Form E financial disclosure: a step-by-step guide

Form E is the sworn financial statement at the heart of almost every divorce settlement in England and Wales. It is where you set out, in one document, every asset, debt, pension and source of income you have, and back it with the paperwork to prove it. In court financial remedy proceedings it is compulsory and exchanged simultaneously by both parties, and thousands of couples who never go near a courtroom complete it voluntarily so they can negotiate from a full and honest picture.

This guide walks through Form E section by section, lists the exact documents you have to attach, and explains the one rule that matters more than any other: the duty of full and frank disclosure. Get that wrong and even a sealed final order can be reopened years later. Once disclosure is done and both sides can see the whole picture, you can sanity-check what a fair division looks like with our settlement range estimator before you negotiate.

What Form E is, and when you need it

Form E is the official financial statement for a financial order under the Matrimonial Causes Act 1973 (or the Civil Partnership Act 2004). It runs to more than 25 pages and is signed with a statement of truth, meaning you are declaring on your honour, and to the court, that everything in it is accurate. There are two situations in which it appears:

• Court proceedings (compulsory). If either spouse applies to the court to decide finances, the standard directions require both parties to complete and exchange a Form E. Under the Family Procedure Rules Part 9, the exchange is simultaneous and normally happens at least 35 days before the first court appointment. Neither side sees the other's figures before filing their own.
• Voluntary exchange. Most couples settle without a contested hearing. In mediation or solicitor-led negotiation, both people are usually asked to complete Form E (or a shorter mediation-style disclosure) so that any agreement, and any later consent order, rests on full disclosure. A deal built on incomplete information is fragile.

Disclosure is not optional to the outcome even when the process is amicable. As the settlement guide sets out, full disclosure is expected on every route to a financial settlement; see the wider picture in our divorce financial settlement guide and the financial settlements hub.

Form E1: the shorter cousin

There is also a Form E1, a shorter statement used for financial remedy applications that are not a financial order following divorce or dissolution. It covers, for example, some applications for a child under Schedule 1 of the Children Act 1989, or maintenance applications under the Domestic Proceedings and Magistrates' Courts Act 1978. If you are divorcing and dividing the finances, Form E is almost always the correct form; the court or a specialist will flag it if E1 applies to your situation instead.

A walk through each section of Form E

Form E is organised into parts. Working through them in order, and knowing what each is really asking, takes most of the stress out of it. The map below shows what each part covers and the documents that back it up.

Section	What goes in it	Documents needed
1. Personal and general information	Your details and your spouse's, marriage and separation dates, children, health, living arrangements and cohabitation	None specific to this part
2. Financial details: capital	Property, bank and savings accounts, investments, life policies, belongings worth more than £500, business interests, pensions and all liabilities	Last 12 months of statements for every account, market appraisal plus latest mortgage statement, last two years of accounts if self-employed, a CETV for each pension dated within 12 months, latest investment and policy statements
3. Income	Employment, self-employment, dividends, rental income, pension income, benefits and investment income, current and expected	Most recent P60 and last three payslips; last two years of accounts for the self-employed
4. Financial requirements and needs	A realistic monthly budget for you and any children, plus the capital you need, for example to rehouse	None specific; base the budget on genuine living costs
5. Other information	Expected changes to assets, contributions each of you made, serious conduct and other section 25 circumstances	None specific to this part

1. Personal and general information

Your details, your spouse's, the marriage and separation dates, the children, your health and any relevant special circumstances, plus whether you intend to make any particular claims. It also asks about your current living arrangements and whether you are cohabiting, because a new partner's finances can be relevant to your needs.

2. Financial details: your capital

This is the largest part, and the one people find fiddliest. You list, with supporting values:

• Property: every property you have a legal or beneficial interest in, the current market value, the outstanding mortgage, and your share of the net equity. A recent market appraisal supports the figure.
• Bank and savings accounts: every current account, savings account and cash ISA, in your sole name or held jointly, with the balance.
• Investments: stocks and shares ISAs, shares, bonds, National Savings, and similar holdings.
• Life insurance and endowments with a surrender value.
• Money owed to you, and cash sums.
• Personal belongings individually worth more than £500 (cars, jewellery, art, and so on).
• Business interests: any company, partnership or sole tradership you have a stake in, its value, your interest and the basis of valuation. Complex or contested business valuations often need a jointly instructed expert.
• Pensions: every scheme you belong to, workplace, personal and preserved, with a cash equivalent transfer value (CETV) for each. Pensions are frequently the second largest asset after the home, and they are covered in depth in our pensions and divorce guide.
• Liabilities: mortgages, loans, credit cards, tax owed and any other debts, so the court sees net worth, not just headline assets.

