Advice needed

My solicitor is just putting Consent Order for ex to agree. We have agreed 70-30 split on house equity to me.
The pension has been the difficult split as ex does not want to part with his pension. I am 50 he is 51. He has been paying into pension since 1979. We have been married 14 years.

Total Transfer Value £171,540 (8.1.08)
My sol asked for 25% as I am taking 70% equity in house. Ex would not agree to this and has agreed to give me £15,000.

I am confused as to what £15,000 means to me pension wise.
Can anyone help.

I have a small pension from my previous employer which was frozen in 1990.

Total Transfer Value £52,000

Hi Poppie
Are both your pensions final salary?
£15k is not a lot in terms of pension income- would you have to transfer your share out of his scheme?
Have you worked out what your income will be at age 65 if you want to retire then?

Out of interest Poppie - did your sol say why s/he thought you should ask for 25% of your husband's CETV as your share.
All together does it add up to house value + all CETVs shared 50/50 between you?

Maggie, Thanks for your reply. My equity in house should be around £100,000. Ex is on final salary pension, my pension is frozen. I originally asked for 85% of house equity and he keep his pension but he wouldn't agree. When he agreed to 70% equity solicitor suggested 25% of pension. I must say it has confused me.

Poppie

I'm not an expert but looking at your figures ... they appear to add up to a pot of approx 367k (£144K Equity, 171.5K H pension, 52k W Pension)

A rough 50/50 split on that would be £183.5K... so less your equity(100k) and your pension (52k)that would leave 31k not the 15k he is offering.

As I say, I'm no expert but thats the maths.

Jessie that is roughly the figure solicitor gave me but ex will not budge and I cannot afford to keep paying solicitor so in the end I had to give in. Thanks for your input.

Poppie

Poppy

I have a look at the numbers below.

Pensions
Your pension = £52,000
His pension =£171,500

Total £223,500

Your “entitlement” is usually considered to be 50% = £111,750
You already have your own pension = £52,000

Balance required to achieve equality of value £59,750
Current offer £15,000

“Shortfall” in pension offer £44,750


The house
Current value £144,000 (is this roughly right?)
Your 50% equity entitlement £72,000

Negotiated share 70% =£100,800

“Excess” on house offer £28,800


Pension shortfall, less house excess £15,950 (£44,750 - £28,800)

On these figures although this is a substantial amount of money, it is approximately = 4% of the total assets (pensions + house = £367,500; £15,950 divided by £367,500). If the pension values and the house values are fair ones, this seems like a relatively small difference and one that could easily be eaten away on legal fees.

A word of caution though, he is clearly keen to keep his pension. This is understandable but it might just be that he thinks that it is worth more than the valuation put on it. If he works in the public sector this could be a real issue, more so if he is in one of the uniformed services.