Wife's entitlement to my company pension

beachhuggy

Hi all, wondering if anyone can cast any light on the following. When my wife and I married three years ago, I decided to join my company's pension scheme.
Here we are three years later, separated and divorce proceedings looming due to her affair. I am aware that she is entitled to take a percentage of the pension pot. Is it calculated on the amount of time the pension was contributed to during the marriage? as stated I didn't start until we were married and froze contributions when I found out about her affair.
Surely she cannot lay claim to my pension after we are divorced and I start contributing again?
Any idea of as to how much she would be entitled to and how?when it would be paid?
Thanks

dunstonh

The entitlement is agreed between yourselves and your solicitors. There are no set rules.

property.advert

Tell her to go jump.

jamesd

You need individual legal advice. In divorce the pensions are part of the assets of the marriage to be divided like other assets. A base position would be 50-50 split of the value added during the marriage and a pension splitting order instructing your workplace to set up a pension with half of that pot and pay her instead of you from it, with yours reduced by the same amount. Money from before or after the marriage normally wouldn't be counted and for a short marriage where both parties are financially independent things may turn out quite different than a long one with many children.

In practice there's bargaining because one party may value cash or a property now more or less than a pension income later.

Do not attempt to do this without legal advice, you'll be scalped.

Bigmoney2

Does she have her own pension?
Do you have children and has she been away from work (so not accruing pension herself)?
Whats happening with the house?

She may have some claim, but not neccesarily.

mgdavid

I'd agree completely with jamesd. She will have to wait until retirement age to take income, and a small pot is really hardly worth bothering about but it is a point of negotiation - you could offer between a third and a half of the split value to be added to the split of current assets. She has no claim on any future pension pot value after divorce.

Valli

beachhuggy wrote: »

Is it calculated on the amount of time the pension was contributed to during the marriage?

as far as I recall yes it is. And, by the same token you are entitled to half of hers.

However, depending on how other assetts of the marriage are divided you may 'get away' with having it untouched but lose a greater proportion of other assetts.

Also 3 years insn't a long time. If you brought more assetts TO the marriage than she and if there are no children the division of assetts could well go more in your favour.

The courts basically calculate all assetts (get a pension valuation and get other stuff, house, valued asap) subtract all debts then work out a 50/50 split then take it from there according to whether there are dependants etc. If you brought significantly more assetts to the marriage this may well go in your favour! The final decision could be 60/40 or even 70/30 (depends if she's working...)

There will, of course, be legal expenses too.

When you do look for a solicitor bear in mind that almost all offer a free initial 30 minute consultation.

You can use this to visit a few solicitors to find one you like.

Before you go find out costs - costs per hour; costs to write letters, read letters (honestly) answer/make phone calls etc.

Go armed with as much information as possible. Have a list of questions you need/want answers to (you don't have to ask the same question in each solicitors).

Just as an example I was paying £55 per hour, ex Mr Valli was paying over £80 per hour to a solicitors who told him 'no-one does free half hours any more'. He chose to believe them instead of me...his solicitors began with 'A' - he didn't take my sound advice! Just started going through the phone book - then stopped!

(mind you if he had been in the habit of listening to
me I would probably still be married;))

atush

property.advert wrote: »

Tell her to go jump.

maybe, but usually it is men who go astray (statistically speaking).

So who really benefits from modern no fault divorce?

Men usually, as they are no longer penalised for going where they vowed they wouldn't. Why should a woman pay more for doing the same as many more men have/are now and and in the past?

Not much time? No kids? Same incoming capatal- split and go your own way.

Valli

atush wrote: »

maybe, but usually it is men who go astray (statistically speaking).

So who really benefits from modern no fault divorce?

Men usually, as they are no longer penalised for going where they vowed they wouldn't. Why should a woman pay more for doing the same as many more men have/are now and and in the past?

is that so?

From where are you getting these stats?

and whatever OTHER men have done in the past and OTHER women are doing now is irrelevant (if indeed there are stats to back this up). What matters here is this pension!

Having said that at least couples wishing to divorce no longer HAVE to drag each other through the 'mud' and be labelled as adulterers!

But IMO those people who claim divorce is 'too easy' can have no personal experience on which to base this.

jamesd

atush, perhaps worth remembering that around one in ten children in this country are being raised in families by a father who doesn't know that he is not the biological father of the person he believes to be his biological child.

The main beneficiaries of modern divorce are the children. They don't get to deal with parents being together when they don't want to be, nor with a particularly messy divorce where blame has to be assigned.

atush

Basically, divorce is now no fault, if it should be or not is another debate. So bringing her infidelity into it is pointless, as the courts won't take it into acct. Both pensions will be taken into acct, and with such a short marriage I feel that they will each keep their own but that will all depend on the other marital assets and how those are split. The OP does need legal advice, and if he can stomach it, arbitration will probably work out cheapest.

And actually, children suffer greatly from divorce. Esp if it is acrimonious.