Divorce and pension

[Mum2Fergus]

Hi 👋 I’m aware that pension accumulation pre marriage doesn’t fall into the financial pot…but where said pension has grown over time due to investment returns, does the growth get split?

Depends if it’s your pension or theirs 😅

My pension, no contributions since getting married but it has grown in value due to investment returns.

I can't help but I am looking for similar advice myself - just started a Mumsnet thread asking for suggestions re how to find a (cheapish!) financial advisor who specialises in divorce. There's plenty of legal advice wafting about but nothing specifically on the money side, it seems to me.....

Mumsnet is not who you need, OP. A pensions lawyer is who you need.

I successfully argued my pre marriage pension should be disregarded 😁 I left that job just before we were married so no further contributions but obviously continued to grow in value in the ten years of marriage

If you haven't contributed to it during the marriage, you can request for the whole amount to be excluded, but it's all open to negotiation... In a long marriage, it could be argued that it should all be included. Shorter marriages are more likely to return to pre marital assets state. My ex asked for his pre marital pension to be excluded, but he wanted my pre marital house equity to be included. In the end, everything was included and split 50/50. You need to look at everything and decide on your red lines. It took months for my ex to agree. All I had to do was sit back and wait patiently.

Did you live together pre marriage when you were paying into this pension? If so, it will be included. Does he have a pension? What is the value compared to yours? These will all be factors considered when splitting.

Everything went into the pot for us, for long marriages this is normal.

No, stopped paying in about 2yrs before we met. Married less than 5yrs. He has a small pension in comparison to mine (all contributions made during marriage from joint income, he earned less than me). I don’t want any of his pension or imminent inheritance.

Married less than 5yrs.

What do you mean specifically by investment returns?

The value of increase in the pot over the five years ( of which no additional contributions were made ) typically would be 3-5% annum less and fees

in a short marriage ( do you have shared children?) you could likely ringfence it and ask to reset to your respective starting positions - ie you leave the marriage with what you both brought into the marriage

If you lived together before marriage that counts too. Of course the increase counts, just like house value going up.

The funds in which pension is invested have increased in value.

The pension share is on the value of the pension on the day that the share is done so yes. You get a CETV to indicate the likely value of it but you don't know exactly until as I said above. It may be less or more so this is why people talk about %s as opposed to pounds.

But in a short marriage with no joint children you could agree ( and so could a judge) to simply keep your own pensions

with such a short marriage I’d be arguing to walk away with what you brought in so no equity / pension sharing at all

I reckon you could definitely ring fence the whole of the pension accumulated prior to marriage. How old are you both and what are the CETV of pensions accumulated since living together. If you are young he'll have plenty of time to build up his pension which is another good reason you should keep your old pension.