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Is appreciation in value of shares, if shares that were excluded via prenup, part of marital property

Dean Jones
14.08.2019 18:30:48

3231

TLDR:

If prenup explicity excludes the assets before marriage from being in marital property, and such assets include illiquid shares in startup that might go up 10x in price over next 10 years, does the appreciation/gain in value of these shares at time of divorce excluded from marital property as well?


Longer version:

I would move in with my partner, who I have been dating for around 1 year. Our aim is to live together and get married over the course of next 2-3 years

We are both happy to sign a co-habitation agreement and later a pre-nuptial agreement if/when we get married, that sets out the assets we have before we start cohabiting/got married and keeps them out of the divorce settlement if it might happen

My assets are some cash, one house, and 90% shares of my startup which I believe will do well
Roughly speaking

Cash = £50k
Property = £100k in equity (£500k in value and £400k in mortgage)
Shares in Startup = Startup is currently valued very less, maybe £300k in value, but can grow 10x over next 3-4 years to reach say £10mn in valuation


If cohabitation/prenup specifically says that assets acquired before marriage/cohabitation are excluded from communual assets that should be divided in case of a breakup, do the startup shares (and their appreciation is my main point here) excluded fully? Or the value of the shares at time of marriage is benchmarked and any appreciation over this price is included as marital property

Thanks

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