Taking the first steps in the process of obtaining a Pension Sharing Report might be a daunting prospect, but at Collins Pension Actuaries we aim to make the process as seamless and straightforward as possible.

It may be the case that your solicitor or mediator has suggested that a Pension Sharing Report might be worth considering as part of the divorce settlement or you may have decided that you want to investigate having a Report.

Either way, below is a guide to assist you in taking those first steps towards obtaining a Report, finding out the costs and timescales involved and how to actually instruct a Single Joint Expert to prepare a Pension Sharing Report.

So, where to start?

One of the first questions asked is how much will a Report cost? This important information can be obtained quickly and easily by using our Obtain a Quote facility on our website.

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All you need to do is follow the guide and list the name of the pensions involved and the Cash Equivalent Value (CEV) of each pension. Collins Pension Actuaries will respond instantly to your request by email, giving a fee range so that you can understand the likely costs involved should you wish to proceed.

Within the Obtain a Quote facility you will be asked to answer questions about your pensions and divorce case. As part of the quotation you receive, these questions will provide you with a comprehensive checklist guide. This guide will indicate the type of pensions information you will need to provide, the forms you will need to complete, how to create data collection letters to send to your pension schemes and sample instruction wording.

You can create a comprehensive checklist guide at any time using our Create a Checklist facility.

Create a Checklist »

Once you have created your Checklist we recommend that you use our Data Collection Letter generator to request the pension information that will be required for the purposes of preparing a Report.

Create Data Collection Letters »

We advise you to utilise our Data Collection Letter generator as soon as possible regardless of whether or not you decide to have a Report at this time. This is because pension schemes can take up to 3 months to respond and provide the relevant information. Undertaking data collection now will save time later if you change your mind and wish to have a Report.

If you decide that you wish to have a Report, then you will need to formally instruct Collins Pension Actuaries so that we can issue formal Terms and Conditions of Business for you to consider and sign.

If you are uncertain of what wording to use to instruct Collins Pension Actuaries, then please see the Create a Checklist facility or the FAQ on this topic: What instruction wording should I use?. There is also an FAQ on what you you can expect to be included in a Pension Sharing Report: What is included in a Pension Sharing Report?

When you instruct us, it is very important to include as much information about your respective pensions as possible since this will minimise the additional information that will need to be requested from the schemes. Ideally, if you have already used our Data Collection Letter generator to ask for information from your pension schemes then most, if not all, of the information we need will have already been provided to you.

Once an instruction has been received, we will analyse and assess the pension information provided and issue formal Terms and Conditions of Business along with detailed questions for you to ask your pension schemes in respect of any additional pension information, if any, that we require. We will continue this guided data collection until all of the pension information required has been obtained by you.

Once all of the pensions information has been provided we will advise you of when we expect to be able to issue the Report and issue our invoice, which must be settled before the Report will be issued. Please note that if you have an imminent Court Hearing date then unless we have all of the required pensions information we will not be able to prepare a Report.

It is understandable at a time of distress and financial difficulty to question whether such a Pension Sharing Report is worth the extra cost within the divorce process.

Our response to this would be severalfold.

Firstly, it should not be an extra cost, it should really be one of the first costs in a divorce. Pensions are generally by far the greatest source of assets that individuals have and to only involve a pensions actuary at a later stage in the divorce proceedings is likely to mean that the significant issues in the case have not yet been addressed.

Secondly, each party has only one chance to ensure that the pension assets are appropriately considered. It is generally not possible to return to a case and factor in pensions that were overlooked or revise a Pension Sharing Order because of a misunderstood pension asset. Accordingly, the Penson Sharing Report enables each party to make an informed decision with regards to their pension assets and hence enable a clean break with peace of mind.

