Pensions on Divorce

Previous research demonstrated that there was a widespread lack of confidence amongst practitioners on the issue of pensions on divorce, poor quality pension disclosure on the court files, and a substantial proportion of potentially unfair outcomes. There is little agreement among experts about how pensions should be valued and treated for the purposes of divorce, and despite being valuable assets, pensions are often being ignored by divorcing parties. The little, and sometimes contradictory, guidance that case law offers is chiefly geared towards cases involving assets of millions of pounds, of little help to the vast majority of people getting divorced.

This Nuffield funded project established an interdisciplinary working group, The Pension Advisory Group, involving Judges, lawyers, mediators, actuaries, financial advisors, pension experts and academics with special expertise in pensions and financial remedies on divorce. The PAG has consulted very widely with interested parties via interim reports with consultation questions, focus groups and an online survey.

The purpose of the group is to provide an in-depth analysis of how pensions on divorce should be approached, particularly in relation to valuing pensions and offsetting them against other capital assets. The work of the group will inform a guide to be adopted by the Family Justice Council for use by the courts and family practitioners in England and Wales. The report will also play an important part in reducing variation in the ways in which pensions are valued by experts for the purposes of divorce, and in the procedures, practice and interpretation of the law.

To find out more and download reports, see: http://www.nuffieldfoundation.org/pensions-divorce-interdisciplinary-working-group