Going through a divorce is never easy, but what comes next can be made even more challenging when one party wishes to move abroad or has assets overseas. Perhaps one of you wants to move back to your home country to be with family and friends, or maybe there is property abroad that you need to deal with. Unfortunately, once your divorce is granted, that is not the end of unravelling the life that you had with your spouse; there are still several legal matters you need to attend to. This article looks at some of the key things you may need to consider after going through a divorce with an international element.
Enforcing a financial consent order abroad
If you have gotten divorced in England and Wales, but one or both parties to the divorce have property or income abroad, you may need to enforce a financial order in another country, which can be challenging.
You may need to seek a financial order abroad, such as when an overseas property is to be sold or transferred to you. There may also be a need for an overseas financial order if your former spouse has relocated to another country and they are to make maintenance payments to you. You will need to seek advice from an experienced international family law solicitor as to how you enforce such an order will depend on the circumstances and the country where you need it to be enforced.
Updating your Will
It is also essential to review your Will after divorce. If you made your Will in England and Wales, then your Will is still valid in the event of divorce but may not be fit for purpose. Many people appoint their spouse as an executor and make them the main beneficiary of their Will. However, the effect of divorce on the Will is that it treats your spouse as if they passed away before you. This means that your spouse will no longer be able to inherit from your Will or act as your executor. Although this may be what you would like to happen, this leaves significant gaps in your estate plan. You will need to appoint another person to act as your executor and decide who you wish to inherit from your estate.
Change your Power of Attorney
Similarly; most people will appoint their spouse as their attorney. However, the effect of divorce is that it will terminate your former spouse’s appointment as your attorney, so you may be left without a power of attorney in place. We hope you will never need your power of attorney, but it is essential to have one in place to provide you with the peace of mind to move forward. We can provide advice and assistance with creating a new power of attorney.
Pensions if one partner moves abroad
Pensions can be a complex area of financial settlement in divorce, even more so when one party lives abroad or wishes to move overseas in the future.
It is not possible for the courts in England & Wales to make a pension sharing order against a pension held in a foreign pension scheme. However, your former spouse can transfer their pension funds into an overseas scheme, meaning you could lose out on pension income if this is not properly addressed as part of your financial settlement. Typically, the courts prefer a ‘clean break’ regarding pensions and will make a pension sharing order, which divides pensions right away. This is compared to a pension attachment order, which determines that a percentage of a person’s future income will be paid to their ex-spouse once the pension holder reaches retirement age.
We can fully advise you about your situation to ensure that you can access pension funds under these circumstances. We can also assist you in seeking advice from a solicitor in the jurisdiction where any pension funds are held, if relevant. .
Contact IMD Solicitors – International Family Law Experts
If you need advice regarding international divorce or what comes next, get in touch with our experienced team today. Our offices are based in the UK and are located in Manchester, London and Birmingham. Contact our specialist international family law team on 0330 107 0107 or request a callback.
This article is for general information only and does not constitute legal or professional advice. Please note that the law may have changed since this article was published.
F v F - Acted for a German husband in a complex financial remedy matter. He decided to instruct IMD Solicitors after he had lost trust in his previously instructed solicitors and feared that he would not achieve a favourable outcome from the proceedings. The relevant assets were spread across the globe with some located in the UK (including a multi-million pound business), Gibraltar, Spain, Dubai, and Poland. The overall value of assets exceeded £24 million. The husband had been cut off from the matrimonial assets and excluded from control of the business that had been established by his family. The case involved the instruction of numerous experts, for business valuations, Capital Gains Tax reports, and opinions on the enforcement of orders in foreign jurisdictions, and dealing with several applications, including applications for orders to freeze assets, prevent the disposition of assets, for the joinder of parties, and to litigate conduct issues. The final result exceeded the client’s expectations.
