Standish Ruling: What Counts as Matrimonial Property
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Andrew Watson
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Supreme Court confirms only a valuable asset treated by parties as a matrimonial asset has been ‘matrimonialised’
The financial remedies team at Osbornes Law represents wealthy clients in the UK and further afield on complex financial matters.
Many financial cases we handle involve disagreements around a valuable pre-marital asset and whether it should in fact be considered matrimonial property.
The Supreme Court has handed down its long-awaited ruling in Standish v Standish [2025] UKSC 26. It confirms that what matters is whether the parties treated the asset as matrimonial property (and thus ‘matrimonialised’) – it’s not about who legally owns it.
Matrimonalisation
Matrimonalisation is a modern legal concept, the effect of which is that pre-marital assets are brought into the ‘pot’ of assets falling for sharing between the parties on divorce.
When considering a fair split of the assets, the established starting point is an equal split of assets (known as the sharing principle’). It then has to be determined whether any other of the party’s assets should be added to the total amount for division.
In Standish, the parties married in 2005 and Clive Standish had amassed the majority of his considerable wealth before the marriage while working in financial services. He retired in 2007 and the marriage ended in 2020, with total assets valued at around £132m.
Assets under particular consideration included a 2017 transfer of around £80m of investment funds in Clive’s sole name into Anna’s sole name as part of a tax planning scheme.
Source of funds
The Supreme Court has now upheld the Court of Appeal’s opinion; that it is the treatment of an asset, and not legal ownership, that is the critical factor when applying the sharing principle.
Anna failed to convince any of the five Supreme Court justices that the £80m transferred was a shared asset and subject to the sharing principle. Anna’s share was therefore limited to £25m.
The court made clear a fundamental principle: the aim of a financial order on divorce is to achieve a fair outcome. It then set out five key principles providing vital guidance that clarifies what constitutes ‘matrimonialisation’ of assets:
- There is a conceptual distinction between matrimonial property (i.e., the “fruits” of the marriage partnership or the product of the parties’ common endeavour)
and non-matrimonial property (typically property brought into the marriage by one party, or acquired by a party externally, such as a gift or inheritance). This means legal title to the property is not determinative of whether it is matrimonial or non-matrimonial. - The court must now clearly recognise that the sharing principle applies only to matrimonial property.
- The starting point is that matrimonial property should be shared on an equal basis, subject to justified departures.
- What starts as non-matrimonial property could become matrimonial property by way of the matrimonialisation process. Whether that transformation has occurred, the key consideration is how the parties have been dealing with the asset – has time shown that they have been treating it as shared between them?
- A transfer of an asset between spouses in a tax-saving scheme will not normally show that the asset is being treated as shared.
In this case, there was no evidence the £80m lump sum had been treated by the parties as shared property. Anna’s entitlement—though relatively modest at £25 million—was deemed a fair outcome.
How can we help?
The financial remedies specialists at Osbornes Law are highly experienced in advising high-net-worth clients facing complex disputes over assets. With a reputation for strategic thinking, discretion, and client-focused service, the team is trusted to deliver fair and effective outcomes in even the most challenging financial cases. Contact the leading divorce partner Andrew Watson here; or get in touch by:
- Filling in our online enquiry form; or
- Calling us on 020 7485 8811
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