Army pension

hhhhmmmmmmm!!!!!! CETV are often wrong with the forces....(have a look at the pension part of this site and check out uniformed services,) my sol is experienced in military divorce and laughed at my ex's CETV, on page 2 it states 'not to be used for matromonial dispute purposes'!!!!! so mine has had to pay a fee to get his true figures. my sol says i can expect it to triple. He also advised that I am not going to get 50%- he will complete 22 years and I would have been with him 13 of those so I will get a share of 13/22ths

xxxx

Hi,

I am just subscribing to this thread to keep me up to date with any recent deveopments. I have all this to come. My stbx seems to think there will be no need for an actuary and the army pensions service will sort everything out. We'll see.

SB x

EPV (Express Pension Report)

Hi Everyone

Throughout our discussions with regard to Service Pensions we have heard that CETVs generally undervalue these types of Pensions. My solicitor has always maintained this and has discussed getting an Actuarial Report in relation to my ex husbands pension.
Last week I replied to a thread from Peter@BDM which offered a free EPV to the first five people to reply. The form was very simple to fill in and I duly sent it off. The reply only took a couple of days to come back and you could have knocked me down with a feather.
I honestly thought that when the CETV Pension Evaluation came through that it couldn’t get much higher; it is by no means a small amount. However the EPV adds nearly another £200,000.00 to the Pensions value.
On the basis of the EPV, (helped along by the fact that Legal Aid has now been granted) I and my solicitor have decided to have a full Actuarial Report carried out on the Pension. The pension is the only real asset in the financial pot; I had no idea how valuable.
My ex changed mine and our children’s future a year ago; I now have to secure that future for the three of us. I only want what is fair and now we know the real value of the pension we are on more of an equal footing.

Id like to thank Peter and his collegues at BDM, (in fact all the professionals that give us advice here on wiki) for carrying out the EPV for me. In reality an EPV costs a fraction of an Actuarial Report and is a good indicator as to whether a fully report is worth while.

Will keep you all updated.

Asram

Thanks so much for that information - BDM will hate me for this but just to complete the picture if you do get a full actuarial report including a valuation will you tell us how that compares with the EPV snapshot?
I'm a great fan of the EPV used as BDM make clear it should be used - but there's been some ill-informed sniping from a competitor and I'd love to see the BDM EPV get real positive feedback from divorcers.

asram,
Maybe i haven't got all the answers but here is my pennys worth,
If a pension is the only asset and you have been married for the whole of the soldiers career as in my case, then you could argue that a 50/50 split would be fair, my sol, her sol, and a judge thought this was fair.
So does it matter if it is worth 50p or 500 grand and is it worth the cost of all of these reports? you will still end up with the same amount as a percentage so the numbers are irrelavent.
I realise that if there is offsetting to do then it is a different story as the numbers then matter.
Maybe this is a simplistic veiw but that is how it worked for me.

Phastasphuk

I understand exactly what you are saying but if only things were that simple.

My ex didnt even want me to touch his pension and has only relented in the last couple of months by which time (and due to the fact that he divorced me as quickly as he could) things had proceeded to court to protect my pension rights.

The history here since the split, which came as a total shock to me, I had no reason to believe that there was anything wrong with my marriage and came ten months after he had gained his commission, has been one of lies, deceit, bullying and cruelty. I dont know what to believe any more. He wants me to have nothing and all I want is what is fair and to be able to secure a future for myself and my children. This includes securing stability in the form of somewhere to live if at all possible.

We have all invested heavily into his career and currently it seems he will be the only one to gain from it.

Asram
xx

asram,
Fully understand where you are coming from and maybe mine was quite simple in the big scheme of things, but i would imagine that there is not much danger of you not getting a share of his pension and there is not a lot he can do about it if it is the only asset.
I may be wrong but the share is normally done as a calculation that takes into account how long the you were married while the pension was building up.
My logic is that you could spend a lot of money and end up with the same as if you hadn't if it is worked as a percentage.
As I say I may be wrong but this is my experience and that of 2 close friends who were in the same boat.
I wish you all the best.