Beverly Charman, wife of insurance magnate John Charman, has succeeded in retaining the largest financial award from a divorce court in English legal history, although it is thought that larger settlements have been made by consent. Armed with five counsel, including two QCs, John Charman still failed to convince the Court of Appeal that the award of £48m (just under 37% of the total assets) should be reduced.
Central to this case were the assets of Dragon Holdings, a Bermuda trust created by Mr Charman early in the 27-year marriage. Mr Charman tried to argue that the trust assets (£68m in total) should be left out of account as the intention underlying the trust was to secure wealth for future generations of the family. Given that Mr Charman was the settlor, the trust assets were the fruits of his talents and his letters of wishes stated that he should have full access to the trust’s capital and income, he was always likely to fail. The larger point of principle, however, remains. Can any trust arrangement persuade the English divorce courts to refrain from attempting to interfere with the assets within it? Possibly not, unless the party is truly excluded from benefit.
