Frequently Asked Questions

In order for a prenup or a postnup to be upheld legally in the UK, both members of the couple will need to have received independent legal advice.

On Wenup, our standard package is £690 per person, or £1,380 total, and this includes independent legal advice for both of you. 

When comparing Wenup to other options, it is important to be aware that most other providers quote for drafting an agreement and representing one of you, but the total cost of drafting an agreement and receiving separate advice will be far higher once both members of the couple have received the legal advice they need for an agreement to be upheld in the UK. 

Couples who are planning to tie the knot or be united in a civil partnership can create a prenuptial agreement to set out the arrangements for dealing with their finances in the event they break up. This agreement must be executed at least 28 days before you are due to be married. If your wedding is less than three months away, you can get a post-nuptial agreement after you are married. 

Yes, couples that are already married or civilly partnered can enter into a postnuptial agreement. 

A prenuptial / postnuptial agreement, or 'prenup' as they are commonly referred to, are legal documents entered into by an engaged, married or civilly partnered couple setting out how their assets will be divided in the event the marriage should end in divorce or the partnership is dissolved. 

Unmarried, cohabiting partners may choose to enter into a cohabitation agreement to set out the arrangements for dealing with their finances in the event they break up. Wenup will soon be providing draft cohabitation agreements. Please email us to be notified when they are live. 

While pre and post nuptial agreements are not automatically legally binding in the UK, they are taken into account by the courts as long as you’ve taken steps to ensure your prenup is legally sound and was drawn up fairly.

The Wenup process has been built to ensure that agreements entered into on our platform are consistent with the structure, content and process required to make your agreement legally enforceable. This includes ensuring both partners receive separate legal advice, as well as making sure the agreements we use follow the practical advice set out by the Law Commission on pre and postnup agreements.

Provided cohabitation agreements are drafted and executed properly as a deed, they are legally binding in the UK.

Your agreement should be reviewed and adapted whenever there is a significant change of circumstances within your relationship. You are able to do this easily via the Wenup platform.

Examples of a triggering event may include:

●  The birth of a child (unless this was specifically contemplated in the original agreement, and those terms continue to appear fair)

●  The couple settling and having the matrimonial home in a jurisdiction outside England and Wales.

●  One of the couple’s incapacity through chronic illness or disability

●  Bankruptcy

●  Other significant changes in financial circumstances

Wenup provides couples with a collaborative way to plan their finances in the event they break up.

Prenups, postnups and other agreements for couples can feel uncomfortable. While none of us go into marriages or long term relationships expecting the worst case scenario, the statistics about the number of marriages that end in divorce are widely reported. A Wenup agreement will reduce the pain, cost and time spent arguing over finances in the event you and your partner break up.

Wenup encourages openness and transparency between couples, ensuring that they have financial conversations upfront from a position of love and respect, rather than further down the line when this is not always the case.

Couples agreements require a level of open and honest communication between partners about finances and assets that some people can find uncomfortable. While we think it is best to have these conversations before a marriage or partnership has broken down, it will require you to think through a fair solution together should you break up in future, which some people consider to be unromantic.

While Wenup goes through a number of steps to make sure our agreements comply with legal advice to make them legally enforceable, we cannot guarantee that every agreement produced will be legally binding as this will depend on the view of the court (should it come to that) in your specific case.

The Law Commission has recently recommended legislative reform to make nuptial agreements that are in a prescribed form, and adhere to certain safeguards, legally binding. Wenup’s agreements have been designed in line with the Law Commission’s guidelines to ensure our contracts are up to date with the latest thinking on how couples agreements should be drafted and agreed.

Producing a couples agreement on Wenup costs £1,380 which includes the agreement itself, as well as one round of separate legal advice for each member of the couple ie one converstaion each with separate lawyers. If your proposed agreement is particualrly complex or requires further work for any reason, we will connect you to lawyers who can help. The lawyers will charge for their time but Wenup does not take commission or make any money from this additional work.  

In order for nuptial agreements to be legally enforceable, a court would need to be sure any agreement was freely entered into by each party with a full appreciation of its implications. As part of the Wenup process, we ensure both members of a couple receive separate legal advice from lawyers as part of our process before agreements are signed.  

Wenup encourages transparency and openness between the couples that use our website.

In the past, suggesting a prenup agreement was considered a taboo or an unromantic thing to do, as it usually involved the wealthier member of the couple setting out their demands, while both partners sought out separate legal advice.

