Protect the Company, Not Just the Marriage: Why Business Owners Are Choosing Prenups

Prenuptial agreements were once widely associated with celebrities, inherited fortunes and couples entering marriage with differing levels of wealth. Today, the conversation is changing.

A recent BBC report on the growing popularity of prenups highlighted how younger couples are becoming more willing to discuss their financial expectations before marriage. Rather than treating a prenup as a prediction that the relationship will fail, many see it as an opportunity to make important decisions while communication is open and the relationship is strong.

That change in attitude is particularly relevant to founders, start-up professionals and younger business owners.

Someone preparing to marry in their twenties or thirties may not consider themselves especially wealthy. Their company may still be at an early stage, generating limited income and requiring continued investment. On paper, there may be relatively little to protect.

But early-stage businesses can change quickly.

A founder may later secure external investment, build valuable intellectual property, expand internationally or sell the company. Shares that initially appeared modest could eventually become the couple’s most valuable asset.

For business owners of any age, a prenup cannot remove every risk associated with divorce. It can, however, help a couple agree how a company should be approached, protect its ownership and continuity, and provide fairly for the spouse who does not own it.

Why should business owners think about a prenup?

The UK had an estimated 5.7 million private-sector businesses at the beginning of 2025, according to the Department for Business and Trade’s business population figures. Around 5.64 million of those were small businesses employing fewer than 50 people.

Behind many of those companies is an owner whose business and personal finances are closely connected.

A founder may have invested personal savings, guaranteed borrowing or accepted a modest salary so that profits could be reinvested. Their future spouse may have supported the household during uncertain years, taken on more responsibility for children or relocated to enable the business to grow.

The shares may legally belong to one person, but the company can still play a central role in the couple’s financial life.

If the marriage ends, holding the business in one spouse’s name does not necessarily place it beyond consideration. The court may need to understand what the business is worth, what income it produces and whether money can be taken from it without damaging its future.

Those questions can become difficult, expensive and deeply personal. Discussing them before marriage gives both partners an opportunity to agree a fairer and more commercially realistic approach.

Why this matters for younger founders and start-up professionals

Younger couples may be more likely to marry before their full financial position has become clear.

A founder might own shares in a company that has yet to make a profit. An employee at a growing technology business may hold share options that cannot yet be exercised. One partner may be developing an app, consultancy, online platform or creative business alongside salaried employment.

At that stage, the value may lie in future potential rather than current income.

This can make the conversation feel less urgent. A couple may reasonably wonder why they need a prenup when the business has little cash, the shares cannot easily be sold or the next funding round is far from guaranteed.

However, that may be exactly why early advice is worthwhile.

It is often easier to agree principles before the business has become highly valuable. Once significant investment has been secured or a sale is being discussed, the financial stakes are higher and negotiations may feel more sensitive.

A prenup can also address uncertainty rather than pretending it does not exist. It may set out how future growth, share options, founder equity or proceeds from a sale should be approached without relying on an exact prediction of what the company will become.

For younger professionals, the agreement might also cover student or business debt, family contributions towards a first home and the possibility that one partner will later step back from work to care for children.

The aim is not to plan every detail of the couple’s future. It is to create a sensible framework for the possibilities they can already foresee.

Can a prenup protect your company?

A prenuptial agreement can record how a couple intends business interests to be treated if they later divorce.

It might state that shares owned before the marriage should remain with the founder. It could also address businesses created after the wedding, future investment, dividends, business-related debts, family money introduced into the company and the proceeds of a sale.

One of the most important questions is often what should happen to future growth.

A company valued at £100,000 when a couple marries might be worth several million pounds ten years later. That increase could result from the founder’s skill, external investment, favourable market conditions, family money or sacrifices made by both partners.

The non-owning spouse may have worked in the company without receiving a commercial salary. Alternatively, they may have taken greater responsibility for the household, enabling the owner to devote more time to building the business.

A thoughtful agreement should recognise those possibilities.

It might distinguish the company’s value at the start of the marriage from wealth created later, while also providing appropriately for the other spouse.

The purpose is not simply to declare that the business is “off limits”.

An agreement that attempts to leave one partner with nothing may be difficult to justify. A stronger prenup protects the ownership and control of the company while addressing how both parties’ financial needs would be met.

What are our solicitors seeing in practice?

We are seeing an increase in people using Pre-Nuptial Agreements as a tool to set out before marriage the division of assets should the marriage breakdown. As people become more financially savvy, they are seeking an insurance through such Agreements that will ensure wealth is protected whilst providing for the other spouse.

We have advised upon such agreements for business owners who have inherited the family business before the start of a marriage and want to protect that business to ensure that it remains within the family and does not need to be sold upon a divorce. We have also advised in respect of start-up companies where there is the potential for the company to increase in value during the course of the marriage, but an agreement was drafted to protect the ownership of the company on separation.