Thirdly and bluntly, pensions are too complicated for lay people to fully understand and as such they are likely to misunderstand or misinterpret the information provided by pension schemes. Having a pensions actuary prepare a report will mean the pension assets are properly interpreted so no misunderstandings occur. We often find errors in information provided by pension schemes that had they not been spotted would have left one or other party significantly financially disadvantaged. If you try and do it yourself, with a view to saving costs, then you are very likely to find the financial implications are many more times the costs you think you might have saved.

If you are a family solicitor and are uncertain as to whether or not your client should have a Pension Sharing Report then that in itself is perhaps the most compelling reason to recommend that your client has a Pension Sharing Report.

If you are a family solicitor and are certain that your client should not have a Pension Sharing Report then you should ask yourself the following questions. You can assume that the wife has the main pension assets and so the husband will receive a Pension Share. If you confidently know the answers to these questions then you can test yourself by checking the answers at the bottom of each set of questions:

1. Which will produce the greater Pension Share for the husband if he is aged 57 and wife is aged 53: one based upon equality of value or one based upon equality of income?
2. Which will produce the greater Pension Share for the husband if he is aged 53 and wife is aged 57: one based upon equality of value or one based upon equality of income?

If you thought that you knew the answer to questions 1 and 2 and decided that your client did not need a Pension Sharing Report then unfortunately you have probably cost your client many thousands of pounds in lost pension benefits whether you were acting for husband or wife.

Why?

Well, a Pension Share based upon equality of income requires an assumed retirement age for each party so how can one know which Pension Share will be greater if we do not know the assumed retirement ages? Questions 1 and 2 did not give assumed retirement ages so we cannot say which is the greater Pension Share.

Rubbish questions? Fair enough. Try again with the following questions.

3. Which will produce the greater Pension Share for the husband if he is aged 57 and wife is aged 53 if both are assumed to retire at age 60: one based upon equality of value or one based upon equality of income?
4. Which will produce the greater Pension Share for the husband if he is aged 57 and wife is aged 53 if both are assumed to retire immediately: one based upon equality of value or one based upon equality of income?

If you thought that you knew the answer to questions 3 and 4 and decided that your client did not need a Pension Sharing Report then unfortunately you have probably cost your client many thousands of pounds in lost pension benefits whether you were acting for husband or wife.

Why?

Well, a Pension Share based upon equality of income requires knowledge of what options the pension scheme that is being Pension Shared offers in terms of pension credit benefits so how can one know which Pension Share will be greater if we do not know how the relevant pension scheme discharges its liability for a pension credit benefit. Questions 3 and 4 did not tell us what the pension scheme being shared was so we cannot say which Pension Share will be greater.

Rubbish questions? Fair enough. Try again with the following questions.

5. Which will produce the greater Pension Share of the wife’s Police Pension Scheme 1987 pension for the husband if he is aged 57 and wife is aged 53 if both are assumed to retire at age 60: one based upon equality of value or one based upon equality of income?
6. Which will produce the greater Pension Share of the wife’s Police Pension Scheme 1987 pension for the husband if he is aged 57 and wife is aged 53 if both are assumed to retire immediately: one based upon equality of value or one based upon equality of income?

If you thought that you knew the answer to questions 5 and 6 and decided that your client did not need a Pension Sharing Report then unfortunately you have probably cost your client many thousands of pounds in lost pension benefits whether you were acting for husband or wife.

Why?

Well, although we know the ages of husband and wife and we know the assumed retirement ages and we know the pension scheme that will be Pension Shared (the Police Pension Scheme 1987 so we know it is the internal transfer option) there are still other factors that can affect the outcome. For example, in questions 5 and 6 the outcome depends upon the wife’s Police Pension Scheme 1987 pension. If wife has more than 25 years of pensionable service then then the Cash Equivalent Value (CEV) of her benefits will assume immediate retirement. If wife has less than 25 years of pensionable service then then the Cash Equivalent Value of her benefits will assume retirement at age 60. Questions 5 and 6 did not tell us about the wife’s pensionable service so we cannot say which is the greater Pension Share.