Even if the intentions of both parties are good, the existing methods to put together an agreement inherently put one partner against another, creating animosity and mistrust.

We believe it doesn’t have to be this way and have created a platform that allows couples to make agreements in a collaborative, open and accessible way.

If you and your partner are comfortable having open and honest conversations about your finances, and believe that it’s reasonable to discuss what should happen to the things you own if you break up, Wenup is the platform for you and your partner to put together an agreement in a naturally collegiate way. You will of course still require separate advice as part of this process, which aims to protects each fo your respective interests.  

Your agreement should be updated if there is a significant change to you or your partner’s circumstances, such as if you have children. You can update your agreement on the Wenup platform once you have set up a profile on our site. The courts have an overriding power to divide assets in a way that is fair. Having children and failing to update your agreement to reflect the change in circumstances risks increasing the likelihood that the court will depart from the wishes set out in your agreement. 

You can start building your agreement now on our website, which you can revisit at any point after you have signed up for a Wenup account. If you are already married, the agreement can be drafted and signed anytime. If you are not yet married, then you can prepare and sign an agreement anytime up to 28 days before the wedding date. If you are within the 28-day time period, you should wait until after the wedding and create a post-nuptual agreement instead. 

There is a significant risk that downloadable templates fail to meet the basic criteria to be legally enforceable in the UK. In particular, one of the minimum thresholds for testing the validity of an agreement is for both partners to have received separate legal advice, and for the agreement to be fairly drafted and willingly entered into by both parties.

Wenup is an online service providing legal forms and information. Wenup is not a law firm or a substitute for a lawyer’s advice. We provide access to 3rd party lawyers on our platform but are not responsible for the advice they provide.

There is no difference in legal status between pre-nuptial agreements and post-nuptial agreements. 

In order for nuptial agreements to be upheld by a court in England and Wales, several factors will be taken into account, including that:

●   The agreement was freely entered into by the parties.

●   The parties had a full appreciation of the implications of the agreement at the time they entered it

●   The parties intended the agreement to have a legal effect

Our standard package includes a 60 minute call for each of you with an experienced, independent, direct access barrister to ensure each member of the couple has received independent legal advice, which involves a review of any red flags in your agreement, making tweaks to the draft so that it fits your requirements and maximises the chances of it being upheld, as well as running through a questionnaire designed to ensure the agreement is appropriate for you and that you understand its implications. 

However, if you require additional drafting or customisation that cannot be carried out within your respective 60 minute calls, or if one of the barristers decides on the call that you may need further advice for whatever reason, you may have to seek further legal advice either with your barrister at their hourly rate, or with another lawyer if you so choose. 

You and your partner will choose your separate lawyers from different law firms via our platform. Each lawyer will be advising one of you separately and independently on the proposed terms of your agreement. Our process is designed to be naturally collaborative, transparent and fair to both sides. Your lawyers may discuss the fairness of your proposed agreement directly with you and each other. This openness is encouraged as part of our process with the aim of producing a final agreement which is likely to be upheld/ followed by a judge in the Family Court in England & Wales in the event that your marriage/ relationship breaks down and you wish to rely on the agreement relating to the division of your assets at the end of the marriage/ relationship. You will be guided upon how to alter the agreement you have reached between you so that a Family Court judge is more likely to uphold the terms at the end of your relationship/ marriage. This may result in you both needing to reconsider the terms of your agreement, with the assistance of your respective lawyers, who will amend the terms of your proposed agreement for you on instructions from you both. In the interest of a fully transparent process, your lawyers will be obligated to include any important information you share with them that is relevant to your agreement. 

Once you are ready to speak to your lawyers, you will have the option of selecting from a list of avaialble lawyers on the platform, or you can ask the Wenup team to choose the first available lawyer for you. You will then each connect directly with your lawyer to arrange the meeting. You pay the lawyers directly for their time, an hour for each of you is included as part of our £1,380 package. 

In order to start the process with Wenup, we suggest you book in a free consultation with one of our team via the website. If you would like to go ahead after the consultation, you will sign up for the platform and make an initial payment of £780.

Once the draft of your agreement is ready, you will each have the opportunity to select the lawyer you would like to advise you, and will pay them directly for their advice. All of the lawyers on the platform charge £300, and approximately half of them are VAT exempt.

If you each choose a lawyer who is VAT exempt, the final amount you pay will be £1,380 (including VAT). If you choose lawyers who are registered for VAT, the amount you pay will be £60 per lawyer higher to include VAT.