Hoping for some advice here, please. When the time comes I will see a solicitor if needs be but just wanted to see if anyone could help here for now.
DP has been talking about marriage since about six months in and lately has been asking for my ring preferences.
He is by far the higher earner of the two of us. His salary before tax is around £400k and mine is £40k. He was never married to the ex. I was not the OW so no pile on please - his ex was the one who had an affair. Just including this paragraph because I know that people will ask.
I started a small business last year that is doing really, really well and I am so pleased about this. I never really thought of myself as that business minded but it looks as though it will be incredibly profitable in the future.
Once we are married I am considering starting another business alongside my existing one and having DP as an additional director given that we will be married but I would still be doing the majority of the work. I am happy with this as we will be a married unit and we have agreed that our finances will be shared - he suggested this way before I started my business and I was in by far a worse position than him financially.
My question relates to the fact that my DP has two children with his ex aged 6 and 9. He pays far, far more than is required of CMS and always has done which I commend him for. We have the children 40% of the time. My question is whether the income from my business or businesses will be considered as fair game as an asset by the CMS, basically.
My DP is a good man who at this point pays for 100% of his children’s expenses. I treat the kids with love and care, they see me as a safe person, but they are not my children and I do not want to contribute to their CMS payments - especially when I have put in so much work to start a company from nothing and their mother receives a very generous amount already in maintenance.
Ex has a history of taking DP to court for more money even though he pays her around £2500 more than CMS requires every month on top of 100% of their uniforms, clubs etc. Nothing is ever enough.
Any advice appreciated.