What's best on divorce: the pension or the property?

  • To understand why a couple might divide assets in a certain way.
  • To be able to explain the necessity of proper pension advice.
  • To be confident in recommending that solicitors discuss pensions values with clients.
  • To understand why a couple might divide assets in a certain way.
  • To be able to explain the necessity of proper pension advice.
  • To be confident in recommending that solicitors discuss pensions values with clients.
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What's best on divorce: the pension or the property?
Photo: Immoprentice via Pixabay

During a podcast with FTAdviser in Focus, Abbie Hookway, managing director of Touchstone Education, said: "I train women about property. It is so important to get a RICS valuation done. 

"When it comes down to court, a judge is going to want a RICS valuation to say what the property is actually worth. Women nowadays can get them for about £600 but this is the best money if you want to get a fair price for splitting the asset."

Camilla Woolgar, marketing consultant at HouseBuyFast, explains: "It is vital for women to know the value of their shared home to make sure they get the right proportion of financial pay out.

"This is especially the case if the home is not being sold and one spouse is keeping the property. Women should make sure to do their own research and get their own valuations carried out.

"If any discrepancies occur with your spouse, it is advisable to jointly instruct a property surveyor to get an unbiased valuation.

"It is also important to note that if a couple choose separation, they lose more rights than couples going through divorce or dissolving their civil partnership."

Legal wrangles

Price describes a "constellation of women" working in initiatives such as the Insuring Women's Futures campaign, who are seeking remedies to the problem facing pension splitting on divorce. 

"The IWF would like to see a special committee on pensions and divorce. This might help." 

Certainly, high-level, cross-party support for fairer outcomes, together with an industry galvanised to ensure better financial outcomes for women on divorce, would go a long way towards solving the issue. 

However, this is only a small step forward, Price thinks. There have also been calls for an automatic pension division on divorce, she adds.

Would this be the best solution - automatic house and pension splitting so everything is equitable for both partners?

Price does not see this working. "Automatic pension division on divorce is a solution the legal profession and judiciary would never accept, as it would take the discretion away from judges.

"English law works on the discretionary court system. Even default positions are not popular with the English courts." So the way in which the judiciary operates can, in this instance, work against a practical solution to the perennial pension gap problem.

And it can cost thousands to get a pension sharing order - which of course takes its time to work its way through the courts. But Price says that, from her perspective, at the very least both parties should know what the pension is worth.

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