Over the past 20 years, pensions have become an increasingly important part of financial settlement in divorce proceedings.

Pensions are most likely to be considered relevant if the marriage has been long and the majority of the pension has accrued during the marriage.

Pensions can often be a person’s most valuable asset and therefore the court will consider them when dividing the matrimonial assets.

There are different ways that parties’ pensions can be affected in divorce proceedings:

1. If one party has a large pension, this can be taken into account and ‘off-set’ by adjusting the other matrimonial assets;
2. The court can order for all or part of a parties pension to be ‘ear-marked’ for the benefit of the other spouse. This is sometimes called a ‘pension attachment’.
3. The pension can be split so that the pension benefits are divided. This is known as ‘pension sharing’.  

If you would like any further information or advice in relation to the financial aspects of a divorce, please contact our specialist family lawyers: Mark Vandaele on 01902 796930 (mvandaele@georgegreen.co.uk) at our Wolverhampton office or Rachel Baker on 01384 340 580 (rbaker@georgegreen.co.uk at our Cradley Heath office.