Ringfencing pre-marriage pension

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Does anyone have any recent experience of this and could offer advice?

We were married 14 years, 2 girls (9 and 7) and are now separated.

We’re in the process of sorting finances. Ex wants to ringfence the pension he accrued before we married.

I’ve had one solicitor say that he can, and one solicitor say that he can’t and I don’t know what to think.

He’s older than me- I’m 43, he’s 53 if that’s relevant.

Does anyone have any advice or experience of this? Thanks!

It is sometimes possible to ringfence pre-marital (or actually pre-cohabitation) pensions contributions and accumulation.

But - as with all these things it's not clear cut. It would come down to needs really. The fact you have more contributing years could be a factor.

Could give a better idea if we knew:

The size of your pension
The size of his pension
The predicted size of both at retirement point
Whether you will both be housed outright or if anyone would still be paying a mortgage post-retirement
Relative earnings

Etc

I didn't think you could you do this retrospectively (we did this via a prenup) but super interested to know if you can do it upon divorcing

We’re divorcing.

My pension is approx £150,000, his £450,000 (I don’t have the exact figures to hand, but it’s around that).

I guess we’d both intend to get a new mortgage and pay it off before we retire.

im requesting a pension valuation report to get a better idea of predicted pension pots.

Earnings fairly similar- him £60,000, me £52,000

Are yours both defined contribution, or does anyone have any defined benefit.

And how much do you currently contribute (as you will have ten years of contributions and growth to factor in)

a judge could agree to disregard it if your needs can be reasonably met by excluding it

why do you think you should be entitled to it
his age will impact his ability to build up vs you who has 10 more years over him

what will be important is other assets available

You need to factor in your compounded growth for next 10 years to give you like for like !

Your earnings are similar , he is 10 years older, your pot won’t be too disinflationary in 10 years . His age and nearness to retirement absolutely will and should impact this

It's a tricky one as I've seen it go both ways to be honest. And there is usually lots of factors at play. I was told by one solicitor that my pre marriage pension was arguably "safe" and by another as we were together at the time it was accrued just not married then the pre marriage relationship still counted as marriage was the natural progession so all my pension was up for the pot.

Why is his pot so much larger than yours considering there is only 10 years difference in contributions!

So how is care of the still-primary age school children split? They are still both a long way off to begin to be able to decide where they live. Or did ex the minute he moved out decide to look after them 50:50?

I was told that you can’t ringfence pensions anymore in a ‘needs based’ case. Mine isn’t big enough to fight it so I just let that go but you could argue this point. You will need a pensions actuary to work out your split.

Personally I think that any pension accrued prior to a relationship should be ring fenced but what the law thinks, I don’t know.

I don’t think anyone is going to be able to give you a better answer here than maybe maybe not.

My sense is that you could resolve your separation quite easily without a lot of legal and financial wrangling. There seems to be a very obvious swing and roundabout in the sense of larger pension and older person. That could change whether equalisation is fair. And if it isn’t fair then you are going to spend a lot of money on valuations and legal arguments.

Unless it is straightforward and obvious you should equalise. Otherwise I think if you can leave pensions alone you should leave them alone. In this case it looks like about half to two thirds of his pension was accrued outside of the marriage. And half to two thirds of the OPs will be accrued outside the marriage. The amount saved in the marriage looks about the same. definitely not big enough to the drilling into.

Add to the fact his mortgage options are limited to 15 productive years and the OP has 25 productive years, there is a big compromise to be had.

Split equity and leave pensions alone and go on your merry if slightly dissatisfied ways. Focus on being the best co parents you can be.

But as Pps pointed out the devil is in the detail.

I think personally that any pension contributions prior to marriage should be ringfenced.
Why would you want assets that were set aside from salary before you even knew your spouse?
He is older than you so raiding his pre marital pension is a little underhand in my book. He is closer to retirement and you have plenty of time to sort out your retirement equity as an independent adult after divorce.
It seems to me you are feathering your nest when essentially you realise it's not fair.
By all means share out pensions accrued during marriage, perhaps while you reared children. But keep it fair and avoid point scoring.