Pension sharing with these values

[ikeepforgetting]

My solicitor isn't sure this is worth it, but to me (at age 52) I can't see how I would find this much money between now and retirement any other way.

My pension is approx £230k and ex is £425k. If equalised I would get £90k transferred to me.

Just based on this, is it worth asking for? How much does it cost to implement?

I'm surprised your solicitor advised you of this - I thought it was common practice to take pensions into account when agreeing the financial terms of the divorce. Can you ask for more info on why he/she doesn't think it's worth it?

Of course it is. I got stitched up like a Kipper in my divorce and thankfully I asked for half the pension which as he fucked away all of the equity in the house turned out to be all I got around 100 K.

Well it may or not be. Usually there’s a trade off - so if you get lore pension sharing you’ll get less of the other assets.

Depends on lots of thing - I was a few years younger, so was entitled to less pension according to the judge as I had more time to work.

The age difference could be the explanation for the solicitor’s advice. As would an offer of more equity or capital than what the OP is entitled to. The fact that equalisation is a common outcome and entitlement doesn’t make it an absolute entitlement.

just in my experience, obviously but judges don’t generally question anything if it’s put forward having been agreed between the parties.

A friend walked away from a marriage without claiming any pension. She'd worked PT since having her 2 DC so she could be a PT SAHM with them. Biggest mistake she ever made, now has to work full time & scrapes by to afford a 2 bed house for her and DC. No pension in site for her at all as she can't afford to pay in.

Take every single penny you can.

This is your life, not your solicitors.

90k to them may not be much but I bet your bottom dollar if they were in the same situation they would take it.

Don't negotiate / take less assets. You are entitled to half, so have half.

Op is not entitled to half at all

she entitled to a fair share - which based on multiple factors could be half, or less than half or more . We don’t have any information to judge. But there is no automatic entitlement to half at all. Her solicitor is best placed to advise her knowing all the facts

Really helpful thoughts, thanks. I think she thought it was loose change (probably compared to other London couples she deals with) but it is a lot to me. She isn't advising against but she just seemed meh about it. For context, we are talking about a 60/40 or 65/35 split in equity so she was focused on that instead. But every single penny counts as I don't want to leave myself financially vulnerable because I am stuck living in London!

@Noelshighflyingturds When you say half the pension do you mean the amount it to to have equal pensions? Or do I ask for half his pension? I know that's a pretty basic and fundamental question but I had a sudden fear I was misunderstanding this whole half pension thing!

If you want 50% of his pension ( and I presume you want to keep 100% of your own…. ) I expect you won’t get a 60:40 of other assets and this is where the trade off is

but it will depend on your ages, assets, needs, children, incomes of both of you. But highly unlikely you’d get get half of his without giving up :factoring in your own ‘

how old is your ex ?

I asked for half including the pension that pre dated the marriage on the basis that he had charges against the house which meant there was little equity to begin with but by the time he pissed the rest away on solicitors it was all gone.
to be honest, I don’t like the sound of your Solicitor. They are meant to be getting the best deal for you possible and fighting like a tiger.
If you’re not too far into the process, one of the other big mistakes I made was thinking that it was too late to swap. It never is.

Ex is 53, earns more than me at £85k but that probably isn’t seen as a big salary. Dc are 17 (18 next month but with SEN so out of college at the minute) and 15 and house sale would be deferred until youngest is through her exams

The equity split based on my shitty mortgage capacity as kids will be older and that apparently stops being a factor at 18. Which is ridiculous in itself

i am negotiating directly with him so she’s just telling me what a court would think. Sorry for dripfeeding!

why do you think you should have pensions of equal value? What is your salary? How much are the marital assets elsewhere?

Because I gave up career and went freelance to care for DS with SEN. Couldn’t afford to pay into a pension again until recently so I am
trying to build it up. Believe me I am not being greedy or mercenary here!

And what’s your earnings ft now ? He’s not a high earner so it’s very unlikely you’ll get 50% of his pension, keep 100% of
your own and get 60:40 or 65:35 on the rest of assets! He has no longer to rebuild these than you do

This is another area where people overstate entitlement. Career sacrifice is a very specific thing. You didn’t stop working and had you stopped working you would need to be able to demonstrate a career trajectory that is materially different to the one you are on.

like most people you are a basic needs case and a lower income should be taken into account when splitting the equity. But that might be allowed for and then some in 65% ask.

Your real danger here is dragging this out until your children are no longer dependents. Then your ability to get 65% drops massively and will be closer to 50%. What value does that 15% represent?

Her advice might be sound if you briefed her that your priority is to keep the house.

And this is where you need to be really careful because you’ve got to remember the equity in the house is just a bag of magic beans
Until you actually have cash in the bank, it’s worthless so what you actually want is a decent chair of what is actual physical assets.

Cash basically
But if you can’t cash, then pension is the next best thing I would be prioritising that over the house personally because he’s not gonna kick his child out during the exams.

Regarding selling the house now, I would BUT DS has just dropped out of college with mh problems and DD is doing GCSEs. I’m giving them a chance to get through this tricky bit. Rightly or wrongly.

My earnings last year were £30k, I run my own business

Before I went freelance (10 years ago) I was earning 75k. But I’m not bringing all that up in my proposal to ex. I’m just basing it (after solicitor advice) on my mortgage capacity vs his to buy another property

If he wants to keep his pension, he needs to give you an extra 90k from the house, savings etc.

Of cours it is worth pension sharing. It cost very little to implement. It should be court ordered and pension company didn't charge me to receive a part of my exh pension.

@ByQuaintAzureWasp thats simply not correct