Stuart Webber explains the state of pension sharing orders
Pension sharing orders have now been available to the matrimonial court for over 13 years. They allow for the redistribution of parties’ pension resources upon divorce (or nullity or civil partnership dissolution) by means of transferring a percentage of a pension fund’s cash equivalent (CE) value to a pension fund for the ex-spouse. In the present social and economic climate, with an ageing population and a political will to restrict the welfare budget, private pension provision has rarely been more important. However, the most recent Ministry of Justice figures available show that pension sharing orders, together with the far rarer pension attachment orders, feature in only around 8% of divorces reaching decree absolute (Judicial and Court Statistics—2011 report).
In financial negotiations and proceedings upon divorce, pensions are generally, and rightly, treated by practitioners and the courts as being a distinct class of asset. Lord Justice Thorpe, in Maskell v Maskell [2001] EWCA Civ 858, [2001] 3 FCR 296 criticised an approach equating pension assets with “present capital”. A pension is somewhat akin to capital, albeit
