Final hearing and terminal illness

[Mylifestartstoday]

We were due to have a final financial hearing in the next few months. Actuary reports had been sought, but now my STBXH has been diagnosed with cancer.
He claims it’s terminal (I’ll need proof as he’s a liar), but is the final hearing allowed a delay to allow him to have all the necessary hospital tests?
I just want him out of my life, but I’m guessing this diagnosis affects pension split.

If he says he is too ill for court, he will need a medical report saying so.

Are you still married? Who issued the petition?

We are still married as he has delayed everything for 2 years. The nisi is still to be issued. I filed for divorce, and started proceedings for finances because he wouldn’t discuss, and has been hiding funds/assets.
Had he agreed, we would have been divorced by now. He’s now saying the pensions actuary report will be inaccurate as he has a terminal illness, even though the median life span from diagnosis is 5/10 years. I just want it over with, I don’t understand why he doesn’t, as he’s living with the other woman, and has no contact with our teenage children (his choice), and has no contact with me either.

Thank you for replying

You can't have a final financial hearing if you don't have decree nisi.

Do not get Decree Absolute until you get a final order, as you may lose out significantly if he died between DA and final hearing, but without a DN, the court has no power to make any financial orders.

The pensions expert can simply be asked, that's not a big job.

I bet his diagnosis would come as a complete shock to the medical profession.

You can get the actuary report updated very quickly.

If he's terminal, he needs less pension not more as he will have far fewer years of retirement than if he had a "normal" life span. If it's a lie, he hasn't thought it through.

Say you need to instruct an independent medical report.

@HosannainExcelSheets

It's not necessarily true that he will need less of the pension. Remember two factors here:

1. The investments have no time to increase in value either asset growth or dividend/interest income;
2. He may need some of that income for end of life care.

However, on the flip side, it doesn't necessarily have to disadvantage the OP. If the terminal illness is genuine, he should be able to withdraw all of his pot tax free and this fundamentally changes the nature of the asset. It can now be compared like for like with savings and home equity (normally pensions are discounted in value because they are taxable and not immediately accessible).

Even if he needs more of his pension now, the OP could take 80% of what she was due, live on it temporarily and pump her own income into a pension to get the income tax saving.

He is a prolific liar, we’ve all been in therapy for 2 years since he disappeared.

He refuses to say where he lives as he thinks it will affect the finances if he admits he lives with her.
I didn’t realise we needed the nisi for a final hearing. It’s taken 2 years, him being an arse and then Covid hit, and my solicitor made a mistake in the paperwork. It shouldn’t be too much longer hopefully.

@Mylifestartstoday

The good advice is your own - get evidence he is terminally ill. If they're still doing tests though, what are they for exactly if they already know?

If you do think he is lying, you could call his bluff of course. Tell him it means he can liquidate his pension without any tax penalties and you'll take only 35% of the pot in cash. If he is telling the truth, you could take that smaller amount of cash and pump it into an ISA over the years and build yourself a nice tax free income. Or you could live on it whilst paying all your taxable earnings into a pension and live tax free for a while.

@FutureExH
He told his solicitor he needed to talk to me as he had terminal cancer. When I spoke to him, he needed more tests to determine the staging, but of course me querying that it couldn’t be terminal yet if they hadn’t staged it was met with “you’re always trying to pick a fight/I don’t want any arguments”.
I’m sure there’s a reason he wanted to tell me, probably to shaft me financially, I’ve just not worked out what it is yet.
I’m going to instruct my solicitor to get proof of illness if it affects court/the financial settlement.

If he needs more tests they wont have an idea whether terminal or not. Sounds like another attempt to delay proceedings.