Nearly one-third of respondents in Finland said their financial situation was an obstacle to getting a divorce, according to a survey commissioned by Danske Bank.
Divorce can incur extra financial burdens after separations are finalised, including increased housing costs. Additionally, married couples that decide to split can be faced with financial surprises, if for example one spouse has taken on debts without telling the other spouse.
The survey also found that very few couples agree in advance about how to divide assets if they divorce. The bank noted that marriage is a legal and financial agreement and that such scenarios should be discussed well before separation is considered a possibility.
"Without a prenuptial agreement, assets that are in the names of both spouses are added together at the end of the marriage and divided equally. A premarital agreement is a way to divide assets at the end of a marriage, in a way that feels fair for that specific relationship," Kaisa Kivipelto, a senior strategist at the bank, said in a statement.
Only around 16 percent of the married couples who responded to the survey said they had signed prenuptial agreements, while 18 percent of the couples said they had otherwise agreed together about division of property in the event of a divorce.
Women feel in weaker position
The survey also found that one-third of women in families with children feel they are in a weaker financial position than their spouses. Meanwhile, just one out of eight men echoed similar sentiments.
The bank said that spouses in such weaker financial positions also have a worse understanding of the family's overall income — as well as the household's exact debt loads and amounts of savings.
Kivipelto underscored that both spouses should know their family's financial situation as well as their own, noting that if a couple's assets are mostly linked to their homes, those funds are only available after they are sold.
The Danske Bank commissioned study on financial peace of mind was carried out by YouGov Finland. It queried just over 1,500 people in April 2022 via an email survey. The data was collected at the end of August.