Has he stitched me up? - Pensions

[Shoobydo]

Hi all, hope you can help.

Prior to the split we owned our house jointly mortgage free. He had a pension with a TV of over £800k. I know they have dropped now but it was 10 x bigger than mine and is still probably at least 5 x bigger…..or it would have been had it still been in deferment. He has just announced that he took the income (DB scheme) prior to the split and now has no pension other than the one in payment. He has decided to retire on £20k a year that he is now getting and has no other provision. I earn £55k a year and have savings of £20k and a pension of £80k which I save into quite heavily to try and get it to a decent level. Will he now be entitled to a share of my assets and me nothing from his? I expected to have to split the house but thought the pensions would be equalised. I now suspect that is not going to happen and I am worried that he will come after half of mine.

Children now grown up and left home so no maintenance issues.

Anyone know how I stand before I take legal advice ?

You can get a free half hour at most solicitor’s

you don’t say how old you both are
I shouldn’t think if this is very recent the pension thing that that won’t be included in the pot, as we would all do that wouldn’t we to save our other half getting any of our pension

don’t put any extra money in yours until it’s finalised.

Sorry i forgot that bit. He is 56 and I am 51. He has wealthy parents who will no doubt help him out if he needs it but only when the divorce is done I would imagine. Fair enough but I think he has deliberately done this to avoid his pension being included. Apparently he took it on his 55th birthday just over a year ago and would argue we were fine then so it shouldn’t be included as it wasnt a deliberate deprivation of assets. I will seek legal advice on this. Thanks for your reply.

You need legal advice and get your solicitor to look at what has happened, eg has he taken all as a lump sum? Dud he start drawing down the income, did he do it in part?

if he drew it all down, there could have been a fairly large tax bill too

He's deliberately deprived you of assets. Speak to a solicitor. What has he done with £800k?

Nothing has changed other than the pension is now in payment not deferment. His pension can still be shared. The picture after is much the same as it was before. So no he hasn’t stitched you up.

With respect you don’t understand pensions

Yes it’s a final salary scheme. He didn’t take any cash and just took the income.

@pd339 -My concern is that on paper we have a joint house, assets of £100k which I saved and I have an income that is £35k higher than his. His future earning potential is lower than mine too due to the age difference. It concerns me that the judge may give him half the savings and half my pension or a bigger share of the house. I’ll take some advice.

Your concerns though would have been equally valid had he done nothing with his pension. This thread seems like a bit of a red herring.

Why ? If he hadn’t taken it, would it not have been valued as part of the settlement?

> it’s a final salary scheme. He didn’t take any cash and just took the income.

Yes that sounds highly tactical, given the tax advantages of taking a lump sum which means that most everyone does that.

£20k a year at 55 sounds low for a CETV of 800k, particularly if no lump sum, so may need checking.

This site suggests you can still share a pension in payment though:
helpandadvice.co.uk/pension-sharing-order/

@waterSpider

Thanks very much. Very helpful. He didn’t take cash as I think his family are going to make a substantial gift of cash to him when the divorce is through. All very stressful.