Divorce Advice Please - Pension

[Cheeky Monkey]

Can any NSC divorcees who had to carve up their pension advise on what percentage they gave away please. Being a lazy git (separated 12 years, never bothered sorting divorce before now and am now looking at losing a 12 year chunk of my pension, which is a bit crap seeing as we only lived together as man and wife for one year) I've only done a bit of cursory net research on this and am guessing 50% split is the average on a pension providing there are no assets/property to divide up (there aren't in our case). One child involved who has lived with mother since we split. Mother has never worked so no pension from her side to throw into the ring - just mine.

Cheers in advance for any helpful responses..... oh and before anyone says it, yes I could take proper legal advice on this, but when you've got NSC why bother!

 

[vegster]

Oh dear, thats a nasty thing to happen. when I divorced I managed to get a deal where I kept all my pension and traded it against a lower proportion of the equity (house !) we were dividing.
My wife was similar in as such that she never paid in to any pension and I was sole contributor, It does seem very unfair that as men, we have to work our nuts off for nothing sometimes.

 

[Steve Foster]

As an Independent Financial Adviser I often am asked for advice regarding Pension splitting. After New Year, the number of divorces usually peeks as well, though with the current credit crunch, can people still afford to split! Usually it is a 50/50 split in assets and yes pension's that have been accumulated count as well.
I do hope that you will have enough funds to keep watching the Albion however!

 

[El Presidente]

I do hope that you will have enough funds to keep watching the Albion however!

There's no need to wish further misery on the poor bloke is there?

 

[Westdene Seagull]

Can any NSC divorcees who had to carve up their pension advise on what percentage they gave away please. Being a lazy git (separated 12 years, never bothered sorting divorce before now and am now looking at losing a 12 year chunk of my pension, which is a bit crap seeing as we only lived together as man and wife for one year) I've only done a bit of cursory net research on this and am guessing 50% split is the average on a pension providing there are no assets/property to divide up (there aren't in our case). One child involved who has lived with mother since we split. Mother has never worked so no pension from her side to throw into the ring - just mine.

Cheers in advance for any helpful responses..... oh and before anyone says it, yes I could take proper legal advice on this, but when you've got NSC why bother!

If it goes to court then the court to effectively put all assets in a pot ( including pensions ). Joint debts and any personal debts that can be attributed to the running of a home, holidays together etc will then be deducted. The remaining pot would then be divided "fairly". Fairly is subjective as they try and ensure you would both be living a similar standard of life. If there's enough cash assets or assets that can be converted to cash (house, ISA, endowment etc ) then I would suggest you offer to pay off your ex in cash / cashable assets. This will leave you pensions untouched - it takes years to build up a decent pension so you should do anything to avoid splitting it. Also, pension providers rip you off right royally when doing the split so you actually end up with considerably less than the so called "value" of the pension pot.

Good luck - it isn't easy but you can get through it. Try and avoid court at all costs - mediation is worth considering ( not to get back together but to discuss in a controlled environment how to split things up ).

 

[Uncle C]

Out of interest, when the man eventually dies, does the divorced wife still continue to get her pension ?

 

[Man of Harveys]

Don't get married in the first place..?

 

[Buzzer]

My advice? Get advice. Please. It's worth it.

 

[Lord Bracknell]

Don't get married in the first place..?

The traditional advice is:- Find a woman you don't like and buy her a house.

 

[Pondicherry]

As above get some proper advice.

However - one thing to ask about is pension earmarking. Rather than splitting the pension fund now - earmarking indicates a proportion of the benefits to be paid to the spouse. So you are basically saying - when I retire at 65 (or whenever) i will give x% of my pension payments to my spouse. This has certain advantages for you - mainly if your ex-wife remarries she will automatically lose the earmarking rights. Also - you are in control of when you retire and how much you pay into your pension in future. Main disadvantage is that you remain financially tied to the ex - and it is harder to get earmarking orders agreed.

 

[Alfred the greatx]

When I was divorcing I proposed earmarking to prevent splitting my pension pot as I knew what a greedy cow she was and there was no way she would wait 30 years or so for a payout.
She happily settled for a fraction of the value of the pot in cash rather than wait, so it worked for me.

 

[Nottseagull]

Out of interest, when the man eventually dies, does the divorced wife still continue to get her pension ?

Don't you mean his pension?

 

[Westdene Seagull]

Out of interest, when the man eventually dies, does the divorced wife still continue to get her pension ?

If it's been split then I believe so. It effectively makes the ex-wife a member of the pension scheme and so she gets a pension while she's still alive. It's probably why pension providers take so much out of your pot when you split it.

 

[British Bulldog]

Can any NSC divorcees who had to carve up their pension advise on what percentage they gave away please. Being a lazy git (separated 12 years, never bothered sorting divorce before now and am now looking at losing a 12 year chunk of my pension, which is a bit crap seeing as we only lived together as man and wife for one year) I've only done a bit of cursory net research on this and am guessing 50% split is the average on a pension providing there are no assets/property to divide up (there aren't in our case). One child involved who has lived with mother since we split. Mother has never worked so no pension from her side to throw into the ring - just mine.

Cheers in advance for any helpful responses..... oh and before anyone says it, yes I could take proper legal advice on this, but when you've got NSC why bother!

If I remember rightly from my own divorce your wife can only claim on your pension from the time you married until the time you seperated ( in your case 50% of 12 months ) However I dont think this law started until around 2001 or 2002 so if you seperated before that there's every chance you may not have to give her any of your pension. As others have said get legal advice on the matter.

 

[m20gull]

If I remember rightly from my own divorce your wife can only claim on your pension from the time you married until the time you seperated ( in your case 50% of 12 months ).

Not in England. All assets are part of the marital pot regardless of when tbey are earned: not so in Scotland. Unless you can demonstrate "contribution" like the footballer (was it Ray Parlour?).

 

[British Bulldog]

Not in England. All assets are part of the marital pot regardless of when tbey are earned: not so in Scotland. Unless you can demonstrate "contribution" like the footballer (was it Ray Parlour?).

I can only base what i know on my own divorce but when my ex wife was awarded a chunk of my pension it was only from the day we married until the day we seperated, She was'nt allowed to claim on the pension between the seperation and the divorce.

 

[Easy 10]

Have you tried switching it off and on again ?

 

[seagullsovergrimsby]

If you seperated in 1996 she may not be entitled to any of your pension pot unless the new law is retrospective as the divorce isn't settled yet. Might be worth offering her £500 as a cash alternative if she is entitled to 50% and you tell her you wont be retiring until you are 75.