Would you expect your spouse to share their wealth with you

[JollyQuail]

Just wondering, if your partner was considerably wealthier than you, would you expect him to share all his wealth with your after you’re married?

Name added to houses; joint bank accounts, name added to BTL properties.

I would feel very uneasy doing this.

I think there’s a huge difference between money earnt/inherited prior to the marriage and money earnt during it. In the former circumstances, I would ringfence money and assets pre-marriage but have a discussion about the family house. Either add the new husband/wife to the deeds or buy a property together and ringfence the money each put in.

Moving forward, share bills, mortgage etc certainly not give a new spouse half of all my buy-to-let properties - nor expect them to do the same, in case this is a reverse

Fine for a first marriage.

Disaster in waiting for a second marriage with DC's.

This

If there's a big disparity in assets which pre-date the relationship, then a pre-nup would be sensible. Particularly if it's a second (or more!) marriage.

Not been an issue for us as we met when young and skint, neither of us had anything except debt! He got a small inheritance whereas I won't get anything but I'm the breadwinner so it evens out. Everything's shared.

But if we were to split and I met someone else who had no assets, I would be very wary about re-marrying.

You don’t need to be married for that.

We've been together a long time so if one of us became wealthy, we both would.

We'd never have BTL properties so that's not an issue but we'd jointly own our home and have equal access to any money.

I can see it would be different if bringing different assets and wealth into the beginning of a relationship and I might want to protect that more carefully.
If you each already had children then that's another factor to make sure they inherit what you would want them to which people often balls up doing in second marriages.

This is why people have to marry their equals - be it looks, money, earning potential, inheritance prospect. Of course I would be paranoid too, if my suitor 25 years ago was a penniless foreigner - first thoughts would have been 'he wans a visa to stay in the UK' and second thoughts - 'he wants to benefit financially'. How can you not think that? So I am delighted to say I, being a piss-poor student 25 years ago, married another piss-poor non-student. I can't tell you what bliss it is - even now, when after an operation he can't work and I am the only bread-winner, I know he could not have foreseen this situation so many years ago. Obviously there is a thought - is he STAYING with me for the money, but hey, one never knows I suppose and secondly, it is not that much money.

Not if they earned the wealth and houses etc before we met. I'd expect a prenup to clarify who has what, then get married and get to enjoy all "their" stuff, maybe they'd give me some extra cash for better clothes etc so I'd fit in, but I would know if we split up that it's still all theirs.
All would be different if we had kids together though - I'd expect more to compensate loss of earnings while pregnant, working pt etc and to maintain lifestyle while kids still lived at home

When we met we were very young but DH had a flat he had bought with his own earnings. He sold it and we eventually invested it in a new flat.

I wouldnt want to marry anyone who was all about 'my money' and 'your money'. That post about the man billing his wife on maternity leave was horrifying.

This is how arranged marriages in my Asian community work.
I didn't have one myself! But there is something to be said for marrying your equal.

Well it’s in the marriage vows:
with all
my worldly goods I thee endow
but clearly needs a bit of sensible pre nuptial planning nowadays

Same. He believes he has nothing to do with my wealth. Same with me, especially when it comes to inheritance. But I think we are in the minority.

If it's a first marriage with potential children, then go all in, you don't need to add names to the houses because by marriage your assets are shared.

If there is a inherited house or something you'd like to keep separate then you can get something written up for that, you could also put money in to a trust for future children that is not part of the pot. But on the whole your money should be joint.

I certainly wouldn't like getting in to a marriage where my spouse makes it a default that they don't share with me.

I think if it's a second marriage with previous children, then don't get married. Seen this film too many times.

If it's a second marriage with no children involved, do what you want - your partner can decide whether they accept.

Do you have any actual plans to get married? If so, I think you should cancel them.

you Can get one in the UK and they’re legal, you have it done properly through a solicitor!
Talking from experience because my daughters partners mother met a new man and he’s been stung before and left with nothing, so he had one done so that she couldn’t get any of his money or property if they split!

Bloody hell, "marry your equal"? Whatever happened to all people being equal?

Yes I would expect our finances to be shared. But I married my DH for love and when we were young and neither of us had much.

They say: don't marry someone you wouldn't want to be divorced from.

If you don't want to share your wealth on divorce, then don't get married. Or do, but either way a properly drafted (ie by a family lawyer) pre-nup.

Those saying pre-nups are not enforceable in England are wrong. And have been since the Radmacher case years ago. Pre-nups are enforceable provided both parties have had independent advice and their effect is not detrimental to any children of the marriage.

I don't think it's black and white. DH and I have been together since teens, everything we have we have built up together, our house, cars, careers, savings. Our children are obviously jointly ours. Every bit of fortune (unexpected windfalls) and misfortune (repairs) have been shared. So in our context it's easy for me to answer, but I do think it gets more complex if you've blended lives later in life. If we were to split up, I don't think I'd be very forthcoming to share what I've built with someone else, especially as I'd want to protect what my children have.

You aren’t giving it away.
surely if you love someone enough to want to commit to them for the rest of your lives, then you would want to share everything. Isn’t that the point of marriage?

Share day to day lifestyle but not all assets. Adult daughter from previous marriage. Pre-nup.

In that case, getting married is not the best idea. You never know how it will turn out.

We are all equal to God only - our lives' value is equal, our rights are equal, our opportunities MUST be equal (I am against private schools) but unfortunately our outcomes are never equal. With our free will we make ourselves into what we are, better or worse individuals. Being a piss-poor student with no prospect of earning anything at the time (I planned to stay in academia) I felt I had nothing to offer to a business-career driven individual and did not even consider dating them - it would have been massively unfair for me to sponge off a person slaving over accounting reports whilst I pursued my 'noble dreams'.