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Pensions sometimes affect the amount of
capital (property and savings) that you entitled to if you or your
civil partnership is dissolved.
As a starting point, if you have an interest in
any pension scheme, whether one into which you are paying now or
have done so in the past, you will need to obtain a cash equivalent
transfer value or CETV. Sometimes pension providers charge for this
particularly if you are already receiving your pension now.
If so and the charge is high, it would be
sensible for you to wait to obtain this value until you have spoken
with us. You may be asked to obtain some other information as well
such as what lump sum you expect to receive, the earliest date you
can retire and whether there are any death benefits.
There are two main ways of dealing with the
pensions upon divorce or dissolution:
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One is to event out pensions benefits
by "sharing" so that you each receive half of the total pot of
pension benefits.
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The other is to accept or offer more
capital eg: one person keeps a bigger pension but has a smaller
share of the house.
Pensions can sometimes be the largest asset of a
marriage to divide up and the valuation of pensions itself is a
complex area. Final salary schemes (often now government schemes
such as civil service or NHS or armed forces) have many
peculiarities in terms of how they are calculated and when they may
be taken. Pensions that are already in payment are often very
difficult to divide up fairly.
The law relating to pensions is complex and it is
important to make sure that you obtain expert legal advice.
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