What these matters have in common is that the most productive discussions usually take place early, before the value of the business or the expectations of the wider family become a source of pressure.

Are prenups legally binding in England and Wales?

Prenuptial agreements are not currently automatically binding in England and Wales. The court retains discretion when deciding how finances should be dealt with following divorce.

However, a prenup can carry substantial weight.

The modern legal approach was shaped by the Supreme Court’s decision in Radmacher v Granatino. The judgment established that the court should give effect to a nuptial agreement entered into freely by both parties, with a proper understanding of its implications, unless it would be unfair to do so.

Your shareholder agreement is not a substitute for a prenup

Business owners sometimes assume that shareholder agreements already protect them.

They may contain important provisions restricting share transfers, requiring shares to be offered to existing shareholders or setting out what happens when a shareholder dies, becomes incapacitated or leaves the business.

Those provisions are valuable, but they serve a different purpose.

A shareholders’ agreement regulates the relationship between the company and its owners.

A prenup deals with the financial understanding between two people entering a marriage.

The documents should be reviewed together. A prenup should not promise a transfer of shares where the company’s articles or shareholders’ agreement would prohibit it. Equally, a restriction on transferring shares does not necessarily prevent the value of those shares from being considered during divorce proceedings.

Founders should also consider whether future investment documents could affect the arrangements. An investor may introduce new transfer restrictions, compulsory sale provisions or different classes of shares after the prenup has been signed.

For family businesses, the position may be more complex still. Shares may have been gifted by parents, held through a trust or intended to pass to the next generation. In those circumstances, the prenup may need to be coordinated with wills, trusts and succession plans as well as the company’s documents.

Is the law going to change?

There is scope for prenuptial agreements to become more significant in the future.

In June 2026, the Government opened a consultation on reforming financial arrangements when relationships end. One proposal is to introduce “qualifying nuptial agreements”, which could allow couples to make binding financial arrangements in advance of marriage.

Under the proposals, safeguards would include material financial disclosure, independent legal advice and signing the agreement more than 28 days before the wedding. Couples would not be permitted to use an agreement to avoid meeting each other’s financial needs or those of their children.

The proposals are not yet law, so couples should continue to take advice based on the current legal position.

Nevertheless, the consultation reinforces an important point: prenups are increasingly being treated as a legitimate form of financial planning rather than an arrangement reserved for the exceptionally wealthy.

Why timing matters

A business can change dramatically over the course of a marriage.

The latest Office for National Statistics divorce figures show that, among couples who divorced in 2023, the median marriage length was 12.7 years for opposite-sex couples, 7.2 years and 6.3 years for male and female same-sex couples respectively.

Over that period, a side project could become a full-time business. A start-up might attract investment, expand internationally, acquire competitors or be sold. The couple may have children, relocate or change the way responsibilities are divided between them.

A prenup should therefore be reviewed when circumstances change significantly. An investment round, company sale, restructuring, inheritance, international move or birth of a child could all affect whether the original agreement remains appropriate.

Where a couple is already married, updated arrangements may be recorded in a postnuptial agreement.

Protecting the company without undermining the relationship

A prenup may feel like a difficult subject to raise, particularly when wedding plans are already under way.

The way the conversation is approached matters.

Presenting an agreement as a demand to protect “my business from you” is unlikely to create the right foundation. A more constructive discussion looks at the interests of both people: preserving the company, protecting the jobs and relationships connected to it, and ensuring that the non-owning spouse has appropriate financial security.

For younger couples, it may help to frame the agreement as part of a wider conversation about their future. That conversation might also cover home ownership, debt, family investment, career plans, children and how each partner would be supported if their circumstances changed.

The strongest prenups recognise that the business owner’s contribution is not the only contribution that matters.

They protect control of the company without ignoring the support, sacrifices or caring responsibilities of the other spouse. In doing so, they can offer both partners greater certainty.

A prenuptial agreement cannot guarantee that a divorce will be simple. It can, however, reduce the number of issues left open to dispute and make it easier to protect a viable business from unnecessary disruption.

For founders, shareholders and family-business owners, that can mean protecting far more than the value of their shares.

How Aaron & Partners can help

Our Family Law solicitors advise start-up founders, business owners, directors, shareholders and high-net-worth individuals on prenuptial and postnuptial agreements involving complex commercial interests.

Where further expertise is required, we work with our Corporate & Commercial and Wills, Trusts & Tax teams to ensure that an agreement fits alongside investment documents, shareholders’ agreements, trusts, wills and succession plans.

For advice about protecting your business before marriage, please contact a member of our Family Law team.