Ringfencing pension!

[Frazzled54]

Ex’s solicitor has sent an offer to mine for the financial settlement.

We have been together almost 20 years, lived together for 18 years, been married for 11 of those, 1 child.

His solicitor has calculated that as he built up 6 years of pension prior to us living together and then 7 years of being together prior to marriage, I’m not entitled to a portion of the first 13 years of his pension.

He wants me to take the house/equity and is pushing to keep his pension.

No pre nup.

I thought the pensions were taken from cohabitation dates, not marriage date.
I can understand me not being entitled to the first 6 years of his pension prior to us meeting but the rest is surely to be taken into account.

Any advice?
Speaking to my solicitor this week but just wondered if anyone else had come across this.

How much equity is in the house? Is he offering you all of it to keep his pension? Would having more money now rather than waiting for his retirement suit you better?

Assuming you are divorcing in England. If so, he is trying it on. The pension was an asset he pooled with your assets when you got married after many years together. In court it will count. Outside of court you consider whether his offer gives you anything equal.

Is it a very good defined benefit pension? Do you have figures from which to make a decision whether equity in house is comparable? Personally I would be very wary...

Hard to tell without knowing how much equity and how much pension there is. I have no relevant experience but I have seen people say on here that a judge can chose to count the time cohabiting before marriage.

Thanks.
I know he’s trying to pull a fast one as he’s money obsessed.
His pension is a public sector one and is big.
The equity in the house and my pension still don’t add up to what his pension is worth. He would owe me approx £45’000 still BUT that’s only if his full pension was taken into account.
If we minus the first 6 years accrued prior to us getting together this reduces but he would still be getting more than 50% of the marital
pot.

Do I need to suggest mediation?

Surely your solicitor won’t agree to this? If they do then you need to find a new one who is actually competent

And I’m pretty sure he can’t minus any money from prior to marriage.
We bought a house together 18 months after meeting.
This is what I need to know

I'd let your solicitor deal with it, they will surely bat this back!

Mediation, maybe, but it doesn't sound like he wants to play fair so it may just be a tickbox exercise.

Speaking to my solicitor this week. She’s in court atm.

Speak to your solicitor. It can be tempting to want to focus on housing now, but you'll kick yourself in later life for not taking into account pension implications.

Do not do or agree or discuss anything with him or his solicitor without your own legal advice.

Where are you? The rules around pension sharing are different in England/Wales and Scotland. In England/Wales the whole pot is split, in Scotland it’s just the period of marriage.

England.

Well he can try to argue pre marital assets excluded, whether it would be depends if there’s enough assets to provide for needs and settle on the principles of ‘fairness’
usually in a long marriage ( plus cohabitation) money is all Iintermingled and not ringfenced so he’s unlikely to be successful

Even if in Scotland, pre marriage cohabitation 'built up assets' including pensions are included. My ex is trying to exclude too.

Update

So, part of a pension can be ringfenced but in court, a judge would look at needs of each party.
In my case, my pension is a 1/5th of his and so it wouldn’t be considered in this case.

We’ve had a long cohabitation relationship (including 11 years of marriage) so I’m entitled to 50% of everything.
I’ve put an offer forward to offset part of his pension with the house and take a portion of the pension as a PSO so now I wait for his reply.

A friend's STBXH pulled this stunt. It went to court, she was awarded half his very generous public sector pension for its entire length to date, the house (she took on the mortgage) and £100k. She has two girls in their teens.

I was awarded one of his pensions from before we'd even met, so stick to your guns.