Another pensions question

Just going for divorce.

EX and I both work for civil service

He earns £42000.00 PA
Civil Servant 22 yrs

I earn £10000.00 pa
Civil servant 20 yrs - last 16 part-time reducing my pension by 1/2

Is it worth looking at pension sharing?
How will it be calculated?

Also we both will have built up death in service and retirement lump sums. Would courts take these into account and how?

Any help please.

Pension sharing is very complicated so it is probably worth both getting cetvs and then offsetting - that is, you getting more of something else, such as house or savings. Because you both have civil service pensions I would have thought the issues about how cetvs work would be cancelled out but those more knowledgeable may correct me here.

Sadie

Agree with Sadie, you should both ask for your personal pension's Cash Equivalent Transfer Values to be sent to you, you can then each see what has been accrued, that way some sort of judgement can be made. Mind you there are differing thoughts on how that judgement equates to as cash in your hand now!
Good Luck !

Jean
Looking at the pensions in isolation, which is generally not a good idea; in your case you should not ignore the possibility of pension sharing. Because you both have Civil Service pensions they are very valuable, this will not be reflected in the CETV. His pension will be worth a lot more than yours because of your relative salaries.

To give you a VERY estimate, using a number of assumptions and guesses, my estimate is that his pension could be worth in excess of £150,000. Yours is more difficult to guess, so I will not embarrass myself by guessing.

The valuation (done by the Civil Service Pension Scheme and free) will include the lump sums and the value of the Death in Service benefits.

There may be other good reasons why you should consider offsetting instead of pension sharing, but if you do, you should not rely upon the CETV(s), which will under value both pensions. As yours is worth less than his, you would be put at a disadvantage.

Thanks Peter for your reply.

Could I please bend your ear some more?

In you reply to RIO on this site you spoke of three ways of getting more info on the size of a Pension pot.These were

1) Areport costing £50.00 plus vat - where do you get it from and how much more info does it give than the CETV

2) A single valuation £500.00 plus vat - what does this show and how is it different from your other option
3) A professional report £700.00 plus.

In your reply to me you spoke of other good reasons for offsetting.What reasons do you mean?


Jean

Jean
Happy to help if I can. I’ll give an outline response here (in case it helps others) and send you a personal reply to avoid any unreasonable commercialism.

Point 1. This is an innovative on-line pension valuation service. It requires the user to provide eighteen pieces of data. An actuary, who is therefore able to put his name to the report, specifies the calculation methodology and the underlying programming. There are some limitations, for example, none of the inputs are checked or validated by anyone other than the user. The valuation is based on a representative pension scheme benefit design, so it is not specific to a particular pension scheme (there are four representative scheme designs to choose from). This report is a valuation with information about the underlying calculations. In terms of your question in that it gives a valuation of the pension, it does not provide any more information than a CETV, but the valuation basis is more appropriate for use in a divorce. I will give you more information in the personal reply.

Point 2. This is the typical cost of an individual pension valuation done by an actuary. Again, the report is a valuation with information about the underlying calculations. Unlike the more affordable report, the actuary uses the actual pension scheme benefit design in arriving at the valuation. In most cases, details such as the individuals pensionable salary would be verified, either by reviewing documents supplied by the client or by direct enquiry of the scheme.

Point 3. This is another style of actuarial report, but it addresses more than just a valuation of the benefits. The scope of the report is flexible and the instructions to the actuary are typically aimed at addressing specific issues. For example, if a pension sharing order is contemplated the instruction to the actuary may include doing calculations to determine how the pension is “split”.

Reasons for possibly doing offsetting rather than a pension sharing order might include;

The cost of a PSO, legal fees, possible actuaries fees, possible scheme fees/charges
Could allow you to retain a greater interest in another asset (such as a house)

I hope that this helps.

Peter

As you work for the Civil Service why not try the Government Actuary's Department -switchboard no. 0207 211 2600.

I currently work for the Civil Service and previously been in banking for 22 years. My husband has his own business and no pension - does anyone know if I have to share my pension with him? By the way I have not left him yet so this is new to me.

Good luck.

Regards
Rainy