Pension Sharing Order - Help needed please

Cobbler_tone

For reference my CETV was £675k ish in 2019 on the D81 and around £420k in 2023 at the point of divorce. It was never revisited (I retained the lot) but was listed on the section around assets. On the flip side the house was valued at £420k and sold for £324k. It was never revisited and TBH it was 5 years to forget, so just wanted it over the line. I’ve never worked it out but I must have been worse off ‘on paper’ but it doesn’t feel like it now and I maximised my earnings potential.

Sunflowergal1975

VyEu said:

Op, was the 600k+ a projected figure as to what the pension would be worth it it's current value. You say it was a consent order, did you get an actuary report?

Unfortunately I've seen a few cases whereby spouse thought they were getting X amount but read the valuation wrong/they didn't receive a proper.CETV and this is the result. 

Thanks for your reply. The £646k was the CETV listed under question 8 Current Capital and Income section on the D81. We didn’t get an actuary report, went through a mediator and my ex instructed the solicitor to deal with the paperwork. 

Sunflowergal1975

Marcon said:

Sunflowergal1975 said:

Sorry I should have said it was a consent order for a clean break and the paperwork I have from the court is a Pension Sharing Annex - not sure if that makes any difference? Definitely not my area of expertise! 🙈

Did you take specialist advice, or at least get advice from a solicitor?

What does the annex actually say?

We went through mediation with a mediator who used to be a family law solicitor and although he could not give any advice, I felt satisfied that a fair conclusion had been reached. 

The annex seems pretty straightforward with just our personal details, details of the pension to be shared and “The specified percentage of the members CEV to be transferred - 35.87%” 

Sunflowergal1975

UPDATE.

I have been on the phone to the pension provider today who confirmed the markets have not dropped that much in value and are currently investigating what has happened as,; and I quote “something definitely is not right here”.

The latest update I had from them was that they are escalating this to a senior team for investigation and they will get back to me. Whether it’s a mistake by the pension company or my ex has tried something underhand, I should have a better idea in the next few days! 

Thanks you to all who took the time to  reply x 

QrizB

Good to hear that the pension co are taking this on for further investigation. Please keep us updated!

Sunflowergal1975

Sunflowergal1975 said:

UPDATE.

I have been on the phone to the pension provider today who confirmed the markets have not dropped that much in value and are currently investigating what has happened as,; and I quote “something definitely is not right here”.

The latest update I had from them was that they are escalating this to a senior team for investigation and they will get back to me. Whether it’s a mistake by the pension company or my ex has tried something underhand, I should have a better idea in the next few days! 

Thanks you to all who took the time to  reply x 

Hi guys, 

So further to my above message, I have received this email from the pension provider looking into it. I understand due to data protection they cannot tell me anything about the exes pension but what do you make of this? Are they telling me without telling me, that my initial suspicions of my ex doing something underhand, ie deliberately reducing the value of the pension prior to the PSO being finalised could be accurate? I will ring them to discuss further but all the main information at the top of the email (redacted) is what I already know and they are not telling me anything new, and those details were discussed on the phone before they escalated the case to a senior team for investigation. 

Dear xxx

CLIENT NAME: xxx

PENSION ACCOUNT : xxx

YOUR REFERENCE: xxx

Further to recent communication, we have now applied the Pension Sharing Order to the above pension account.

We confirm below how much we have paid to satisfy the Order:

The value of the pension credit

£xxx

Any charges to be deducted

£xxx

The Transfer day 

Xx/xx/xxxx

The details of the pension arrangement to which the pension credit was transferred 

Xxx

Pension scams

Most pension transfers are problem-free, however there are some instances of people being victims of pension scams. The transfer has been checked for signs of a pension scam.  The transfer has been completed because one of the following applied;

1. the receiving pension scheme has been confirmed as a master trust or collective money purchase pension scheme authorised by The Pensions Regulator, or a public service pension scheme; or
2. there were no warning flags indicating a pension scam, or if there were, you have received pension transfer guidance from MoneyHelper; or
3. all our checks indicated this is not a pension scam.  

Visit pension-scams.com for further information. You can also checkfca.org.uk/scamsmart to find information about known investment scheme scams. 

If you have any questions please contact us.

QrizB

The "pension scams" warning is boilerplate text that they'll send to everyone who makes a pension transfer. It's warning you to watch out for get-rich-quick schemes involving teak plantations or German apartments or any of the other fake investment schemes that have cropped up over the past couple of decades.

Marcon

OP - 'ringing them to discuss further' isn't likely to get you far, since the chances of them ducking behind data protection are pretty high (and probably reasonable, depending on what you ask them and how you ask it).

Why not write to them along the following lines, since you need to clarify beyond doubt the Cash Equivalent Transfer Value on which the 35.87% share was based. 

Thank you for your email of [date] confirming the Pension Sharing Order has been implemented. Could you please confirm three things. 

1. that the CETV provided on [date] of £646,186 was the (then) current value (ie not a projected value)
2. you were aware that this CETV was needed in relation to divorce purposes
3. why the CETV, when recalculated, has apparently dropped to £107,923. I understand that CETVs fluctuate, but a drop of this magnitude looks very odd.

All of these are disclosable during divorce/PSO implementation proceedings, so I would not expect there to be any data protection issues. If you believe otherwise, please explain why.