Financial Agreement

Hi David

Wife and I separated in January of this year (married for 14 years), she moved out of marital home in August when I re-mortgaged and sold some other assets to provide her with £240K to buy property debt free. She also took savings of £11K and a car valued at £13K.

I have been left with net equity of £65K but have the following pensions:-

Final salary scheme (frozen prior to us ever meeting) £135K
Personal pension currently £200K value with my employer making payments of £6K per year via me salary sacrifice.

Wife has not worked for a number of years as suffers with M.E. but prior to separation was about to start looking for part time work when our son started High School in September 2021.

She has a personal pension with a value of £4K

So, broadly speaking

Wife
House 240
Savings 11
Car 13
Pension 4

Total 268K

Myself
House 65
Pension 200

Total 265K

I have made goodwill payments to her since she moved out that will cease in February next year that total £4,500. Prior to her moving out I paid all mortgage payments / bills etc.

I had proposed that taking the above into account we should agree a clean break.

Her solicitor has countered that due to ill health she is unable to work and she will be seeking maintenance payments in perpetuity and also part of my pension as she has no provision for retirement.

If we can't agree a settlement and I had to go down the court route, would they side with her?

many thanks for any advice.

>>If we can't agree a settlement and I had to go down the court route, would they side with her?

Quite possibly, yes, for the reasons her solicitor has given. One very important piece of information missing from your post is how much you earn. You may not want to disclose that information but I am sure you will understand that it has a big impact upon whether you can afford to pay maintenance.

For what it's worth, I don't think even a court would award her maintenance 'in perpetuity' and you should certainly not agree to that. Assuming maintenance is payable (which it may or may not be) you should insist upon some fixed cut off date. The obvious ones are when you reach retirement and/or when her pension becomes payable (assuming there is some pension sharing order).

Thanks David

Apologies for not providing the salary details.

Basic salary of £55,000 pa with an annual bonus that can range from nothing to £30,000. It is very dependant on the results for the company I work for.

I'm 49, she is 41.

I assume that I (meaning my solicitor) can request medical proof she is not fit for work if they are going to use this route for expecting payments to be made.

It is obvious that she is able to work, she used to do craft fayres and sell items she had made prior to us separating.

Many thanks again

Paul

The problem is that she has M.E., (which you acknowledge), she has not worked for a number of years and what work you have mentioned is not likely to earn her much. You, on the other hand, obviously have a significantly greater earning potential than she does. There is also a dependent child. All these factors mean that you will struggle to get a clean break. That is not to say that you shouldn't try but I don't think you can count on getting it. What would be important, though, would be to get a fixed end date for the payment of any maintenance you might end up paying.

Many thanks for your time and comments David.