tycoon Brian Myerson, who argued that his business interests had suffered during the recession.

In April 2009, the Court of Appeal rejected his attempt to revise the terms of his £9.5 million divorce on the basis that his businesses had been badly affected by the global downturn. It concluded that the "natural process of price fluctuation, however dramatic" did not warrant Mr Myerson being allowed to alter the terms of his settlement (http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/apr/01/divorce-settlement-credit-crunch).

The current situation may not, of course, blunt the desire of some couples to own a dream home abroad, even if an inability to secure a mortgage might delay those ambitions for a little while.

It might sound unromantic but considering what might happen to overseas assets in the event of a break-up and even formalising those plans in something like a post-nup agreement could forestall difficulties between partners - even if it can't ward off a global recession.

Given the bitter experience and complications of a foreign financial misadventure, it is little wonder that some individuals wish that they'd heeded the words of Dorothy in 'The Wizard of Oz': "There's no place like home".]]> tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog//3.1947291 2012-10-08T03:09:41-04:00 2012-12-07T05:12:02-05:00

Fiona Wood http://www.huffingtonpost.com/fiona-wood/
However, long before the female athletes of this year's Team GB successfully took to the field of play and even before Posh, Scary and company made their way in the man's, man's, man's world of popular music, sisters had been doing it for themselves.

The most recent study of official Government figures concluded that there were at least 2.7 million British women paid more than men and that the number had increased five-fold in the space of a generation (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/7120411/Breadwinner-wives-now-number-2.7m.html).

It is an undoubted consequence of women capitalising on greater opportunities to progress in a wide range of professions. A Cambridge University report in 2009 (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/6005222/More-British-women-in-high-status-professions-than-men-finds-study.html) underlined the extent of a situation which would appear to have only been consolidated by the economic downturn.

Building careers - and, in some cases, hugely profitable businesses - has not, of course, freed women from the need to juggle office hours with housework and childcare. Many have found that breaking through glass ceilings can count for little at home.

In some cases, their male partners have given up work to stay at home and be the 'house husband', enabling their higher-earning spouse to make strides at work.

Such circumstances are limited in number, though. Far more common are men who work but earn less than their wives.

I and my colleagues at Pannone have seen a threefold increase in female clients earning more than their spouses since 2009.

Many of those individuals complain to their divorce lawyer that there is a price to be paid when their marriages end. They believe that they are being "penalised" on divorce for being successful in their careers and working hard at home.

Some have told us that feel disadvantaged because courts take their earnings into account but not the amount of housework and childcare they do compared to their husbands when dividing assets.

This sometimes means that husbands walk away with a larger share of the capital assets, on the basis that they need more to help them make a fresh start after divorce because of their lower income, even though they have not have earned as much or made a comparable contribution at home.

Sometimes women find it difficult to accept that courts do not take into account housework and childcare - what has been described by some as "marital minutiae" - when deciding what a fair settlement would be.

A number of individuals who replicate in the home the sort of industry and effort which has helped them forge successful careers and get companies off the ground cannot accept that they may walk away from a marriage with less than their husband.

After years of juggling work and homelife, it can be a shocking consequence and an unintended spin on the title of their hit '2 become 1' which not even the Spice Girls could have foreseen.]]> tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog//3.1628923 2012-06-27T19:00:00-04:00 2012-08-27T05:12:06-04:00

Fiona Wood http://www.huffingtonpost.com/fiona-wood/
The recession has closed businesses and put many thousands of people out of work. Due to the rising pressures at work, tensions have also been ratcheted up at home for many.

Flaws which might have been present in relationships but could have been overcome in more affluent times have been exacerbated, forcing partners to separate.

Research by my colleagues at Pannone, other family lawyers and academics has underlined the fact that not only are money worries to blame for some relationships ending but they can also fuel bitter separations.

Whether married or not, many spouses and cohabitees are understandably keen to resume their newly single lives with as much financial security as possible. That necessity is magnified when there are children to take care of and provide for.

A sense of self-protection does not always make for pleasantries and compromise, and can lead to a spirit of confrontation as former partners try to maximise the assets that they walk away with from their life together.

In addition to the emotional cost of such situations, there can be a financial cost too. Sometimes the advice of lawyers is disregarded in order to prove a point to former partners which can increase legal bills.

Prolonging the bitterness can also impact on children, particularly if it leads to court proceedings about where the children should live or how often they should see the other parent.

The public are also affected by couples who are unable to agree matters when they separate. Their taxes are needed to fund the courts and the Child Support Agency (CSA) which deal with their disputes. How efficiently they have been run is another issue when considering the amount of public money spent.

The CSA, which began operations in 1993, is soon to disappear after much criticism. It costs half a billion pounds a year to run but the total arrears which it claims it is trying to claw back from parents who do not pay child maintenance amounts to a similar figure.

Its own data suggests that more than 5,000 cases on its books involve more than £50,000 in overdue payments.

With this as a backdrop, it is no surprise that ministers have decided to adopt a new strategy. The Department for Work and Pensions has announced measures which it believes might take the heat out of family disputes and save the taxpayer some money.

It has launched a two-year, £14 million Innovation Fund scheme to assist couples to separate amicably.

The initiative will consolidate a range of materials in a download-able application, including how to prevent parents fighting in front of their children, how to agree child maintenance payments and how to cope with your ex's new partner. It will be supported by mediation and online and telephone counselling.

