Long, long, long, long separation

Having read through lots of posts I can't find anything that quite mirrors my situation, so am posting and hoping that someone who's been through something similar or who is experienced in such matters might take pity on me and be able to offer some advice. Thanks in advance. I separated (nothing legal) from my spouse 18 years ago. Together we drew up values for all (we were very thorough) the finances (ourselves), agreed a value on the family home, and agreed to split everything, including spouse's pension on a 50:50 basis. (I have absolutely no pension entitlement of my own - longer part of the story!) We both signed the valuations document that we had drawn up ourselves - nothing done legally, and we both went our own ways and all seemed fine and went on amicably - until ....... August, 2023 spouse stopped remitting the 50% of his pension to me. He now wants a divorce and doesn't want to pay the 50% of the pension that we had agreed on. My main question (although there are many others!), is: will the valuation of our joint assets, agreed 18 years ago, be the figure we work off during Divorce and Final Settlement - he now doesn't want to voluntarily agree to paying me 50% of his final salary pension, which he was already drawing when we separated or will it be our assets now? Thank you for any help/advice.

Have you actually gone through the divorce process? Or is it just being started?
How long was the marriage to separation? Did you live together before?
has any money changed hands, property been transferred etc?
It sounds like you need a pension sharing order as part of financial settlement. You can only get a legally binding order if there's at least a Decree Nisi/conditional order in place.
You may be able to agree not to have the original agreement re property revisited but it's worth reviewing your respective financial positions as they are now to check that it was/is fair.

Hadenoughnow

Hello and thanks for replying.
The divorce has just been started.
We had been married for 27 years before our separation and had lived together before that.
Yes, money has changed hands and property has been transferred - all done 'amicably' on separation.
We were both happy with what we'd agreed. There's been a sudden change in his attitude - I believe he's lost a lot of his "share".
Problem on his pension; it's administered in Jersey, Channel Islands - no pension sharing.
Thanks for any more consideration that you can give this.

There's recent case law on the issue of pension sharing in Jersey. Is the divorce itself being dealt with there? It may be that a court in England and Wales could at least award maintenance to the same level as the pension income - although this will only last his lifetime.
Maintenance is based on need and ability to pay though so a lot will depend on his circumstances.
The alternative is some kind of offset - ie a capital sum in lieu of regular payments. Again this would depend on what he's got and whether it could still be released without impacting his ability to meet his needs.

Hadenoughnow

The divorce has been filed in Uk - we weren't eligible to file in Jersey.
I don't think his health is in particularly good shape; heavy smoker, drinker, etc etc, so probabilities would indicate he's likely to die before me. If payments ended on his death it would leave me in a tricky situation for the rest of my life.
I don't know for sure, but I think that he's still got money tied up in real estate in South America, where he lives, but he claims the market is down and he made some poor deals. His father, in the UK, is into his 90's and will most likely leave him some cash - this could be his reason for suddenly wanting a divorce, he might think that I might try to claim some of this as he's decided to stop the pension. He has reduced the payments in the past and I haven't caused too much trouble about it, as he's said he had some immediate bills to pay and he needed my share of the pension income to cover them and he would pay me back when he could do so - it's never happened! So, as things stand at the moment, he might claim he has to retain more money from the pension to meet his needs, he has a new partner and a child. I don't think he has very much left in the UK. All in all looks pretty dire for my financial future.
Thanks again for your time, generously given.

Hello again,

In your last reply you said: "There's recent case law on the issue of pension sharing in Jersey".
I've tried a bit of searching but haven't been able to find anything. Is it possible for you to give me the names involved in the case and I might have a better chance of finding it. Just thought it might be worth doing a bit of research into it, as my outcome would be much more favourable with Pension sharing.
Many thanks once again

Google MWH v GSH. This highlighted the issue that although most of divorce law in Jersey is similar to that in England and Wales, pension sharing law was never introduced. I don't know whether the fact the divorce went through the Jersey court made a difference.