FDR timing - pension and child arrangements

[Nightlite]

hi all,

Hoping for advice from users experiences - a bit cynical about lawyers as I havd not found them to be too good on the tactical side of things

Our FDR scheduled for end of September is fast approaching. Under the court order agreed at FDA, pension reports were to be filed by the court by end of August. Unfortunately the expert whom we have instructed has states that their timeline for producing a report will be 20-25 weeks from end of July. Ex’s pension is worth around £450k, mine is £90k. Marriage was 7 years , one child aged 6. Ex has apparently also recently applied for 50/50 shared care through court. I will be opposing this.

In the circs - is it tactically more advantageous to apply for an adjournment of the hearing given pension report will not be available or to just attend the FDR without pension report?

Note that ex’s case that he needs more than a 50/50 split on finances (despite higher earning capacity) as he has 13 year old son from previous marriage living with him, for housing purposes, and this will be reaffirmed if he should be successful in 50/50 application. Therefore it may be to his advantage to delay the FDR at this time.

Should I apply for an adjournment or just attend the FDR without the pension report? Note both ex and are self representing and under the order it was his job to obtain the reports - which he failed to do, so I did…

How much of the 460k pot was built up during your 7 year marriage?

His eldest child also absolutely needs considering regarding his housing needs …

Also

what are your earnings
will 50:50 split house you both
Why are you opposing 50:50 child arrangements?

I would think the majority of it was built outside the marriage.
ex was on £160k plus bonus but since separating has resigned and taken on role at £100k gross. I am on £70k gross
50/50 opposed on safeguarding/welfare issues. Do not want to say too much on here as outing but ex is abusive, controlling and previously both children were on a plan with social services due to his behaviour and neglect towards older child. He doesn’t really want ds 50/50, doing it out of spite and not to pay child maintenance.
have a non-mop order in place, special measures in court

Not much equity from sale of flat - sat in trust account. My point is that he has deliberately reduced earnings so to gain a bigger share of marital pot

Understand that could be a factor

re child arrangements if there are genuine safeguarding/welfare will he be having them
at all ? How is it safe for a couple days but not 50:50? Are child welfare authorities involved?

if the court ordered pensions report by the fdr don’t you have to meet that deadline ?? Use a different person/company?

We have a cao currently in place which is unfortunately very loose due to several factors. There were no overnights originally permitted but had built up to 1 night per week currently and currently a few hours after school x2 per week.

we have previously agreed 3 pension express - 2 of them are not accepting instructions atm and the other says 20-25 weeks for a report, which takes us to dec/jan

I can only advise what happened in my case. The actuary’s report was not ready in time for the FDR and the judge said the hearing could not go ahead without it as ex had 3 valuable final salary pensions (worth much more than the CETV) and 2 DC pensions, I had 2 small DC pensions. We were awarded a pension share which gave us ‘equality of income’ in retirement. Long marriage, he massively outearned me, youngest child had just gone to Uni.

Yes deadline should be met but is not possible. Hence wondering whether to request adjournment or just go ahead and attend - not sure what give me the best tactical advantage

@HannahinHampshire that’s helpful thanks. Ex pension almost 4x as much as mine though ours was a short to medium marriage. Our ds is 5 whereas his ds from another marriage is 13

You can’t compare a long marriage to a medium one
or one where one partner has been stay at home mum compared to a high earner themselves
or one where parties are 60 compared to one where parties still have 20-30 years working life left

True @millymollymoomoo . We are mid to late 40s.

interested in any thoughts re adjourning fdr. We both live in w London.

Agree about long/medium marriage comparisons. But if I remember correctly (my hearing was a few years ago now)! - the judge was adamant that there could not be a ‘fair’ hearing if we did not know exactly how much was in the pot? What type of pensions do OP and her STBX have? If one party has DB pension arrangements and the other has DC pensions then you really need an actuary’s report. If they’re all DC pensions it’s easier to compare. I’m suspicious that OP’s STBX was instructed to provide the reports but failed to do so? My ex was very reluctant to provide details of one of his final salary pensions, the actuary valued it at 3 x the CETV . . .

@HannahinHampshire im not too hot on pensions but my former lawyers advised me that I should be getting an expert report not least due to the disparity of values between his and mine, he has also failed to provide proper CETVs. I may not be entitled to much of his pension but he is not being transparent either

I’m with your former lawyers here. He has 450k, you have 90k? That’s quite a disparity! You sound (understandably) a bit worn down by the process but please don’t sell yourself short, you both need income in retirement. You have to know (and the judge has to know) exactly how much the combined pension pot is worth, otherwise how can you get a fair outcome?