In the week that another twist emerges in the Mills versus McCartney divorce saga the world’s first downloadable pre-nup, aka the E-Nup, is made available to cohabiting or married couples who want to protect their digital assts in the event of a break-up. The UK consumer electronics market is now worth £11 billion and the average home has sixteen gadgets meaning there is a lot of valuable kit which needs to be protected.
PIXmania has launched the E-Nup ahead of the New Year as this is the busiest time for separation and divorce. Regarded as Black Tuesday, the first working day after the Christmas break is when most couples split and with couples owing more than 1,040 worth of electrical gear, one in ten paying out more than 1,500 per year, people seriously need to consider protecting their expensive goods.
Vanessa Lloyd Platt, leading matrimonial lawyer from Lloyd Platt & Co, comments We handle 500 divorces each year and in my 29 years as a divorce lawyer, Christmas is the most popular time for engagements and divorce. It makes sense to protect your possessions before you commit or split. Doing so can save heartache and problems in the long run. Everyone has gadgets at home, in with the cat or sofas people are increasingly fighting for who keeps the technology. Homes and cars can be quickly resolved but people can get stuck over possessions in the home.
The English courts don’t like having to decide how people divide up their possessions, but where they do, evidence of who bought the item or a document between them of what will happen in a split, will be very strong evidence for them to consider. Most European countries recognise pre-nups and there is now a sea-change in the UK towards them. It is for this reason that I believe written agreements such as the gadget pre-nup (E-Nup) will stop the increase in gadget wars once in for all.
The UK census highlights that the average British couple now owns three television sets, two MP3 players, two DVD players, one video recorder, one digital camera, one personal computer and two hi-fis. Clearly, an E-Nup is smart financial planning for the future and with so many acrimonious splits in the headlines, people should be aware of the importance of pre-nups.
It is a sad part of modern day life that separations usually entail a couple fighting over shared belongings. Expensive technology should be insured like any other valuable possession like your house, car, holidays or jewellery, comments Ulric Jrome MD of PIXmania.co.uk. The obvious place to launch the E-Nup was in the UK as the British spend the most on gadgets and online gadget spending this Christmas is set to break all previous records.
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