When serious wealth meets family breakdown, the ordinary rules acquire sharp edges: businesses valued and fought over, trusts attacked and defended, assets across jurisdictions, and privacy worth protecting. Connaught Law's HNW family lawyers act for wealth-holders and their spouses in complex divorces and the agreements that prevent them.
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How We Can Help
Complex Asset Divorce
HNW divorces are decided in the detail of the asset base: private companies and the question of liquidity, carried interest and deferred compensation, property portfolios, pensions worth more than houses, and trusts — whether they're resources or genuinely out of reach. We act for the wealth-holding spouse and the non-earning spouse alike; our guide to family business protection covers one of the hardest-fought fronts.
Protecting Pre-Marital & Inherited Wealth
Not everything is in the pot: assets built before the marriage, inheritances and gifts can be treated as non-matrimonial and, needs permitting, retained — but the line blurs the moment wealth is mingled with family life. Our guides to matrimonial vs non-matrimonial assets and ring-fencing assets set out how the arguments actually run — and how to preserve the distinction before it's tested.
Prenuptial & Postnuptial Agreements
English courts now give decisive weight to nuptial agreements freely entered with disclosure, advice and fair terms — making a well-made prenup the single most effective wealth-protection instrument in family law, and a badly-made one expensive theatre. We draft and review prenups and postnups to the standard courts uphold; our prenuptial agreements guide explains what makes them stick, and cohabitation agreements do the equivalent work for unmarried couples.
Disclosure & Valuation Battles
Big-money cases turn on numbers someone doesn't want found or agreed: full disclosure through Form E and beyond, forensic pursuit of the undisclosed, and valuation fights over businesses and illiquid assets — including challenges to expert evidence, on which our Daniels v Walker guide is the reference. Freezing relief is available when assets start moving; we don't hesitate to use it.
International & Offshore
Wealthy families are international by default — and so are their divorces: jurisdiction races where the venue changes the outcome, offshore structures and their disclosure, enforcement across borders, and the interplay with residence and tax. We run these cases with our private client tax and immigration teams in the same building, because in HNW divorce the family law answer is rarely the whole answer.
Privacy & Discretion
Financial remedy proceedings expose what families spend fortunes keeping private. We manage that exposure: anonymity and reporting restriction arguments where available, arbitration and private hearings that keep disputes out of open court entirely, and negotiation conducted so that most cases never need either. Discretion isn't an add-on at this level; it's part of the strategy.
How We Work
We start with the asset map — what exists, where, how held, what's realistically arguable as non-matrimonial — and a strategy built on it: negotiate from strength, arbitrate for privacy, or litigate where the other side's position demands it. Specialist valuers, forensic accountants and tax counsel are instructed early, because in these cases the expert evidence usually is the case.
And where the wealth is intact and the marriage is ahead of you, the same team drafts the agreement that makes all of this unnecessary.
Why Connaught Law
01Both sides of the tableWe act for wealth-holders and for spouses facing them — so we know every argument before it's made.
02Wealth disciplines in-houseTax, trusts, property and immigration alongside family law — HNW cases are never just family cases.
03Senior attention throughoutYour case is run by our experienced family team, not passed down — with direct access to the person handling it.
04Private by designArbitration, private hearings and disciplined confidentiality — outcomes without headlines.
Fee structures are set out on our fees page — scoped candidly at the outset, because at this level cost strategy is case strategy.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is my business at risk in a divorce?
It's an asset the court will value and can share — but courts prefer not to break trading businesses, and outcomes more often offset the value against other assets or structure payments over time. The fight is usually about valuation and liquidity, not liquidation. Early expert valuation and the right settlement structure protect the company; panic restructuring on the eve of divorce does the opposite.
Are prenuptial agreements binding in the UK?
Not automatically binding, but given decisive weight: since the leading Supreme Court authority, courts uphold agreements freely entered with disclosure and advice, unless the result would be unfair — particularly on needs. In practice a properly-made prenup sets the terms of any later divorce. The craft is in the making; that's where we come in.
Can inherited wealth be protected in divorce?
Often substantially — inheritance is classically non-matrimonial, and courts can leave it untouched where the family's needs are met from other assets. Protection weakens when inheritance is mingled — the family home bought with it is the classic example. Keeping it separate, and documenting that separation, preserves the argument; a nuptial agreement locks it in.
Can our divorce be kept private?
Largely, yes, with the right choices: negotiated settlements and family arbitration stay confidential, and even in court there are anonymity and reporting-restriction arguments to deploy. What guarantees publicity is bitter, open-court litigation between recognisable names — which is one more reason our strategy starts with settlement from strength.
Serious wealth, serious stakes?
Whether you're protecting what you built or claiming your fair share of it, tell us the position in confidence. We'll map the assets, the arguments and the discreet route through.
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