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Pensions & divorce

The pension is often the biggest asset in a divorce. Treat it that way.

After the house — and often before it — pensions are the largest thing divided in a divorce, and the easiest to get wrong. We provide the specialist financial analysis that sits alongside your solicitor’s legal work.

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Why families and solicitors come here

One of only 39 advisers in the UK

David Patrickson is one of only 39 financial advisers in the UK to hold Resolution Accreditation — the specialist standard set by the national body for family law professionals for financial planning in divorce. He is a Chartered and Certified Financial Planner with more than 30 years’ experience, and works with family solicitors on pension sharing, trusts and settlement analysis.

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The three ways pensions are dealt with on divorce

Each route changes what both people retire on. Here is each one in plain English.

Pension sharing orders

A percentage of one pension is transferred into a pension in the other person’s name. A clean break — each of you controls your own pot from that day on.

Sharing is the most common route today because it gives both people certainty: the receiving party gets their own pension, invested and accessed on their own terms.

The percentage is set by the court, but what that percentage is worth in real retirement income depends on how the receiving pension is invested, charged and accessed — which is where advice earns its keep.

Pension offsetting

One person keeps their pension; the other keeps assets of equivalent value — often the home. Simple on paper, easy to get wrong in practice.

Offsetting trades a pension (taxable later, growing, hard to value) against assets like property (accessible now, differently taxed). Comparing the two fairly is genuinely difficult.

A pound of pension is not worth a pound of house. Getting the adjustment factor wrong can cost either party tens of thousands over a retirement — this is the option where independent analysis matters most.

Pension attachment orders

Part of one person’s pension income or lump sum is paid to the other when it comes into payment. Less common now, but still seen in older arrangements.

Attachment (previously “earmarking”) leaves the pension in the original member’s name — so the receiving party has no control over when it is taken, and payments can stop on remarriage or death.

If you have an existing attachment order, or one is being proposed, it is worth understanding exactly what it does and does not protect before anything is finalised.

See it as a picture before you decide anything

Our interactive Divorce & Money studio lets you sketch sharing, offsetting and attachment with your own rough figures — then produces a brief you can hand to a solicitor. Free, anonymous, nothing stored.

Open the Divorce & Money studioTry the Offsetting Fairness Checker

Questions we hear most

Do pensions have to be included in a divorce settlement?

Pensions are part of the matrimonial assets and are considered in the financial settlement. They are often the largest asset after — sometimes ahead of — the family home, yet they are the asset most frequently undervalued or overlooked. A pension sharing order, offsetting arrangement or attachment order are the main routes for dealing with them.

What is a pension sharing order?

A pension sharing order is a court order transferring a percentage of one spouse’s pension into a pension in the other spouse’s name, creating a clean financial break. The receiving spouse then controls how that pension is invested and when it is accessed, independent of their former partner.

What is pension offsetting and what are the risks?

Offsetting means one person keeps their pension and the other keeps assets of equivalent value, often the family home. The risk is in the word “equivalent”: a pension is taxed, accessed and grown differently from property or cash, so a straight pound-for-pound comparison is usually unfair to one side. Independent financial analysis of the true trade-off is strongly recommended before agreeing an offset.

Why does my solicitor want a financial adviser involved?

Family solicitors handle the legal process; a specialist financial adviser quantifies what pension options are actually worth and what they mean for each party’s retirement. Resolution — the national body for family law professionals — accredits a small number of financial advisers for exactly this work. Ideal Financial Management’s David Patrickson is one of only 39 Resolution Accredited advisers in the UK.

What happens to a pension sharing order after the divorce?

Once implemented, the transferred share becomes the receiving party’s own pension. It then needs the same decisions as any pension: where it is invested, what it costs, when and how to draw it. We help clients set this up properly so the settlement they fought for translates into the retirement income they need.

Do you work with clients outside Doncaster?

Yes. We work with divorcing clients and family solicitors across South Yorkshire, Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire, and can work remotely where that suits. Our office is in Edenthorpe, Doncaster.

Are you a family solicitor?

We work alongside family law teams across Yorkshire, Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire — pension analysis, settlement options, and post-order implementation for your clients.

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