Splitting the pension pots

We are in the final furlong of a long process, have completed the mediation, sorted the children and have a draft Consent Order. The only thing which remains is to split the four pension pots. At mediation we agreed that the pension pots would be split 50/50 at the time we separated which was 1/5/2008 not at the time of the divorce (now-ish). There are four pensions: Civil Service (CETV - £282,563), Private pension (CETV - £7,000), Local Authority (CETV - £10,156) and Local Authority (CETV - £776). Having spent £8k on legal fees and mediation I am loathed to spend another £1,500 on having an acutary to work out the split. Is there a simple way I can work out how we split the pots? Ta.

To be honest I don''t think there is an easy way, except possibly to more or less ignore the smaller pensions. The private one is negligible, really, and so is the smaller LA one. Because of pension sharing costs you only want to be sharing the large pension so it depends whose it is and who the other pensions belong to. Assuming the large one belongs to one of you and the other three belong to the other, you could knock say, £12500 off to start with and share the other £270000 equally, working out the percentage shares from that. I make it that the person with the other pensions would get a 48% share of the large one. This is all very rough and ready but possibly better than paying an actuary to deal with the other relatively small amounts.

Best wishes,
Sadie

Sadie

Thanks. To clarify I have the civil service and private pension and she has the two LA ones. Is the 48% based on what you thnk the value of the pension pots were at 1/5/2008?

The 48% was based on the figures you gave. Strictly, in England and Wales all pensions can be included in the marital pot, including contributions post-separation. This was something we negotiated on in my own divorce and the eventual figure (arrived at by splitting the difference between our positions) in effect excluded the five years since separation.

However, as you also have the private pension, giving her 48% of your big LA one would still not be unreasonable.

Best wishes,
Sadie

Firstly, cost should be significantly less than £1,500 if you want a specific question answered. If you want to apply a pension share that ensures that both parties have 50% of benefits accrued to May 2008 then it will need some detailed calculations. Putting it in perspective, 1% of the pension assets is £3,000 and if you work it ou yourselves then you could quite easily be up to 5% out wich may give one party £7,500 more in pension assets than the other, if you''re happy with that then fine. If not then you need to get the advice. Cost should be no more than about £700 + VAT.

Ian

I agree with Ian.

Given the different pension types involved the range of potential outcomes will vary and may disadvantage one party significantly. IMO an actuary is the only sensible person who can undertake this for you.

It is too simplistic to lump all the pensions together.

Are you looking to split all the pension pots so that each gets 50:50 of the capital amounts or an equalisation of the income from them?

If you can narrow down exactly what you need to a single question a decent actuary will not charge £1,500 to answer this.

I note that you are at mediation. Have either of you taken separate legal advice?

I have been married 22 years, husband 45 me 52. I have no pension of my own, husband has armed forces pension. He did 22 years service and paid into the pension for 5 years before we married. Would I be entitled to 50% of the whole of the pension or the 17 years he paid into it while we were married. He receives some pension now and has said he will split this 50/50 for now until we reach our financial settlement, he pays tax on this monthly sum and said that if I take 50% of this payment I am eligible to pay the same amount of tax, is this the case? Or is it his responsibility? For the tax.