Financial order

[abigail74]

We agreed to divorce last year. We had no savings and our only assets were our home and his private pension. We both had small worked based pensions but we agreed to take those out of the equation and each keep our own (there was only about £10k difference between them). We agreed that I would buy him out of our house and that he would then keep all of his private pension fund - so both having the same amount - doing it as quickly as possible so that he could move out. We completed this last year, with him being able to buy a house outright using the money I paid him, and also taking out money from his pension pot, as he was over 55. I had taken a mortgage and a loan out to buy him out of the house. My house is worth about £200k more than his but once I deduct the loan and mortgage, that reduces it to £100K and he has around £77k left in his private pension and he owns his own business which is worth around £10K. He earns about £500 a month more than I do. There is no spousal or child maintenance. He may be living with his new partner now or will be doing so in the next few months . Would he be able to take any future inheritance that I might receive from my parents into account, or is that protected? I don't expect this to be an issue for many years to come, but they own their own house, although this is protected by a trust. I myself suffered a mini stroke about 6 weeks ago, but I am ok and recovered. We are now at the point of doing our financial order having applied for the conditional order now. Should this be fairly simple? And is it a consent order or a clean break order that we need - given that we no longer have any joint assets - my house is solely in my name and his house is in his name. No other joint assets or joint debts. Does this split look fair? I've spoken to 2 solicitors so far and been given different advice each time. Each solicitor has said that the split looks fair - although I should have gotten a transfer value of the private pension first as it would probably have been worth more. One solicitor has said that I look better off because I have more in capital than he has because my house is worth more even though he has a lot in his pension fund and I don't - but still says that he thinks the court will think it's a fair split. One solicitor said that any inheritance from my parents will be protected even without a financial order, because that will be happening in the future and after we are divorced. The other solicitor said that he could potentially have a claim on any future inheritance, hence needing the consent order - and that I would need to declare this when doing the financial order.

It's quite hard to follow but I'd say if you and the solicitor think it's fair then do that. Unlikely any court will disagree if the parties all agreem
You absolutely should get a financial order and ensure this is all tied up. Even if the claim your ex has on future inheritance has no merit, you don't want to be tied up in legal arguments over it. Just get the financial side sorted ASAP

If you are roughly at 50% of total assets each and no kids or adult kids it sounds fair.

if you are getting solicitors to draw up the financial order it should be fine.

in my understanding, financial ties are severed according to the financial order, so your ex won’t be able to make any claims on future inheritances. If you are worried maybe ask your solicitor to ensure that the order explicitly mentions it.

I couldn’t understand the split. But the solicitors aren’t in conflict. They just expressed their advice differently.

1. As long as he has taken legal advice of his own and you both agree all assets and finances have been disclosed- it’s likely to go through. A judge might ask for confirmation of this or push back a bit if massively skewed one way or another. The judge’s main concern is whether any pressure or coercion has been placed on a party or whether there is something in the agreement that could be challenged. The later is usually non disclosure and or coercion.
2. If you don’t settle finances now you do create the risk that when you do changes in your finances will impact on a settlement. There is a well known case of a couple not getting an order and one had a subsequent lottery win which they had to share. The circumstances where post separation changes on finances are relevant are rare but they exist and are a risk if you don’t sort stuff out.
3. Once the judge orders the agreement you are financially severed. There is no way to reopen the judgement unless you can show the facts and advice relied upon where legally flawed. Which is what the judge will be mindful of in point 1.