The Supreme Court has just handed down judgement on 02/07/2025 in the case of Standish v Standish [2025] UKSC 26 setting out important principals for dealing with assets in a marriage and in particular the application of the “sharing principle”. Whilst this is a “large money” case it sets out important principles for matters where the court are considering financial settlements in divorce.
In this case the husband accumulated a significant amount of wealth prior to the parties’ marriage. In contrast the wife’s pre-marital wealth was extremely modest. The main issue in the case was a transfer made by the husband to the wife in 2017 of a portfolio of investments for tax planning purposes. The intention was for the wife to set up trusts for the parties’ children, but she failed to set these up and the assets remained in her name.
Initially, the judge decided that when the husband transferred the assets to the wife, those assets (then worth approximately £80 million) became matrimonial property, which would be subject to the sharing principle, albeit the source of wealth was a significant issue and he therefore awarded the husband 60% of the matrimonial property, including the 2017 assets.
Both parties appealed to the Court of Appeal who decided that just because the husband had transferred the assets in 2017 to the wife’s name, did not automatically mean they were marital assets to be shared. Given the specific facts of the case, the Court of Appeal considered that 75% of the 2017 assets remained non-matrimonial property, which were not subject to the usual sharing principle when dealing with the financial claims arising on divorce.
The Wife appealed to the Supreme Court, contending that the Court of Appeal were wrong and the transfer of the assets in 2017 to her name should have been considered as a gift to her and the Court of Appeal were wrong to consider any part of those assets were non-marital property.
The Supreme Court unanimously dismissed the Wife’s appeal and upheld the decision of the Court of Appeal. The court has made clear that the title to property is not determinative as to whether any asset is marital property or not.
This is an important decision as, whilst the starting position is that marital property should be shared on equal basis, albeit a departure from equality can be justified, this is not the case for non- marital property. Non-marital property could be where someone has received an external gift or inheritance for example. Whilst the Court can still take non-marital property into account to meet a party’s needs for example this decision confirms that non-marital assets are not subject to the same principles.
It is important to obtain legal advice when dealing with the financial claims that arise due to the breakdown of a marriage. Our family team at Levy Solicitors can advise you about the claims and help you deal with these.