very confused RE: financial settlement expectation

On Christmas eve 2011 I discovered my husband of 21 years(28 years together) was having an affair with a married woman from his office. when I confronted him he confessed and informed me and our three sons that he was leaviving us to set up home with this woman and her two young girls. OUR LIVES HAVE BEEN RIPPED APART. My husband works for an international company and persuaded me to give up my professional career to support his career abroad. I spent 13 years in third world countries entertaining very high profile people including presidents and officials. It suited him to have an expat wife for 13 years but now that we have returned to the uk he wants an executive wife and I have been tossed aside.

What I would like to know is what I can resonably expect as a settlement as I have no pension and very little chance of re-establishing my professional career (although I have managed to become re registered in my profession and have passed professional exams in the last six months). Can any one give me some guidelines as to what I should expect in terms of what percentage of our assets, what percentage of his pension,shares options, investments and properties I should be claiming. My solicitor seems to be so vague and I am now 1 and 1/2 years into this with no apparant end in sight.
He seems to want to keep me and the assets under his control.Please advise. Thanks

Hi
Welcome to wiki.
I don''t know if the rules are the same in Northern Ireland as England and Wales, but if you post the following a wise wiki may be able to offer some thoughts

Your respective ages;

The number of children you have and their ages;

How many nights the children spend with each parent;

The length of your marriage and any period of pre marriage cohabitation;

Your respective incomes;

Your respective outgoings;

Your assets - both soley held and joint;

Your liabilities.

Rather than thinking in terms of % split its usually better to consider what you need in terms of housing etc and how the assets can be used to meet those (and also those of your s2bx)

Take care
LB

Thank you LB. My situation seems to be very complicated. My husband is 51 and i am 46. The three boys are 18y, 15y, and 13y. I have the boys 99% of the time as my ex still travels(eg he hasn''t been in touch with them for the last 3 weeks and it was three weeks before that when he last saw them ( 1-2 hours at the most).
We have sig asssets as a result of living abroad for 13 years so I have no issue with a house my concerns are that I now have no personal income no pension and am reliant on how the assets will be split. I thought i would get at least 50% of all marital assets but am finding it difficult to pin down what is the normal division.would appreciate advise on best way to make a Clean Break with split of multiple properties, company share options etc as this will be all i have to get on with until i can re establish some career.( would like to add that both my solictor and barrister have told me that even after a 21 yea rmarriage i am unlikely to get moe than 4 years spousal maitenance??). I spent my whole life loving and supporting this man and now it seems to count for nothing. Even he still tells everyone we are a great team but just doesn''t love me that way any more?????

I think if you were to answer lost boys questions regarding income etc.. You may get more response from wikis. You STBX income, pension etc.. Your income and both your outgoings etc... I saw you said you had no personal income are you not getting any CB, CTC etc??
SM is supposed to be based on needs and the ability to pay - however I too had a long marriage and am unable to work due to illness and I didn''t get SM - well I got £1 a year? Bizarrely - mind you that was down to the judge - I''m trying to get it increased but yet again gone to a trial FH because of a lying ex!
If you answer the relevant questions I''m sure you will get a response - its difficult for people to comment without the full facts. and every case is different as I found out there doesn''t seem to be a set rule! Good Luck.