Protect the Act of Giving - When Parents Give a Helping Hand
What happens when a parent provides a financial helping hand to their married child to assist them with their financial woes and then that child splits from their partner? What happens to the money? After all, parents primarily give the helping hand to their child, not the couple.
How do you quarantine the gift of money to your child alone and not the couple jointly even though they both might have the financial benefit at the time of giving?
Ms Jackie Vincent, Watts McCray Partner and Accredited Family Law Specialist says that
“in most cases the parents’ financial contribution becomes part of the couples bigger financial picture and not set aside as a separate asset, as a Binding Financial Agreement or BFA could do”.
Ms Vincent goes on to say that
“she sees more and more clients who, due to the financial crisis, have been financially assisted by one set of parents. However, due to the split and no BFA in place the money is not isolated and the child to whom the gift was given no longer solely benefits In the end, the generosity of many well meaning parents can see them involved in a family law issue down the track.”
A BFA isn’t just for those not yet married, it can also be utilised by couples wanting to protect a contribution from one side of the family. A Family Lawyer can be consulted to produce a BFA at any stage of a relationship for the purposes of ensuring that a financial contribution/gift from one set of parents to their child is protected and given back to their child should they separate from their partner in the future.
We protect against those things in life that we hope will never happen like ill health and car accidents. Ms Vincent offers that
“a BFA is just another protection for generous parents, or for that matter grandparents, against an unexpected outcome when they were just trying to give their child or grandchild a financial helping hand
in these tough times”.