Pension

Rest deleted

You are a lawyer/mediator?

As such you will be aware that the marriage is long and the actual date of cohabitation is largely irrelevant.


I assume the husbands pension being a uniformed service pension was subject to an actuarial report, under instruction was the actuary asked to estimate pension division to equalize income upon retirement?.

The wife is parent with care.

Husband earns x3.5 wife at 35k

Husbands pension CETV 580k.....huge

Wifes pension 75k small


After a long marriage the starting point for asset division is equality including pensions.

After a long marriage pension sharing generally is the whole CETV and not the value accrued during the years of marriage including pre marriage cohabitation.

You say he agrees equalisation of capital, is this your suggestion?

You make no mention of spousal maintenance?, assuming they agreed equality of capital (and the wife should not) the wife will not have the capital to purchase another house and with an income of 8.5k would qualify if at all for a very small mortgage, bearing in mind the first priority of a mediator is to consider the needs of children under the age of 18 this makes no sense.

What to consider

His far higher income and future earning potential.

His much larger pension.

The wife is parent with care of to children the youngest aged 13.

"equalisation of capital" would obviously be very harsh on the wife and children unless SM and a high pension share was on offer.

Thanks for your feedback.

I am not a lawyer

Do i have experience in court? yes as a McKenzie friend.

Have i ever experienced a judge not apportioning a pension after a long marriage no, but it can happen if the litigant with the higher CETV will offset the pension against liquid assets or a judge imposes the settlement.

Aged 46 i would expect a family law solicitor to include to a question regarding income equalisation upon retirement in the actuary report, i actually have a report for a man aged 45.

Sorry i can`t be of any help with luck one of the solicitors on site will reply to your question soon.

Hi,

I cannot offer you any personal experience but I can sympathise with the difficulties of trying to negotiate this however.

I can understand the opposing views on this case. I am in the equality of income camp myself especially when the marriage is a long one and actually he could have access to the ordinary pension in four years time when he reaches age 50.

I am intrigued about the reduction in the CETV between now and 2018.

I assume this is due to the specific nature of the Police scheme and its generous retirement ages and its double accrual in later years.

By my reckoning your client has 23 years service now. In four years time he will have 27 years service and be aged 50. He will have the required 25(+ in his case) years’ pensionable service and be aged 50 so could retire with an ordinary pension paid immediately.

By 2018 when he is aged 54 he will have the maximum 30 year service. I assume the reduction is something to do with the double accrual within the scheme? Surely, this is an anomaly because his benefits must be worth more in 2018 with more service / higher salary than now?

Is he planning on retiring at age 55?

Can you or anyone throw any light on this.

Peter - if you could add anything I would appreciate it.

Regards

Phil

The Divorce IFA

Although I am a Resolution Accredited Independent Financial Adviser my comments are given here as general guidance based on the (often limited) information available and does not constitute financial advice. They should not be seen as a substitute for detailed financial and legal advice.

"CETV £580,000 if he retires now after 25 yrs service but only £495,000 if he was to retire at 55 in 2018"
These are actuarial valuations - not the CETV offered by the pension scheme?
despite longer service/?higher pension in 2018 - there's a shorter payout period for the pension = lower CETV?

His pension started in 1987 - so 2011 is the 25 year threshold /earliest date for a full pension?
Or is he literally now at the point where he could take his 25 year pension?
If the latter - it makes sense to yield [gritted teeth] on the 3 disputed cohabitation years? ie to recognise H's wishes - if H insists on only sharing the accrual during marriage will that not automatically mean a valuation at the date of divorce/25 years service/higher CETV?
What difference would those 3 low initial contribution input years make to the CETV amount to be shared?
Another post dealing with AFPS army pension allocated to the non-member spouse 100% of the pension accrued to date of divorce to accommodate a massive increase once a service threshold was passed within next ?one year of date of divorce.