The above should demonstrate why it is always advisable that family solicitors recommend that their clients have a Pension Sharing Report. One only needs to change one small aspect of a case for the conclusion to be very different to another apparently identical case.

To conclude this FAQ, please note that question 6 asks for a Pension Share based upon equality of income assuming each party retires immediately. However, if wife is aged 53 and she has less than 25 years of pensionable service then the earliest age that she could receive unreduced benefits in the Police Pension Scheme 1987 is age 55. Husband could not receive a pension credit benefit following a Pension Share in the Police Pension Scheme 1987 until age 60. Hence question 6 is in itself something that cannot be answered based upon the circumstances just described.

Collins Pension Actuaries Pension Sharing Reports can provide figures to indicate which pensions could be Pension Shared and in what percentages, as well as the equivalent Offsetting figures of those Pension Shares, to achieve the following:

1. Equality of Value: this divides the pensions to allow for each party to have the same value of benefits based upon the value of the pensions provided by the relevant pension providers. The actual benefits, such as the income from the pension, will differ depending on factors such as scheme design and the age of the member.
2. Equality of Income: this divides the pensions to allow for each party to have the same income in current terms from the pensions. However, different pension scheme designs very often mean that the actual income received from the pensions is payable from different ages. Hence, equality of income is only achievable once all pensions have come into payment.
3. Offsetting: if Pension Sharing is not the desired option then the Report will provide the equivalent value of those Pension Shares for Offsetting purposes. This means a lump sum is calculated, which would be paid out of non-pension assets from one party to the other, that is equivalent to the relevant Pension Shares. The Offsetting values provided will be a range of values and not one specific value. Offsetting is subjective and different pensions on divorce practitioners take different approaches. Offsetting allows one party to retain more of another asset, such as the matrimonial home, in lieu of a lower share of the pensions.
4. Proportion Married Calculations: the percentage Pension Shares and Offsetting figures can be adjusted to account only for those pension benefits that are estimated to have been earned between two dates, such as after the date of marriage and before the date of separation.
5. Other Specific Requirements: as far as is possible, the Report will allow for specific requests made in the letter of instruction such as considering Pension Shares at a range of retirement ages. However, such specific requirements are generally discouraged initially since it is our experience that letters of instruction very often contain wide ranging questions that do not assist in the settlement of the pensions. For example, specifying Pension Shares based upon equality of income at ages 55, 60, 65 and State Pension Age is, in our opinion, a meaningless set of questions which will provide a very wide range of Pension Shares. There can only be one percentage Pension Share. It is not possible to have a Pension Share that allows for all such retirement ages. It is probably obvious that a lower Pension Share would be desired by the pension scheme member whereas a higher Pension Share would be desired by the non-pension scheme member. In our opinion, in general, the pensions should be Pension Shared based upon the normal retirement ages of the pensions concerned since this is the most likely age at which the pensions would have been taken had divorce not occurred.

To obtain a quote from Collins Pension Actuaries for preparing a Pension Sharing Report we will need to know what pensions are to be considered within the Pension Sharing Report and the scope of the instructions.

Ideally, for each divorcing party you should be able to provide the names of the pension schemes, their Cash Equivalent Values (CEVs) and a broad indication of what you are trying to achieve by having a Pension Sharing Report.

We will then provide you with an indication of the likely fee range for preparing a Pension Sharing Report. We will not provide a definitive fixed fee quotation until we have been provided with copies of the pensions information for the pension schemes concerned as well as a copy of the scope of the instructions.

The reason for this is because information provided by pension schemes can often be misunderstood. For example, a Lifetime Allowance value can often be mistaken as the CEV and sometimes the name of the pension scheme administrator can be given as the scheme name.

If you are uncertain as to the scope of the instructions then this is not too important at the quotation stage since Collins Pension Actuaries will assume that the most common elements of a Pension Sharing Report are required.

