Hi,
First time poster to this great forum.
The situation
I have been married for 20 years and me and my Wife are now seeking a divorce. We have a house valued at £200,000 by the building society and are mortgage-free. We have relatively simply finances, no children, no savings, small debt and have separated the joint accounts.
My Wife is going to keep the house and we are looking to split the equity 50/50.
The only issue that really remains is the Pension. I have had a few different jobs and have never been the breadwinner, I have Autism and now work part-time for the Public Sector, I started as Full-Time but my specific Autistic issues meant it was unsustainable.
We both only have our State Pension and our Public Sector Pensions. My Pension is only 4 years old at a part-time rate as my previous jobs were in Retails Companies that didn't offer their own pension. I am at a pretty low grade. My Wife has worked for the Public Sector for over 20 years and is in a much higher grade, fairly senior in the organisation.
The plan was for me to move out into a small apartment which would be easier for me to maintain and alongisde half of the house equity for my wife to buy me out of her pension. I think I can get a small place for around £135,000 if I bought it outright which would be great.
I have had my first appointment with a solicitor. Me and my Wife are still living together and are very amicable and still best of friends.
My query really is that my Solicitor says my Wife's Pension is likely to be much bigger than I think (We have both applied or a CETV for our Pensions but have been told this may take a few weeks). My Solicitor says that I haven't really thought about the future and that I should be aiming for a house outright as I couldn't downsize an apartment later. My Autism makes work precarious and difficult, My Wife is 5 years younger than me so the idea of waiting until she retires is not good for me. My Solicitor feels I should wait for the valuation and if it is as she expects to ask for more which may include more from the re-mortgage of the marital house and if the Pension is larger enough also some Pension -Sharing on top.
As I said, things are very amicable at the moment but being Autistic I am not always a good advocate for myself with things such as this. I also realise that Solicitors, I imagine, very much want to get as much for you as possible. I do not want to deal badly with my Wife who is still my best friend but also I know I might just agree to something to be polite and pay for it later. We are both in our forties and the Solicitor feels that my Wife will likely continue to earn at a high grade going forward where as I am unlikely to do so and will, likely struggle even with the job I currently have.
I realise a lot of this will depend in the CETV figures but I just want to be fair for my Wife and I. If the Pension is a large as my Solicitor thinks, I feel I might feel bad claiming a certain percentage of it as my Wife has paid into it more than I have as she is the breadwinner.
I hope some of this makes sense, sorry for rambling on.