Pension help

Hi not sure where to start. But basically was hoping to sort through mediation but husband won't. He's applied to court for the financial order. I've no idea where to start really but know I don't want to pay out £1000s for a solicitor.

marital home bought in 1997, married in 1998.
Prior to that he was living in another part of country for 4 years and I went to live back with my parents. Prior to that we had our first house 1990-1993.
I started my job at 16 in 1985 which had a non contribution final salary pension which was frozen by the company in 2010. I transferred out of this into a SIPP in 2016 so is now a "pot of money". Between the years of 1999 and 2010 when it was frozen, I worked part time, 2 days a week.

Bit of background, we decided to separate amicably and use all our joint savings to buy my house which I bought in October 2019. Needed work doing to it so couldn't move in til April 2020.
Marital home at time approx £180k ishSavings I took and used £150k ish
No mortgage on either property.
He has pension fund of about £150k earnt solely while married, savings of £50k
I have pension fund of £250k
Savings of £25k
Annual earnings him £45k
Me £15k (28 hours per week)

My question is can I claim/negotiate to discount a portion of my pension for the time before we were married?

If you can sort it out amicably between yourselves, as you have until now, then you can agree whatever you like and get a solicitor to draw it up as a court order.

So long as it doesn’t look extremely unbalanced or unfair then the court will stamp it as an order ending all financial claims on each other.

You haven’t said anything about children or value of current houses so difficult for anyone to say what would be fair.

What outcome are you hoping for?

Thanks for your reply. We have 2 children age 23 & 21. Originally they were going to stay with their Dad (as they wanted to stay in that area) but this proved impossible so they came to me.
My house is now worth £180k
His is worth £250k .

I would just like to sign over my share of marital home to him, and keep my house, savings & pension as is.
But he wants a cash lump sum (don't know how much), pension sharing order, aswel as the property transfer.

He wanted to get back together, I didn't so things are not amicable now, and he's filed to the courts for a financial order. Apparently he has a MIAM certificate but I was never invited for mediation. I have attended my own mediation and got my MIAM, husband was invited but his Solicitors emailed to say he wouldn't be attending.

Additional should have mentioned outages, i'm 53, he is 59
From things my son's have said, I have a feeling that he has drawn down some of his pension and is trying to spend as much cash as he can.

I am struggling to see what the argument for a lump sum etc may be.

Unless I have got my sums wrong - and assuming your figures are correct, there's only about £5k between your respective financial positions. He has a more valuable house but less pension. You have half the amount of savings and a low income although you are not working full time. Hmm. Given that he is mortgage free you may want to consider asking for spousal support or at least for a modest cash sum to top up your contingency fund. NB under current rules you may have a cgt liability on transfer of your share of property to him.

You could indeed propose that pension accrued prior to marriage is ignored. Tbh though it is unlikely to be substantial. Do you have one specific fund that's pre-matrimonial??

I wonder if he realises how much this course of action will cost him?

Hadenoughnow

I am struggling to see what the argument for a lump sum etc may be.

Unless I have got my sums wrong - and assuming your figures are correct, there's only about £5k between your respective financial positions. He has a more valuable house but less pension. You have half the amount of savings and a low income although you are not working full time. Hmm. Given that he is mortgage free you may want to consider asking for spousal support or at least for a modest cash sum to top up your contingency fund. NB under current rules you may have a cgt liability on transfer of your share of property to him.

You could indeed propose that pension accrued prior to marriage is ignored. Tbh though it is unlikely to be substantial. Do you have one specific fund that's pre-matrimonial??

I wonder if he realises how much this course of action will cost him?

Hadenoughnow

Unfortunately, he just wants to cause as much stress and upset to me as he can, he's not bothered about the cost, so he's said.
He also thinks I'm hiding money because I'm the one who always dealt with the money side of things.

And no I don't have a pre-marriage pension pot. I was just hoping to discount a certain % to reflect the 12 years full time work before marriage & kids, and subsequent part time work.

I had read something about cgt but thought there was a grace period after/during divorce?

I don't know whether I can do this tbh or whether to just lose my savings paying a solicitor. It's causing me huge anxiety and sleepless nights.