L v L - We were instructed by a mother in a complex international children matter. She was required by orders of the UK courts to return the child to the UK from Poland. She had travelled with the child to Poland but, following unsuccessful application to extend her stay there in August 2017, she decided not to return to the UK because the child disclosed sexual abuse by a member of the paternal family and the father. In September 2018, the Polish court dismissed the father’s Hague Convention application for the child's return on the basis of Article 13(b), a decision which the father appealed. In March 2019, the father applied to the UK High Court for an order for the child’s return pursuant to the procedure set out in Article 11(6) – (8) of the Brussels IIA Regulation. Despite the father's unsuccessful Hague Convention application in Poland, the UK court ordered the return of the child. Article 11 does not allow the court of the returning country much discretion. After all of this, the mother instructed IMD Solicitors to apply to discharge the orders of the UK Court for the return of the child. Even in the face of the fact that most applications to discharge such return orders fail, we succeeded. We are currently awaiting a decision in the UK courts on a further application for the transfer of jurisdiction to the Polish courts where the mother resides with the child.
G v P - We represent a Spanish mother in respect of an urgent application for a Child Arrangements Order and Specific Issue Order in the UK seeking the relocation of the child to Spain. This was after the return of the child to the UK under Hague Convection proceedings which this mother lost in Spain.
She was asking for an order for the relocation of the child back to Spain and an urgent interim Child Arrangements Order to allow her to see the child pending the final outcome of the UK proceedings. IMD successfully argued that, regardless of the return of the child to the UK under the Hague Convention, the mother should be allowed unsupervised overnight contact with the child. We were delighted to be able to secure her contact with the child for Christmas and she said that it was the best Christmas gift she could have wished for. The outcome of the application for the relocation is pending.
S v V - We currently represent the father in Child Arrangements Order proceedings issued by the mother in relation to variation of a UK order made in the face of numerous other international proceedings. He is an Italian National who has been living in France for the last 20 years and the mother is a Lithuanian national. The child is now 11 years old and proceedings concerning the child have been ongoing in various jurisdictions for the majority of the child`s life. Contested divorce proceedings including child arrangements took place in Monaco. The French Court and authorities were also involved, and various proceedings had been ongoing between parties since 2013 in France and Monaco.
The parties’ divorce was pronounced in Monaco. Thereafter, in December 2020, the mother submitted an application to relocate to England with the child, and the relocation took place in June 2021. Upon relocation, the she lodged a child arrangement order application, seeking to register a judgment made in Monaco and to vary the same in respect of the contact arrangements between the father and the child. The father seeks for the child’s return to Monaco.
Due to the parties’ mutual allegations and the associated international elements, various authorities and courts that have been involved in the case, the local authority has become involved with the family and a guardian has been instructed to represent the child in the UK proceedings. At present, these proceedings in England are ongoing and the outcome of the professional reports regarding the family are awaited.
P v P - We have acted for the Respondent Husband in relation to the financial remedy proceedings in the UK. The parties had various assets in the UK and Romania consisting mainly of the portfolio of properties but conduct issues were raised by the Wife due to a business of the Husband over which she had lost control and her allegations of dissipation of assets. The value of assets excluding the business were in a region of £3 million.
K v K - We act in financial remedy proceedings for a wife who is a Polish national. The matter's complexity mainly comes from a dispute between the parties around land in Poland. Its value was initially in dispute but was then assessed by a joint expert to be in the region of half a million pounds. The total assets in this case are estimated to be worth over £1 million. The land in Poland is a subject to contract with a third party and is being leased as a photovoltaic (solar) farm. The division of the land to achieve an equal share of the assets is complicated due to the contract in place and plans for the future use of the land. Currently the parties are awaiting a final hearing but efforts are being made to reach a settlement with the aid of alternative dispute resolution and in order to save the parties money and avoid further delays.
R v O - We acted pro bono and worked together with a law firm in Poland to ensure that the Costa Rican Mother regains access to her child. The Mother's only child was abducted from the UK in 2014. The Mother was successful with the abduction case and the UK family courts ordered the return of the child. The orders were recognised in Poland but unfortunately due to various issues with the Mother's immigration status and court's delays in Poland, the orders were never enforced. The Mother was facing removal from the UK and prospects of never seeing her child again. We have corresponded with various courts in Poland dealing with international abduction matters and we decided that an application for contact should be issued rather than any proceedings for further enforcement of the orders, as the Mother had not seen the child for around 7 years. At the same we secured the Mother's stay in the UK making successful outside of immigration rules application to extend her stay. We now receive regular photos from the Mother with her daughter, as face to face contact is taking place. We helped to secure an order of the Polish courts for the Mother to see the child regularly in person, whilst when she instructed us she was facing a prospect of never seeing her child again and being deported to Costa Rica.
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