Pensions in Divorce

by PenLife Associates August 9, 2022

Published: July 22, 2022Last Updated on August 9, 2022

by PenLife Associates

We’ve noticed there’s a number of guides out there covering some aspects of divorce. We’d strongly recommend the guides made by Resolution—they cover the overall divorce process, child arrangements and the legal aspects of divorce. Yet, we put our thinking caps on and we felt that there isn’t enough information on pensions in divorce. Here at PenLife, as Chartered Financial Planners, we wanted to share our expertise on the complex subject. And because of this, our ‘Pensions in Divorce Guide’ was born!

Divorce is never easy, there’s little doubt about that. The situation is stressful enough, and there’s even more aspects of divorce that intensify those stress levels. One of the most confusing aspects can be the pensions you and your ex-partner have. This could be confusing on how they work, how they’re valued and how they can be fairly dealt with in a financial settlement. We just want to ensure that this difficult journey is just that touch bit easier, we want to help—wherever we can!

If you’re still not quite convinced how a financial planner can help in divorce, have a read of this case study about how we helped a client of ours with her pensions in her divorce:

We were introduced to Mrs J by her solicitor. She was divorcing her husband, Mr J, who had a high paid role with a big company DB pension. Mrs J didn’t have much in pensions herself and was very keen to keep the family home in the financial settlement. Initially, Mr J suggested she could keep the house and he could keep his pensions. However, when we analysed his proposal closer and looked at his pensions, we thought this might not be a very fair outcome for Mrs J and recommended involving an actuary to have a closer look at both sets of pensions. After considering all the information, the Judge in the final hearing agreed with our assessment and awarded Mrs J the house and a share of Mr J’s pension.

We’ve create a little guide to help explain this subject. The aim of this booklet is to provide general information to help you with your understanding of the subject and to give you a little more confidence in navigating your way to a fair settlement. If you need advice, please feel free to contact us on 01904 661140 or via our website www.pen-life.co.uk and we will be very happy to help.

For now, if you’d like a FREE copy of our ‘Pensions in Divorce’ guide, then please use the cut out on this page, contact us at
enquiries@pen-life.co.uk or alternatively, call us on 01904 661140.