Divorce

[Seeko]

Somebody I know has seperated from her husband as is about to start the divorce proceedings. One partner has a very healthy company pension and is over 50 years old. Do you know in a divorce situation whether this could be cashed now or would you have to wait for retirement. Thanks!

[Ethel]

http://www.terry.co.uk/Pensions_in_divorce_01. html

[lady_p_gold]

What will probably happen is they will have a pension sharing order. Then the pension will be split into a percentage i.e. 50/50 or 40/60 depending on what they agree and then the pension will be in her own right and she can do what she wishes with it just as if it had been hers from the start. Obviously it would be better to leave it to grow until she herself is ready for retirement.

[Seeko]

Thanks for the feedback.

Ideally what my friend would like is to retain her home and for her ex to keep his pension. The only trouble is he is insisting that he needs some cash out of the home to restart. If he could cash in some of his pension then that would be an option to keep both happy(ish). Neither of them have any spare cash to settle this.

[stevie21]

I honestly don't see why anyone would want access to someone else's pension. It baffles me that this is permitted by law.
Perhaps someone can explain?

To me this is like divorcing a woman and saying "You've got breast implants which you paid for yourself. I want one of them. Everything's 50/50"

[lady_p_gold]

But the thing is Stevie that is exactly how it works. When you get divorced everything is put into the pot, including debts, assets, pensions on both sides (although as women have often not worked etc. theirs is often worth less) and the home. And then the pot is divided. If they don't agree then the court decides. The whole thing about marriage is 'his' and 'hers' becomes 'ours'. Whether or not it is fair is another matter.

[sense4all]

Apologies Seeko : I would like to answer the question raised by Stevie.

Stevie, when Mr Sense and I got married we were on similar wages.( quite a feat in the late eighties) Mine were bonus based his were a little higher but the same month in month out. We always said we would get married to raise our children and that I would be the one to give up work to raise OUR children. I honestly feel that as Mr Sense was able to trot around the world without ever worrying about what was going on at home, so was able to perform outstandingly in his job, that as the facilitator for this yes I am entitled to half of the pension pot that was built up during this period. During this time I have not been completely idle - apart from the day to day tasks involved in proper parenting, I have sourced and renovated ( and lived in , while Mr Sense was in posh hotels all over the world) run down properties - co ordinating the improvements. These actions have considerably enhanced our personal wealth and we have a large amount of equity in our property, which is almost entirely through my vision and hard work. No one would suggest that mr sense cannot have half of that would they?

[lady_p_gold]

Excellently put Mrs Sense

[stevie21]

Excellently put and almost had me convinced! I still feel that the wife then should be entitled to half of the husband's earnings which were earned during the marriage.
I don't believe that she should get anything that he had accumulated beforehand or things such as a pension which are paid at a future date. He gets half the house, presumably, as he paid half the mortgage.

I apologise to Seeko for hijacking the question and wish I could answer the question so that I felt a bit less guilty for doing so. I assume though that it'd defy logic to make a woman wait 15 years after being divorced before she got part of the settlement.