In the event of divorce or dissolution of a civil partnership

Pension rights are valuable assets. In the event of divorce or dissolution of a civil partnership, you may wish to get legal advice from your solicitor on how to deal with your LGPS benefits.

You and your partner will need to consider how to treat your pension rights as part of any divorce or dissolution settlement.  You can divide your pension by offsetting your pension rights, earmarking orders, or take advantage of pension sharing orders (qualifying agreements in Scotland).

You will need specific information about your LGPS benefits for divorce or dissolution purposes (including judicial separation or nullity). You or your solicitor should contact your local pension fund for specific information including an estimate of the cash equivalent value (CEV) of your pension rights. In Scottish divorces, only the value of the pension rights built up during the period of the marriage or civil partnership are taken into account.

You can usually get one free CEV estimate each year. Any other costs for supplying information or complying with a court order will be recovered from you and/or your ex-spouse or ex-civil partner in accordance with a schedule of charges, published by your local pension fund.

Also, be sure to review your expression of wish form to ensure it’s kept up to date, especially if you have previously nominated your ex-spouse or ex-civil partner to receive your any lump sum payable on your death. .