Ex's pensions

Mike,

That is very interesting. We have to admit its no something any of us have heard of or experiences before. Thankyou very much for alerting us to this possibility.

So it is possible to return to court to ask for a lump sum instead of regular maintenance payments.
It does look illogical when all the rules seem to say you can't revisit the distribution of the capital but if you're getting maintenance and your ex accrues/acquires capital assets or savings or a bigger pension fund ? after the divorce, you can apply to have enough of that transferred into your name so that you no longer have to rely on your ex for maintenance
I'm wondering how/whether it works in practice.

Hi Maggie

If what you are saying is correct and it turns out that you can go back after the Consent Order, I feel that would seem somewhat unfair to an ex.
Obviously not knowing the full in's and out its not clear how fair or unfair the initial settlement was in the first place.
If its possible to always go back at later stages because you feel your ex's finances have increased then it seems a waste of time to sort the divorce/consent order of finances in the first place. Although I know its possible to have maintenance increased/decreased at later stages through the courts, does this extend to capital also?

If you were asking for the exact same amount of maintenance to now be converted to capital, ie: 36 months left to run at £100 per month = £3600, and you asked for that amount, this could be reasonable, although you are still aquiring a lump sum before the actual intended term end, so would a reduction in that lump sum be appropriate as you are having the money now rather than later?

Its an interesting one and I hope someone can shed the correct legal way of approaching this.
If it turns out to be possible to do this, then there appears to be no incentive to increase one's income/capital through work or any other means at any point for fear of this being taken away some years later by revisiting the divorce.

www.penfam.co.uk/documents/guide/downloads/GeneralGuidance.pdf
9.2 Variation of pension sharing order
A pension sharing order can be used to capitalise periodical payments orders (MCA 1973 s31(7B)(ba)) made in relation to proceedings started after 1 December 2000. This might be used where pension rights accrue significantly after divorce rather than before.

Looks as if it can be done?
I think my ex may have tried to protect himself - at FDR he insisted I get the required amount by sharing both pensions .
The day after FDR his solicitor rang mine to suggest I should instead take the equivalent amount from the old deferred pension and leave the new one intact .
My solicitor advised me to do that to save charges - so the Consent Order reads I receive 40% of both pensions = both pensions shared and therefore can't be shared again but in fact one pension is unshared. I wonder if I will be able to revisit the unshared pension in 5 years.