Pension sharing after short marriage

[courtpensionfun]

My ex has asked court for a pension sharing order, despite it being a short marriage, similar incomes, similar pension schemes, and it being my pension contributions not ex’s that were reduced by parenting during marriage.
Money is tight to afford two mortgages on divorce.
Is there any hope of avoiding having to pay thousands we don’t have and wait months for a complex pension sharing report?
Ex usually declines to compromise on any matter.

Assuming it really is short (certainly under 5 years), and that your pensions are similar, you are of similar ages, and there are no young children, and that both your reasonable needs for housing can be met, simply don't agree to get a pension sharing report. A judge doesn't always order one.

Thank you for replying. There is a reception age child and a difference in pre-marital pensions due to one spouse opting out of contributions for many years prior to marriage, if that makes a difference. But child will be adult before parents reach state pension age, and opt out ended before marriage. Sorry I appreciate that turns into a pretty specific question, it’s hard to know where to go for advice as it seems to be too financial for solicitors and too legal for finance folk and I only have a very limited budget for advice.

A solicitor certainly can ask for pension reports. The background info might be irrelevant if there’s a big difference in valuations. The one not paying in might have used the money for the household or savings. Getting all financial info usually works best.

Any marriage over 10 years, including cohabitation before marriage, is judged to be long.

Pensions are taken into account as marital assets and you will both need CETV but can be dealt with differently eg offsetting rather than sharing if you are both no where near pension age and if one parties’ pension is higher valued and may impact mortgage capacity.

If the case is contested and dealt with through the court it is pretty normal for the judge to want an expert report to inform the best way of dealing with pensions. The cost of an expert pension report is separate from the admin costs of setting up a PSO.

My STBEX refused to get expert report before first hearing but the judge ordered it anyway. Just caused delay.

Ex W and I were married for about 4 years and together 5(?)

No Pension Sharing was discussed

How long have you been married, and how long have you been cohabiting prior to marriage?

You say the pots are similar, but then that one party opted out of contributing prior to the relationship, so it’s possible there is a gap between them?

DB was married for about 10 years with 3DC. He kept his (good) pension but gave ex 85% of the marital assets. Plus generous child maintenance despite 50/50 split.

@Johnogroats Depends on valuations doesn’t it. A £1 million pension pot is worth more than a £400,000 house.

Sorry, for clarity, the marriage was under 5 years, pension contributions during the marriage would have been fairly similar, pension accumulated prior to marriage was unequal due to one opting to spend money rather than pay pension for many years prior to marriage. No large sums involved- enough equity for a deposit each and total pensions under £300k.

How long were you cohabiting prior to marriage? I’m seeing more courts now take into consideration total length of the relationship, not just years married.

Did you cohabit before the marriage? This is taken into account when determining length.

How old are you?

You don’t need an expensive report for pension sharing unless the valuation is complex. Our judge gave us a bit of a lecture about having wasted money on one and it was valued a lot higher than what you are discussing and very one sided rather than balanced.

The real issue seems to be that one party wants to ring-fence their pre-marital contributions and that’s a matter for your legal teams, not a pension expert.

That's very strange advice from the judge, when was this?

PAG (published 2019) and PAG2 (published 2023) are reports on how pensions should be treated on divorce and are generally followed in the family court.

Both reports advise a pension expert is usually required unless in certain circumstances (i.e. if you both have only defined contribution pensions of a similar value and are of a similar age, you are under 40, there are modest assets and other assets are significant, or combined pension vals are below £100k).

Obviously if you were divorced before then advice is likely to be different, but the above will generally apply to OP (subject to how long they cohabited before marriage as mentioned above).