Valuing Different Pension Types
Workplace final salary schemes offer guaranteed income but can be difficult to value accurately. Personal pensions and SIPPs have clear cash values but uncertain future income potential.
Pensions & Divorce
Divorce changes everything about your financial future, and pensions are often the biggest asset that needs dividing. We help you understand what's fair and what you're entitled to.
As with all investments, the value and the income generated can fall as well not rise. This means you may not get back what you originally invested.
Tax treatment depends on individual circumstances and may change in future.
Although we can help advise clients on their pension planning, pensions and divorce is a complex legal subject. Please ensure you seek specialist legal advice.
Pensions and divorce guide
When divorce meets your pension
Suddenly the retirement you planned together needs splitting between two separate futures. Your pension might be the biggest thing you need to divide, and getting it wrong affects the next 30 years of your life.
Key pension considerations during divorce:
- Pension sharing orders allowing clean breaks by transferring actual pension benefits between spouses
- Pension offsetting where one spouse keeps their pension while the other takes equivalent value in property or investments
- Pension attachment orders requiring future pension payments to be shared with your ex-spouse when they’re eventually drawn
- State pension implications including whether divorced spouses can claim based on their ex-partner’s National Insurance record
- Professional pension valuations ensuring fair division of complex schemes like final salary pensions
- Future contribution planning helping you rebuild retirement security after divorce settlement
Courts can transfer actual pension benefits from one spouse to another, creating two separate pension pots. This gives both parties complete control over their share and creates a clean financial break.
Sometimes one spouse keeps their entire pension while the other receives equivalent value through property, savings, or other assets. This avoids pension splitting but requires accurate valuations.
These orders require future pension payments to be split when they’re eventually drawn. Unlike sharing orders, they create ongoing financial links between divorced spouses that can last decades.
Complex schemes like final salary pensions need expert valuation to ensure fair division. A pension worth £200,000 on paper might have a true value much higher or lower depending on its specific terms.
HM Revenue and Customs practice and the law relating to taxation are complex and subject to individual circumstances and changes which cannot be foreseen.
Common pension challenges during divorce
Protecting Future Retirement Income
Divorce often means your pension needs to fund one person instead of being shared between two. You might need to increase contributions or delay retirement to maintain your lifestyle.
Timing Pension Transfers
Pension sharing orders can take months to implement, and some schemes charge significant transfer fees. Understanding these costs and delays helps you plan effectively.
State Pension Considerations
Divorced spouses can sometimes claim state pension based on their ex-partner’s National Insurance record, particularly if they have gaps in their own contribution history from caring responsibilities.
How we help
We understand that financial decisions feel heavy because they affect everything that matters to you. Our job is to make them lighter, clearer and easier.
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Protect your retirement future during separation
Work with specialists who understand that divorce pension decisions affect decades of your life and need handling with both expertise and sensitivity.