Civil partnership pros and cons

mebu60

p00hsticks said:

mebu60 said:

Keep_pedalling said:

It sounds like there are no advantages for you to do this bearing in mind you are not interested in his pension. Do you know what sort of pension this is? If it a defined benefits pension with no surviving spouse it will die with him but even if you did form a CP the trustees may not pay out to a recently formed non cohabiting partnership. 

No! Mine is DB but I have instructed trustees to pay widow's benefit to my non-cohabiting partner of 15 years and counting. As OP is within 10 years of his age there should be no reduction in the widow's benefit either. As he is 72 I'm rather assuming it's in payment. 

I think it very much depends on the terms of the individual DB scheme - there's no hard and fast rule.

I am aware of some where a survivors pension is payable only to legal spouse, civil partner and children still in full time education. 

I'm aware of others (specifically the civil service) where they do recognise unmarried partners providing that the employee has completed the necessary paperwork to say that they wish them to be treated as such. 

My brother's was only to legal spouse at moment of retirement. They tied the legal formalities very quietly a week before he finished.

I happen to know three of the trustees and the chairman of trustees of my DB pension and have assured them I will return to haunt them should they not carry out my wishes regarding the widow's pension to my unmarried partner :-) 

trailingspouse

He has a Teachers Pension, and that specifically states that they will only pay out to spouse/civil partner. He will also name me as a beneficiary, but that alone isn't enough.

RAS

You both need to be aware that civil partnership or marriage will revoke previous wills, unless they are written in anticipation. So you'd want those sorting out prior to the event if you both wanted your respective children to inherit as planned.

Has he also checked if the pension provider will recognise spouses/partners gained after retirement? 

TonyMMM

trailingspouse said:

Thanks again. As civil partners, there is no automatic inheritance of assets (that's one of the ways it differs to marriage) - so I wouldn't automatically get his house and he wouldn't get mine. 

Who told you that ?

Civil partnership and marriage give exactly the same inheritance rights.

trailingspouse

TonyMMM said:

trailingspouse said:

Thanks again. As civil partners, there is no automatic inheritance of assets (that's one of the ways it differs to marriage) - so I wouldn't automatically get his house and he wouldn't get mine. 

Who told you that ?

Civil partnership and marriage give exactly the same inheritance rights.

I read it here, under 'pros and cons' - https://pearcelegal.co.uk/blog/what-are-civil-partnerships

'If one partner dies the living partner will only inherit the properties if it is left in their name.' and 'In case of death the property is not automatically transferred from one partner to the other'.

His current will leaves everything to his children, and my current will leaves everything to my children, and that's the way we want it to stay. We also have separate finances, apart from a joint account for joint expenses which we both pay into equally.

trailingspouse

RAS said:

Has he also checked if the pension provider will recognise spouses/partners gained after retirement? 

Good call - I'll ask him to double check.

Silvertabby

trailingspouse said:

RAS said:

Has he also checked if the pension provider will recognise spouses/partners gained after retirement? 

Good call - I'll ask him to double check.

TPS do - but only based on pension accrued after 1 April 1978.  

trailingspouse

Many thanks for all your help. I've come to the conclusion that regardless of the legal/financial advantages or disadvantages of a civil partnership, it's not for me. I've been married twice, and my gut feeling is that I don't want to do it again - doesn't mean I'm not in this relationship for the long haul, but I'm financially independent and I prefer to keep it that way.