What to do with pensions upon separation and why is obtaining legal advice so important?

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You’ve made the decision to separate, you’ve spent the money on a solicitor and had to adjust to massive upheaval within your life and potentially those of your children.

You have exchanged financial information so that you have an idea as to both parties’ financial position. Your ex-partner wants to keep their pension, and you want to keep the house (this is known as offsetting). The value is fairly similar to the pensions which your ex-partner has so – why can’t you just keep the house?

Pensions are a really valuable asset as they will provide you with income to live on when you come to retire. You may also be able to obtain a lump sum with the new pension freedoms. Before working out what share of the pension is fair, we need to look behind simply the value of the pension. This is because there are different type of pension and different benefits. The appropriate pension share also takes into account things like life expectancy and health.

The real value may be much higher, and we need to obtain expert advice before we can consider if “offsetting” is appropriate in your case, it may also be that you could end up with a larger share of the house and a pension share.

At Awdry Law our team of highly qualified, friendly legal experts will advise you if a report is needed and this will reflect, the type of pension and other relevant factors particular to your needs. There is a cost and it will take time but wouldn’t you prefer to know what you would be giving up before making that decision?

If you have any questions or if we can help in any way regarding any Family Law matter, please click here to contact a member of our knowledgeable and highly experienced Family Law team today to arrange your free initial consultation.

Cindy Ervine

Partner and Head of Family Law

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