Questions asked by solicitor

Morning
Still trying to do a fair pension split
i have now received my ex's second form E
His solicitor is asking if i want to ask any questions about it....I do actually but do i raise them with solicitor -or as i feel this is going to court -do i wait?

Also he has not included house valuation report -as we split house 50/50 in 2014 his solicitor said it not needed that this was just about a fair pension split -but will it be needed for court purposes?

I am so desperate to keep this out of court but i cannot see away forward after nearly 2 years trying to reach an agreement.

Many thanks

If you have questions you wish to raise on the back of the Form E then you can do so by putting the questions in a questionnaire. You would keep a copy for yourself and send in a copy to the other side's solicitor. Have a read of our guide to financial settlements in the guides section. It might also be an idea to write down a statement of issues, ie what you believe to be the main issues of contention re, such as disagreements over how the equity should be shared.

Many thanks for your response.

His solicitor has not included
2 credit card statements
Any info re his bank loans that he claims to have.
No house valuation ( although we have already divided house 50/50 in 2014)

Surely all this information should be included ?

He has all of a sudden added his company shares from 2017 -yet did not disclose on last financial statement form June 2018

He then states on his statement for consideration " That we have split non pension assessts equally and all that remains is to reach an agreement as to how we split our pensions" - Yet he wont divide pensions equally ?!

Long marriage 24 years -seperated 2013
House divided 50/ 50
Savings divided 50/50
mediation 50/50
Court application 50/50
He earns £55,000 - CETV £415,000 aged 60
Me -54 -earns £18,000 - cetv £110,000

Am i being unreasonable in asking for 50%?

I will look re support information -thank-you
Many thanks

Was the money from the house sufficient to house you adequately?

Given the disparity in incomes I would have thought there may have been a case for a departure from equality and possibly spousal maintenance.

It sounds as though not everything was properly disclosed. If it wasn't you cannot really consider the matter of non pension assets settled.

It would not be unreasonable to exclude pension assets from post separation (and possibly before marriage if the number of years is substantial. The fact he is six years older than you would also have some bearing on the split. The types of pension you have are also important. The old fashioned final salary schemes are much more valuable than simple money purchase schemes which are now very common. In simple terms a £1 of pension fund buys varying amounts of benefits depending on the type of scheme.

It is not a simple matter of just adding the CEVs together and dividing by two. What you really need is to look at equality of income on retirement based on the pensions accrued during the marriage. There are rough and ready ways to work this out but to do it properly you need an actuary. This us what a court would order if there is disagreement about pension sharing.

As to further questions, you should be doing your best to try to get full financial disclosure at this stage so I would ask as many as you need until you are satisfied that you have a true picture of his finances.

I would not be scared of court. It is actually just a mechanism to help you reach a settlement. The advantage is that you are both answerable to the court not each other - and there are sanctions if you don't comply with court orders. You can represent yourself with support from this site and some of the cost effective services it offers for litigants in person.

Hadenoughnow

Thank-you for your reply
I brought him out so have a £120,000 intrest only mortgage.

His mortgage outsranding is £27,000

As yet i have still not had all his credit card statements- loan agreements - house valuation

I do understand that even though we are stil not divorced -his pension accured since seperation will not be taken into account -so i gave him tbe option in mediation to explore acctuaries from 2014 (as this is when we split house/savings etc) -he said he would -i then got an email to say its too expensive!

His 2 deferred pensions of £293,700 are final salary
His current £126,000 is defined.

I have had a letter from his solicitor to sort actuaries - they are asking

1) benefits under respective pension schemes at ages 55,60.65 and 67 - where will his solicitor then go with these figures? Are they then going to come back stating -you are only entitled to it up to age 55?


2 ) pension accrued between 1989 and seperation 2013 ' yet we lived together for 6 years before marriage - also if they want it done up till 2013 -then surely when i handed over 50% of the value of the house in July 2014 -then the pension should be up till this or the house value should have been from 2013.

They have asked me to chose 1 of 3 actuary firms

Any advice on the abive would be very gratefully appreciated

Or should i just submit to court -have actuaries done -then the courts make a final descion