In an age when almost every aspect of our lives is digitally dealt with, it is tempting to dismiss the venture. However, Family lawyers like myself are well aware of how difficult the breakdown of a relationship can be.

Although what the DWP is rolling-out might not be an instant solution, it will give some assistance. Some may respond well to the informal nature of the guidance provided.

In my view, anything that can take even a little heat out of situations which can be fraught for children and parents is to be welcomed.]]> tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2011:/theblog//3.1138383 2011-12-09T00:27:39-05:00 2012-02-07T05:12:01-05:00

Fiona Wood http://www.huffingtonpost.com/fiona-wood/ Politicians, bankers and business titans are struggling hard to maintain confidence in the economy as evidence mounts of a possible return to recession.

The effects of a downturn are as calamitous for couples as they are for commerce, even though the exact impact sometimes takes a little time to become apparent.

Figures just released by the Office of National Statistics (ONS) illustrate how the first wave of recession which followed the banking crisis of 2008 has translated into marital disharmony across the country.

They show that the number of divorces in England and Wales during 2010 rose to 119,589, 4.9% higher than they had been the previous year. Not only is this the highest number of divorces since 2003 but it is also indicative of the tensions created by job losses, falling income, rising debt and insecurity about the future.

Whenever such factors occur, they do not generally result in an instant break-up. Many couples will try to resolve their differences and difficulties before admitting they must go their separate ways.

In the aftermath of the 2008 recession, many husbands and wives found themselves unable to afford to divorce and so stayed living under the same roof, apart in all but name, law and finance.

There have also been those individuals who might have tried to ride out the economic and emotional storm in the hope that their partner's finances might rebound as business and employment prospects improve, only to recognise that things are not going to get better for some time to come.

However, although an important element in the ultimate break-up, I do not believe that recession represents the sole cause for divorce. Rather, in most cases, the pressures it creates exacerbate whatever underlying tensions there may have been in a marriage.

Beneath the headline of the overall rise, the ONS data throws up other interesting nuggets. They reveal how one-third of marriages in England and Wales now do not last beyond the 15th year. Furthermore, the figures indicate that divorce in 2010 was most common amongst those men and women aged between 40 and 44 years of age.

If rising divorce and its impact on spouses and children seems only to add to the gloom on these short winter days, you may be able to take heart from one nugget hidden in the ONS report: romance may not entirely be dead.

Almost a fifth of men and women who were divorced in 2010 had been divorced before, which shows that they were prepared to try marriage again after divorce, which can be a very unpleasant process.

This is a pattern most notably evidenced by some of those who had been through costly, painful and very high-profile divorces, including the former Beatle, Sir Paul McCartney.

If they feel able to press on with their lives, others may perhaps draw comfort. That they can do so may also, though, demonstrate how much less of a stigma divorce is in modern Britain than it was only a few decades ago.
]]> tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2011:/theblog//3.865018 2011-05-24T13:21:02-04:00 2011-07-24T05:12:01-04:00

Fiona Wood http://www.huffingtonpost.com/fiona-wood/ Sunday Times newspaper recently published its 'Rich List' for 2011, the latest edition of its annual summary of the staggering wealth accumulated by the UK's richest 1,000 people.

The list includes familiar stars of sport, the arts and entertainment, along with somewhat less well-known names from the worlds of business and finance. All who feature have amassed £70 million ($117 million) and upwards, sums far beyond even the wildest dreams of most of us.

Along with the ranks of those who have turned their talents into vast fortunes are four women who have not made their money themselves -- at least not directly, anyway. They are included because they have acquired most, if not all, of their wealth from divorce.

They are led by the six-feet two-inch tall former model, Slavica Ecclestone. In March 2009, she exited a 23-year marriage to Bernie Ecclestone, the man who transformed Formula One motor racing, with £734 million ($1.2 billion). That amount was almost £600 million ($985 million) more than the next largest settlement, paid by London-based Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich to his second wife, Irina.

Researchers compiling the rankings of the UK's most well-off were so struck by the sheer scale of payouts in recent years that they felt justified in putting together a separate list of those individuals they believed were likely to have received the 10 largest divorce settlements in English legal history.

While six -- including Guy Ritchie, the film director former husband of Madonna -- didn't possess the £70 million ($117 million) needed to gain entry to the full 'Rich List', their combined worth of £1.34 billion ($1.66 billion) appears to give further credence to the reputation earned by London as "divorce capital of the world", due to the significant divorce settlements received in recent years by the former spouses of the very wealthy compared to those secured other major cities.

It is a label whose significance shouldn't be lost on those fortunate enough to possess immense wealth. The lifestyles which are afforded by vast assets nowadays not only carry great benefits but sizeable risks too.

Many of the modern rich lead truly international existences, with homes around the globe. However, just as couples in the first flush of romance and wealth shop for property in different countries, so rich, divorcing spouses consider which territories' legal systems might provide a settlement most favorable to them, a process which has become known as "forum shopping".

Qualifying for the Sunday Times' 'Rich List' involves having a presence in the UK, which might be presented as justification for issuing divorce proceedings in London.

That, together with the recent history of settlements secured in England, and it can be seen why the husbands or wives of the very wealthy might press for their divorces to be heard in London in the hope of securing the kind of payout which may see them feature on the 'Rich List' in years to come.]]>