We can work it out... Or can we?

We learned this week that Sir Paul McCartney is set to marry US businesswoman Nancy Shevell.

After his highly publicised divorce to Heather Mills, where she received a financial settlement of £25million, will the Beatles legend consider a pre-nuptial agreement before his marriage?

Of course, Miss Sevell’s financial circumstances are very different to Ms Mills. From all accounts she appears to be financially independent and successful in her own right. She is also in her early 50’s so the couple are unlikely to have children. However a pre-nup is certainly something that they may consider. Increasingly we see older financially independent couples prior to the their second or subsequent marriage who decide to have a pre-nup, if only because they want to avoid a further costly and contentious divorce and to keep their assets, now and in the future, separate.

Requests for pre-nups often arise when one of the parties is a foreign national. In New York, Nancy Shevell’s home city, pre-nups are regularly entered into prior to a marriage and in England they are becoming much more common. In such cross national situations it is recommended that each party takes advice from foreign lawyers in both jurisdictions.