3. Income

All of it, from every source: employment (gross and net, from your P60 and payslips), self-employment or partnership drawings, dividends, rental income, pension income, benefits and tax credits, and investment income. You give the current figure and an estimate of income you expect to receive in the near future.

4. Financial requirements and needs

Your income needs and your capital needs going forward: a realistic monthly budget for you (and any children living with you), and the capital you will need, for example to rehouse. This section is where the standard of living during the marriage becomes relevant, because the court weighs the lifestyle the family had against what is affordable for two households after separation.

5. Other information

A catch-all but important part. You set out any significant changes to assets you expect, contributions each of you made to the family (financial and non-financial, including homemaking and childcare), any conduct so serious it would be unfair to ignore, and any other circumstances the court should weigh under section 25 of the Matrimonial Causes Act 1973. Contributions are recorded neutrally: the law treats the earner and the primary carer as making contributions of equal worth.

The documents you must attach

Form E is specific about supporting documents, and it asks for the listed items only, not everything you own on paper. The core set is:

• Bank statements: the last 12 months for every account (current, savings, ISA) in your sole name or held jointly.
• Property: a recent market appraisal or valuation for each property you have an interest in, plus the most recent mortgage statement.
• Employment income: your most recent P60 and your last three payslips.
• Self-employment or company: the last two years of accounts, and any documentation of a recent business valuation.
• Pensions: a CETV for each scheme, dated within the last 12 months. Request these early; providers can take several weeks to produce them.
• Investments and policies: the latest statement or surrender value for each holding.

Attaching far more than the listed documents is discouraged, because it obscures rather than clarifies. If the other side needs more detail, the mechanism is a written questionnaire after exchange, not a pre-emptive document dump.

The duty of full and frank disclosure

Everything above rests on one legal duty: full, frank and clear disclosure of your financial circumstances. It is owed to the court, not just to your spouse, and it is continuing, so if something material changes after you file (a bonus lands, a property sells, a business is sold), you must update your disclosure. The government guidance is blunt: failure to give full and accurate disclosure may result in any order the court makes being set aside.

That is not a theoretical risk. In 2015 the Supreme Court decided two cases together, Sharland v Sharland [2015] UKSC 60 and Gohil v Gohil, and set aside financial orders in both because the husbands had concealed assets. In Sharland the husband understated the value of his software company while it was being prepared for a stock market flotation. Lady Hale held that "fraud unravels all", so a consent order obtained by fraud can be undone, and crucially that the burden lies on the party who lied to show the deception would not have changed the outcome. In Gohil, non-disclosure came to light years after the divorce.

The practical consequences of hiding assets stack up:

• The order can be reopened, sometimes long after it was made, unwinding a settlement you thought was final.
• Costs orders: courts routinely order the non-discloser to pay the other side's legal costs, which can run into tens of thousands of pounds.
• Adverse inferences: where a court is satisfied assets were hidden, it can assume they exist and are worth more, and divide accordingly.
• Contempt of court: because Form E carries a statement of truth, a knowingly false statement can amount to contempt, which is punishable by a fine or imprisonment.

The honest discloser, by contrast, is the one whose settlement is safest, because the main gateway to reopening an order is the other party's dishonesty, not their own.

Practical tips for getting it right

• Start the pension CETV requests first. They are the slowest documents to arrive and the ones most likely to delay everything else.
• Gather 12 months of statements early. Download them or request paper copies as soon as you know disclosure is coming.
• Value, do not guess. Use a genuine market appraisal for property and, where a business or unusual asset is involved, expect a jointly instructed expert rather than a self-serving estimate.
• Disclose the awkward things. A loan from a relative, a small side income, a crypto holding: put it in. Omissions are what get orders set aside, and disclosed items rarely change an outcome as much as people fear.
• Keep your budget realistic. The needs section should reflect genuine living costs, neither inflated nor understated, because both extremes damage your credibility.
• Do not attach surplus documents. Provide the listed items; save extra detail for a questionnaire if one is raised.

Once both Form Es are exchanged and any questionnaires answered, you have the full financial picture, and the conversation shifts from what exists to how it should be divided. That is the point to model a fair outcome with the settlement range estimator and read up on how courts weigh the section 25 factors in the financial settlement guide.

Speak to a specialist

Form E rewards care and punishes shortcuts. A well-prepared statement, with the right documents attached and nothing material left out, protects both your settlement and your credibility; a rushed or evasive one invites questions, costs and, at worst, a reopened order. We can connect you with family law professionals across England and Wales who prepare and pressure-test Form E disclosure every day, from straightforward exchanges to cases with businesses and layered pensions. Tell us where things stand and we will set up an obligation-free conversation. We are not a law firm and do not give legal advice ourselves; a firm we refer you to may pay us a fee, and it has no bearing on your costs or the advice you receive.