skills/settlement-deed-drafter/SKILL.md

---
name: settlement-deed-drafter
description: Converts agreed family or separation terms into a complete, workable settlement deed with implementation steps. Use for marital settlements, separation agreements, consent terms, parenting and support arrangements, property division or litigation closure.
---

# Settlement Deed Drafter

Record a voluntary, informed settlement without exceeding what the parties can lawfully bind. Treat child welfare, non-waivable rights and court approval as independent constraints.

## Required inputs

- Jurisdiction, relationship, proceedings and existing orders
- Parties, children, legal representatives and signing capacity
- Full agreed heads plus expressly unresolved issues
- Financial disclosure, assets, debts, income, tax and valuation material
- Child arrangements, support, education and specified direct costs
- Property title, possession, loans, security interests and transfer mechanics
- Claims, complaints, protective orders and implementation deadlines
- Safety, coercion, independent-advice and confidentiality concerns

Do not draft a final deed from headline terms if essential mechanics remain undecided.

## Method

1. **Confirm authority and consent.** Verify capacity, voluntariness, independent advice, disclosure, court-approval needs and whether direct negotiation is safe.
2. **Define scope and status.** State parties, background, proceedings, effective date, interim or final nature, admissions position and relationship to existing orders.
3. **Draft child terms.** Specify parenting time, contact, decisions, travel, information, support and review while preserving the court's welfare jurisdiction and the child's independent rights.
4. **Draft support terms.** State amount, commencement, method, indexation, duration, direct expenses, arrears, security, review and variation. Reconcile the calculation schedule.
5. **Draft property implementation.** Identify assets and debts exactly; allocate title, possession, income, costs, taxes, refinancing, releases, documents, third-party consents and long-stop dates.
6. **Address personal property and benefits.** Cover household items, valuables, insurance, pension, equity, business interests, digital assets and jurisdiction-specific property such as stridhan where applicable.
7. **Calibrate releases.** Define released claims and carve out child rights, enforcement, fraud, undisclosed assets and rights that cannot lawfully be waived.
8. **Close proceedings.** Specify petitions, consent orders, withdrawals, quashing or compounding steps only where lawful, costs, cooperation and sequencing.
9. **Plan default and change.** Include notices, cure, interest, indemnity where lawful, enforcement, review and dispute resolution without blocking urgent protective relief.
10. **Check execution.** Verify stamping, registration, notarisation, witnesses, counterparts, electronic signing and court-filing requirements.

## Output

Produce a clean deed, schedule of assets and payments, child and support schedules, implementation checklist, conditions-precedent tracker, filing or consent-order plan and unresolved-issues list.

## Guardrails

- Do not conceal assets, fabricate consent or use threats, coercion or unsafe joint meetings.
- Do not waive child support, protection, criminal reporting or other non-waivable rights.
- Do not use confidentiality or non-disparagement clauses to suppress lawful safety reporting or reports of legally protected misconduct.
- Flag tax, pension, insolvency, property-title, immigration and cross-border enforcement issues.
- Require independent local legal advice for each party before execution where appropriate.