Pension agreement without judge

[Paul58]

Hi, can two parties agree, that ex wife will not take anything from ex husbands pension? They agreed on money she'd have to pay to husband from property. Amount is smaller than she should pay him because he wants to keep his large pension. She doesn't have any pension. She is 45, he is 55.

That doesn't sound like a very sensible decision for the woman - how is she intending to fund retirement? Does she not have a pension because of raising children - if so, she might be entitled to a higher proportion of the total assets

Yes
if both parties have full access to financials, understand implications and are satisfied with a split they can agree between them

There has been quite a bit of research on this recently with the broad finding that many women prioritise housing stability (especially if children are at home) over pension planning and this has a significant long term detriment e.g. see the research discussed here www.manchester.ac.uk/discover/news/professor-debora-price-gives-candid-interview-to-legal-and-general-on-pensions-and-divorce/

If she has no pension at 45 it sounds as if she is in quite a precarious position. She (and he) should only do this with legal and financial advice that means that she really undertands the longer term implications and possibilities.

As to whether they 'can' do it. Ultimately that depends on whether a judge would approve the consent order and no-one here can tell you that, especially with such limited information.

They don't have any children together neither with someone else.
She owns house in value half million pounds and will also get another 200k from selling their other house. He will end up only with 260k and as they work in London he will struggle to buy even property after divorce but he has 400k in his pension. They were married for 5 years. It would be great if you wouldn't judge and jump to conclusions as not all people have kids, not everywhere is man richer than woman. In reality he gave into their marriage maybe 400k and he is only asking back 260k. Lawyer already told him that any pension sharing would be counted only from pension paid during their marriage and that would not be large amount. She has enough money for her pension and full time job and choice to pay private pension herself

Plus, he wants to retire soon so he will just have his private pension until his retirement age . She is still young.

After 5 years, no dependents looks like ex wife getting too much

When you give limited information, people have to make assumptions to be able to give any reply. When you post on a parenting forum, it's a reasonable assumption that there may be children involved and that the woman has no pension because of being a stay at home mum.

Now that you have given more information, it appears that there may be an unfair split, with the woman getting more than she is entitled to, but it may depend on who put what into purchasing the house, what cash assets there are, etc.

Thank you. Neither of them has any cash. Yes, she gets more, but he wants peaceful divorce without complications. Most of the marital house was paid by her before marriage.

It sounds as if you've had legal advice and have come to the settlement on that basis so I assume that the advice is that that is a fair split in the circumstances (most of which we don't know). There's no obligation to split pensions, it is just one aspect of the assets to be divided. You should ensure that you obtain a consent order to finalise the settlement. Your hurdle will be persauding the judge that it is fair but if you have acted with advice and have been in a short marriage with no children then that will generally be easier.

Thank you!!!