A family business, acquired through determination and sheer hard work, is very often at the heart of the family, both from an emotional and financial viewpoint.

Increasingly, these days, businesses are transferred to younger members of the family well before ‘mum & dad’s’ normal retirement age.

However, what if disaster strikes, not in the form of a financial crisis, but because of a divorce?

Gone are the days in which it could be argued that a family business should not be sold. Equality rules in the new millennium and recent high profile decisions in the Court of Appeal, indicate that an equal division of all family assets is the common starting point. The impact of this change affects everyone – not just wealthy individuals and entrepreneurs.

Is it possible to protect assets before marriage? Pre-nuptial agreements are as common as confetti in the US where hardly anyone with big bucks, an executive bathroom, or business interests walks down the aisle without one. High profile celebrity marriages have reportedly been put on hold whilst agreements are ‘negotiated’ by the lawyers, doubtless a source of much irritation to the wedding planner and PR agent.

Are pre-nuptial agreements legally binding here? Well, in a landmark case on pre-nuptial contracts, the High Court has largely upheld an agreement signed by a wealthy London couple. Prenups are still a rarity here, mainly because they are not strictly enforceable as a contract, and, in the past, have been viewed socially unacceptable.

The law, however, does allow Judges to take a pre-nuptial agreement into account when dividing family assets, and in what I believe is a growing trend, the Courts are becoming more willing to give substantial weight to the terms agreed between couples before they say ‘I do’.

Agreements are not expensive to draw up but advice from a specialist family lawyer is essential. Whether in the UK such agreements will become common place is largely down to you.