Pensions
Pensions & Divorce
A divorce is often considered to be one of the most traumatic times in your life. Quite apart form the emotional difficulties, there is also the issue of how to split assets acquired over the lifetime of a marriage.
Pensions are often a very important asset in divorce proceedings. Next to the former matrimonial home the pension provision of one or both spouses may be the largest capital asset of the marriage.
There are three distinct ways of dealing with pension benefits:-
Offsetting - Under this approach, the ex-spouse without the pension benefit takes other assets of a comparable value. This was the only solution until the Pensions Act 1995.
Earmarking - The Pensions Act 1995 introduced this new solution whereby the pension administrator can be instructed to pay all or part of the pension benefits to the ex-spouse when the benefits become payable, or immediately if benefits are already in payment.
Pension Sharing - Introduced by the Welfare Reform and Pensions Act 1999, pension sharing makes it possible to transfer all or part of the value of the pension benefits into a new contract for the ex-spouse.
We are able to advise both the solicitor and client in gathering the right information, identify the best solution and assist in the implementation process.
- Find out more about Pensions
- New Regime Pensions - Basic Overview
- The State Pension
- Changing Employers
- Annuities
- Pension Calculators
- Pre April 2006 Contracts
- pension funds
Pension Fund prices, performance charts and financial tools to help with your research.