Divorce - financial order

Hello, I’m Chris, totally new to all this so here goes.

My wife and I separated just over 12 months ago.
She has started divorce proceedings through the Gov.co.uk website, and I have responded by agreeing to the divorce.
We have no children together and we don’t own any property whatsoever.

The only thing I have of any value is two very small pensions. One had around £10,000 in it, the other about £1,500.
She has now put in a financial order in place and I need some advice on what to do next.

Regards, Chris.

What sort of ages are you both and how long were you married/co-habiting for before separating? Are they the only assets available between you both that are impacted by any potential order?

I’m 54, she is 60. We were married for 19 years, and the pensions are the only financial assets. We rented the marital home, have no children between us and no savings.

The obvious order would be to share the larger pension. However, the cost to implement a pension share can be disproportionate to the amount that is being shared. The fee I saw recently was £3500 which was split between the parties.

Bear in mind that a pension is not money in the hand, it is a fund which makes payments once the pension age has been reached.

It would be worthwhile asking the pension Trustees how much they charge to implement a pension sharing order as that will have a bearing on what you do next.

Charles