Pension Sharing

[moonlight1705]

My husband and I are getting a divorce. So far it is fairly amicable and we have decided on how to share the house and savings.

The key thing for him is the pension and how to split it. Can anyone advise on what might be a good percentage with the following:

1. We have been married 8 years, together 13 years.
2. He had a teachers pension of 27 years with the CETV showing as c. £350,000
3. I have a small private pension of £48,000 but I have also just started in the civil service so will get a decent one eventually if I stay 20 years (highly likely).
4. He is 10 years older than me, I'm 41 and he is 51.
5. I currently earn £15k a year less than him but shall go up in March so there will only be a 9k difference

How should I approach this? I don't want to be horrible but I am entitled to some.

Do you have DC and did you work part time/not all to take care of them?

You are entitled to 1/2, it’s up to you both really how you split this, who’s keeping the family home? Have you been raising children on not adding to a pension? I’d say it would be fair to come out with equal but given he’s 10 years old could you maybe just ask for £100k leaving him with £250k and the ability to add to that for another 10 years.

I don't think you should consider too much your future earning potential or future pension - you could become ill and unable to work tomorrow.

You have said you have been together 13 years - perhaps sharing the pension values 50:50 for pension accrued over these 13 years (roughly) would be fair?

Thanks all, we do have a 6 year old DD. I went back to work full time but found one where I could walk to and from nursery etc which wasn't as well paid.

Good point about future earnings not being guaranteed.

Op is not automatically entitled to half !

she’s entitled to a share of the pot accrued during marriage generally. And that will depend on

whether they have children and whether ops pension has been damage by career gap as a result. Also depends on how the other assets are being split as well
as fact op ex is 10 years older and op has 10 more years to build up her own public sector pension

its impossible to comment without the facts to the above

Will you be paying for wraparound care for your child so you can work - remembering you already earn less than him?
Have you come to an agreement on contact/maintenance?

Op has worked full time, hasn’t had a gap by the sounds of it, will only be earning 9k a year less and ops ex is 10 years older. There’s a very good case to not split his pension 50 : 50 especially as he’s had it 20 years prior to marriage ( near enough !)

how are other assets being shared ?

Thanks all, I wasn't expecting 50/50 but wanted to see what was reasonable. I was thinking perhaps a 25% split of the pension.

The house and savings are being split 50/50. We both should get around £175k each although then have to pay stamp duty etc on our own new houses.

We both are going to put in equally for childcare as we are also splitting that 50/50. He will most likely take her for more days in the holidays as he is a teacher but not necessarily more nights.

Future plans are not relevant and would not be considered by a court unless you were severely disabled and couldn’t work.

a priority would be both of you walking away with enough money to house your child which it sounds like you both would from equity etc.

at 13 years and with a child it would be considered a relatively long marriage so 50:50 would be the starting point.