re army pension

[skingraft01]

can an ex wife make a claim on her ex husbands army pension if she was married to him during most of his army life?

[Bewlay Bros]

Don't quote me exactly on this but an EX-wife can do nothing once the absolute has been served.

If the divorce process has yet to finish, then this is what you pay lawyers for!!.

[dot.hawkes]

I was advised to make a claim against my ex husbands RAF pension by my solicitor and i did, but then the judge at the family court dismissed the claim as i had been given his half of the house at no cost, fair enough i suppose.

[fredpuli47]

Sorry Bewlay, but somebody is in for a shock if they think that no 'ex-wife' can claim on property or income once the decree absolute is granted ! The Court treats property questions independently of the decree absolute.

[Calvert7]

Yes, if you are still currently going through the divorce process you can ask your solicitors to take all pension benefits into account. It can also be done retrospectively if you believe the original settlement to be unfair but you would need to speak to a solicitor for advice regarding this.

Usually a financial adviser or actuary would produce an independent report recommending what percentage of your husband's pension you would need to provide you with parity of income in retirement. With the army scheme you are not able to transfer the benefit awarded to you out of the scheme but you retain a credit within the scheme which will be used to provide you with pension on reaching the scheme retirement age - I believe age 60.

It is possible to obtain a settlement regardless of whether his benefits are deferred or already in payment. Pension sharing of this type does however go against the preference of many judges for a clean break and pension benefits may be offset by other assets, for example the family home. It is however important to take expert advice on this issue as pension benefits are often undervalued in real terms as it costs more to provide a woman with the same level of income in retirement as a man because she is likely to live longer.

Hope this is helpful