Military Pensions and Divorce....

[Hueymeister]

Searched and drew a blank..

Any pointers gratefully received; I know I need to get my pension valued, at a cost of £150, then we have to divvy it up...again...any pointers?

There was a thread on this a while back...:}

[Clockwork Mouse]

Join or contact the Forces Pension Society.

[jayteeto]

You as well? I am on my third £150, they are useless

[The Old Fat One]

I echo CM's advice...it only used to be ten quid, which is a good investment.

However, there are essentially two ways this can be done, depending on the agreement of both parties and the complicity of the court (which is different between England/Wales & Scotland).

The way I did it (in Scotland) was to have it valued by an actuary and then split according to Scottish Family Law (based on 50/50 of value accrued during the marriage term).

Downside of this is you will have to front up with a cash sum, which can be considerable. Upside is that your ex will give up all rights to any part of your pension in the future.

The other way is to have a part of your future pension allocated to your ex. Upside, no need to find a large sum at the point of divorce; downside you'll only get a proportion of your pension when you retire.

I'm not sure if both these options apply in England. Then again, there is huge inconsistency in family law courts anyway and more often than not the judges interpretation plays a big part. Therefore to add to CM's advice about the pension society...whatever you do, if at all possible, keep it friendly and only use solicitors and courts to sign off agreements you have already made.

[LogieBear]

Huey, From recent personal experience, I wasted £150 and they are indeed useless as stated,by way of merely stating what your actual pension is, rather than a valuation itself. Ended up paying another £400 for a proper valuation by an actuary. Good luck mate.

[Saintsman]

Go for the 50 - 50 option and hope she pops it before it's due.

[Hueymeister]

Ummmmm....thanx Saintsman:mad::ugh::sad::eek::\:p:p

[Marly Lite]

HueyMeister,

Go for a 50/50 and hope she remarries. She will forfeit all rights to your pension on remarriage.

What's the chances of her being unmarried for the rest of her life?

[parabellum]

If she is over forty then statistics say she will stay single. If she is aware that remarriage will cause the loss of income then she is quite likely to just *shack up, these days it would appear to be acceptable.

(*either party moving out temporarily every now and then so that it doesn't become de facto).

[sisemen]

Get as much professional advice as possible and be prepared to change if you think that you're not getting the right advice. My ex wanted 50% of all my pension - not just the bit since we'd been married.

She didn't get it but it cost me an arm and leg to finally settle (crap solicitor). And this on top of the money that she had been salting away in a bank account for when she walked out.

Hope she has something really :mad: horrible happen to her.

'Spose I could put those "norty pix" on the internet :E

[Topofclimb]

You should be able to get a pension prediction, but as I understand you'll get 1/30th of final salary for every year served and she'll get 1/2 of that.

[Exiled]

The pension accrual rates are 1/60 on the 75 scheme and 1/70 on the 05.

As a wise person suggested before, join the FPS and do not do anything before you have consulted them.

[Al R]

Huey,

Here are a couple of old threads.

http://www.pprune.org/military-aircrew/352193-anyone-know-more-about-cetv-calculations-being-suspended-dwp-spva.html

http://www.pprune.org/military-aircrew/390466-pension-sharing-other-bits.html

[PumpCockMixMags]

Fella, just gone through it all meeself so here goes.

1. Get a good solicitor not a cheap one and one that understands pensions.
2. Apply for a Cash Equivalent Transfer Value (CETV) from the Armed Forces Pension Agency via JPAC.
3. Send CETV to a good actuary who understands the Armed Forces Pensions -Actuaries for Lawyers are pretty good.
4. Agree on the type of pension split with your Ex - Most end up in a pension sharing order.
5. Agree on a fair split - Do not be surprised if more than 50% is allocated to your Ex, it is a complicated formulae and the percentage split although seemingly unfair may will in a fair overall outcome. Ask the actuary to explain.
6. Go to court and have your financial agreement ratified by the judge and hey presto, you lose a large percentage of everything you have worked towards....Great.
7. Be prepared to negotiate, it may be better to take a little less than end up at a contested hearing or final hearing £10000 ish.

Best of luck and keep smiling, you will get there...:ok:

PCMM