Pensions & Divorce

Dumb Juan

Hi,

When my friend was getting divorced he noticed in court that day, the Judge gave a quick review of all documents, spoke briefly to both parties and then moved on quickly to the next case. TBH he spead through a lot of cases, except when either person had a pension and then the pension documents were carefully reviewed.

Would anyone know why a Judge would be so careful when it comes to divorce or pensions? Was there a case where Judges/ Solicitors got admonished due to errors with a pension? Or is this behaviour just unique to this judge.

Thanks for satisfying my curiosity.

Claw Hammer

Pensions are an area where someone can be hoodwinked. When people realise that the pension adjustment order does not do to court trying to re-open it. what they think it did, they come back trying to re-open the case.

Dumb Juan

Hi Claw Hammer,

Thanks for your reply.

When you mean hoodwinked, is it that divorcee & solicitor don't understand pensions & pension funds?

Is it not a case where someone can get a portion of the fund transferred to them (in a defined contribution scheme) or get a percentage of the annual income/ lump sum in a defined benefit scheme, when the person retires. Am I over simplifying surely a pension adjustment order does one of the above. Or have I missed something?

3DataModem

It is a complex area, each pension policy / schedule needs a seperate order, as it is a direction to the trustees. It generally takes the form that a proportion of the benefit is paid.

E.g. for a defined benefit scheme lets say they say 20%, it could be.

• 20% of the final amount, whatever it is, whenever it is? (very unlikely)
• 20% of the amount accrued to the date of divorce (not likely)
• 20% of the amount accrued to the date of divorce, adjusted for inflation / increments? (more likely) and not including any of the future accrual? (more likely)

And for a defined cont scheme lets say it's worth 200k and the judge says 80k of that belongs to the other spouse, does that mean

• The other spouse gets 80k of the fund on the first spouses retirement, even if the fund has dropped to 100k?
• What if he retires early?
• etc

Claw Hammer

Some people might renounce their pension entitlement completely to get an initial payment and might not realize they are being shafted. Others might be told they are getting a substantial proportion of a pension but it is in fact virtually valueless.

It can't be assumed that the lawyers involved understand everything. It may also be the case that the lawyers just want to settle and get paid, and are hanging out their client.