Financials

Hi , can anyone tell me if this is more than reasonable and will this be fair and final .
I have left wife in our home worth £400000 with all contents and our car say 25k worth . I have a pension pot of 210 k . I earn 2100 a month she takes home 1200. No mortgage no debt. I don’t want to cause her any problems moving forward as I have turned her life upside down . Could we split assets with me keeping pension in full and her keeping house ? No maintenance payments etc We were married 32 years . Thanks for any advice as obviously new to this .

Yes, it would be possible but I would make a few points about this.

1. No matter what agreement you come to you should ensure it is made formal and final in a court order before you transfer any property. If you neglect to do this you run the risk that in the future your wife changes her mind and comes for a share of your pension.

2. You say you are doing this because you have 'turned her life upside down'. Well, that may be but you are unwise to make decisions like this based on guilt. Courts don't care why a marriage breaks down and it does not affect the financial outcome. More realistically you need to look at your future needs and not base a decision on guilt. For instance, you can't buy a house with a pension. If the house represents most if not all the capital that has been built up during the marriage and especially is that house is bigger than one person reasonably needs it may actually be more sensible to divide the equity and the pension.

Thanks very much for your advice on this .

Hi , several months later !
We are now looking to divorce sadly despite trying my best to salvage our marriage .
If eitherer of us had another partner before the settlement is finalised would their circumstances ie being mortgage free and financially secure etc have any bearing on the settlement ?
Thanks again

>>If either of us had another partner before the settlement is finalised would their circumstances ie being mortgage free and financially secure etc have any bearing on the settlement ?

Potentially, yes. In general it is better not to cohabit with another person until the financial issues arising from the marriage have been formally and finally resolved. That is because in most cases how the matrimonial assets are divided depends upon the respective needs and resources of each spouse. If either moves in with a third person who has significant income or resources then that could affect the needs of the spouse who does so.

Also, the other spouse will be entitled to ask for information about that third person income and resources. Since the third party is likely to object this in itself does not get the new relationship off to a good start.

Thanks for valuable advice

Hi again , we have started the process on a no blame basis , I am trying to agree and am offering the following £440,000 house and £20000 car to her as said above . Her pension value is around 35k and mine is 210k and I’ve said that she keeps hers and I keep mine but now she is asking for an additional 80k until she retires . Surely her having the assets I have offered is adequate ?

Thankyou in advance .

Yes, it is. Your proposal amounts to your wife having almost all the capital which is in fact unfair to you. The notion that she should have another £80K looks absurd.

I doubt that the car will feature much. Unless there is something exceptional about them courts tend to regard cars as just a mode of transport. If the other assets are £440K capital and total pensions of £245K then the starting point for any division would be £220K capital each and £122,500 pension each so you should be getting £220K from the house and she should be getting 42% of your pension (which is the percentage required to equalise them).

It is true that because of her lower earnings your wife probably has a lower mortgage capacity then you do so it may well be that she ends up with more than half the capital but that doesn't mean that what she is asking for is reasonable because it isn't. You could point out to your wife that your housing needs have to be catered for too not just hers.

Thankyou again