Equality of income post divorce

[wizzdexter1]

Am I correct in thinking that the courts aim to have divorcing couples at roughly the same income after divorce and this can be achieved by adjusting the assets split accordingly. My stbxh who is retired says he needs 500k to generate a 20k income (one that goes up with inflation)
I earn 36k and have about 17 years left to work
He wants 800k (500k to generate income and 300k to buy a house ) this will leave me with about 400k
If we do this he will have about 32k income if you include the state pension

I am fairly happy with this as he has always taken care of me financially and I've never had to worry about paying bills but just wondering what the courts would say

We have done mediation and solicitors but don't want to use them any more

You will both be out on an equal footing which means the one with the higher needs will get more of capital. And sometimes spousal support.

He needs more capital because he is retired. Some provision should be made to ensure you have the same pension when you retire but you have 17 years to save for that.

The age difference and the fact that he is retired means you can’t equalise pensions or split things 50:50. I couldn’t say whether it is fair but it sounds about right.

you should insist on keeping any transferable pension benefits if he dies.

Courts frequently accept very different post divorce incomes, depending on the circumstances. If you agreed this deal what would happen to you when you retire? Do you need to house yourself from that £400k?

The £20k income from £500k is 4% withdrawal rate and assumes that the capital is untouched.
I assume he is already state pension age.
Why can't he touch the capital?
I think he is trying to hedge his bets.
50/50 should be the starting point. £600k each as currently there is no way your income will be the same as his in retirement.
You can't afford not to have a solicitor.

He is intending to get an annuity because I have a final salary pension so kind of comparing like for like. My pension will be linked to inflation and his annuity payment will be the same.

He wants 800k (500k to generate income and 300k to buy a house ) this will leave me with about 400k

.. though it sounds like the value of your pension is not included in that sum?

I'm happy I will have enough pension I'm not expecting him to guarantee my pension by giving up some of his now he's worked all his life to get what he has so I only think it's fair that I do the same I would feel differently if we were the same age

That wasn't how mine worked. Apart from the split which was 50/50.

Moving on I earn far more than her. I kept my pension and it's more than hers.

To be honest it’s probably also the rate of an index linked annuity.

Have you looked what it would cost him to buy an annuity- basically an income for the rest of his life. What is fair very much depends on what you have in terms of pension even if you have an index linked pension like the NHS scheme your income would drop dramatically when you retire if you only have that and your state pension.

I would continue to use the solicitors and get professional unbiased advise, you can't afford to get this wrong.
Right now the split may give you roughly the same monthly income but it hinges on you working.
What will be your income when you retire or if you can no longer work?

If for some reason in the future I can't work I think that's my problem surely he can't be expected to guarantee my future income and pension. At the moment our pensions are about the same in value and I am a lot younger than him plus mine is final salary

He won’t be expected to guarantee your income going forward or into retirement or if you stop work

am assessment will be made now based on what’s in the pot, your ages, needs and ability to recover and rebuild. it will then be up to you to make choices re work, investment etc

however I’d question the current proposals as it seems to weighted in his favour even considering he’s at retirement

Totally agree you need independent legal advice. I think the jist of U.K. law is that everything earned during the marriage ( including pension) is a marital asset and is split 50/50 with the proviso that neither party is left with out means of support. I only know what my lawyer told me 10 years ago so please check. The fact that you are asking on here suggests to me your soon to be ex is applying moral pressure for you to accept less than you are entitled to and you want us to agree (unless you just can’t afford proper legal advice )

It’s not automatically split 50:50
all marital
assets are in the pot for division

but many factors will determine the outcone

@wizzdexter1

Are you somehow feeling guilty over divorcing him? Because it seems that you seem to be reacting to any answer that suggests an external evaluation of his proposal with - ‘I am OK with it’

If you are OK with it - just accept it, it is a choice in the end of the day. And you will be OK.

If you asked the question to actually consider the responses you receive - then do get more advice to look at the proposal.

There are many factors that go into assessing ‘fairness’ of the asset split. Age of parties, retirement age, life-expectancy, and many more. You are younger, but his life expectancy is less.

Without knowing details it’s hard to really comment on this split, other than his premise that he ‘needs 500K’ to generate income of X - without using capital seems unfair.
What happens with capital when he actually dies?

A fairer way to me would be:
… Start by defining your housing needs - his is 300K - that makes yours at 300K as well
…make a calculation of his income needs assuming both using capital and interest - and then see what it means re your remaining assets after housing
… look at your and his pensions

And then run it by solicitor/barrister to see if that makes sense
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It is not correct that courts aim to equalise post divorce incomes.

There's a whole load of things they take into account - housing children, housing parents.

Equalising incomes isn't a priority.

I think the best thing is to think about what you want out of the divorce.
Personally I wanted a clean break and never have to accept his whinging about unfairness. So I took a settlement that was slightly unfair in me, so I could like the DC in the eye and say "I never screwed over your Dad in the divorce, he got everything he wanted and some". That was more important to me than anything else. But I had a decent pension and plenty of earning capacity left. I knew I'd be less well off than him but I didn't care.
Everyone is different. You have to decide what is most important for you. Sometimes that is settling for something else but sometimes it's fighting for more