If you have not yet requested a quotation for us to prepare a Pension Sharing Report for you then you can do so below:

Obtain A Quote »

The easiest way to obtain a quotation for a Pension Sharing Report is to use our online Obtain a Quote facility since it is simple, quick, enables you to provide the salient case details efficiently and provides you with an instant estimated fee range.

For a definitive fixed fee quotation we recommend that you write to us enclosing full copies of all relevant pension information that has been obtained to date in the divorce disclosure process. You should also provide full details of the scope of instructions.

If you have not yet requested a quotation for us to prepare a Pension Sharing Report for you then you can do so below:

Obtain A Quote »

Please find below suggested generic instruction wording that can be used to instruct Collins Pension Actuaries to prepare a Pension Sharing Report.

It is recommended that this wording is used since until there has been detailed analysis of the various pensions that the parties possess it will not always be possible to know the available options. Very often instructions are received that are not possible to follow, for example being asked to consider the retirement for a pension credit member of the Police Pension Scheme 1987 at age 55 (Police Pension Scheme 1987 pension credit members are currently only able to retire from age 60 – retirement before that age is simply not allowed).

Generic Instruction Wording

Collins Pension Actuaries is instructed to provide a Pension Sharing Report into the disclosed pensions of both parties. The Report should include a discussion of the key issues concerning Pension Sharing Orders, Offsetting and Pension Attachment Orders. The Report should suggest a Pension Share that could provide equality based on pension value and a Pension Share that could provide equality based on pension income. The Report should provide an opinion on the range of equivalent values for Offsetting purposes if Pension Sharing is not desired.

If required, the parties could request that consideration should also be given to those pension benefits that could be deemed to have accrued inside, for example, the period of marriage or cohabitation. In such cases, the parties should provide agreed dates such as the date of cohabitation and the date of separation.

If such apportionment calculations are required, then examples of the generic instruction wording that is advised are shown below:

Generic Instruction Wording for Apportionment Calculations

Calculations should be provided in respect of only those pension benefits that could be deemed to have accrued from the date of marriage (and specify the date of marriage) up to the date of separation (and specify the date of separation).

Calculations should be provided in respect of only those pension benefits that could be deemed to have accrued from the date of cohabitation (and specify the date of cohabitation) up to the date of separation (and specify the date of separation).

Calculations should be provided in respect of only those pension benefits that could be deemed to have accrued from the date of marriage (and specify the date of marriage) up to the date of the relevant Cash Equivalent Values of the pension benefits.

The more pension information that can be provided at the outset then the greater the likelihood that a Pension Sharing Report can be prepared quickly. The less pension information that is provided then the greater the reliance will be on the parties having to request data from their relevant pension providers. Such data requests can lead to very slow response times and will significantly increase the length of time for a Pension Sharing Report to be prepared.

Unfortunately, pensions on divorce legislation provides for limited information to be disclosed and it is invariably the case that this information is insufficient for the detailed Pension Sharing Reports that we are requested to prepare. The process of obtaining the required, additional information is laborious since pension providers can take weeks to provide even the most basic of data.

Please note that Cash Equivalent Values (CEVs) are just one aspect of data required regarding pensions and on their own CEVs are not sufficient to prepare Pension Sharing Reports. Full details are required about the underlying pension benefits such as retirement ages, the accrued pension, contingent spouse’s benefits, pension increases before and after retirement, contributions paid into personal pensions, transfers in, Additional Voluntary Contributions, membership service periods, options that the pension providers offer for Pension Sharing and the charges the pension providers apply for implementing a Pension Sharing Order.

It is virtually certain that in most cases further information will be required from the pension schemes, it is also the case that most people will already have much of the factual information in their possession.

Some or all of the following may or may not apply depending upon what type of pension you have. The list is by no means comprehensive, but should serve as a starting point of the information to send to Collins Pension Actuaries when requesting us to prepare a Pension Sharing Report:

1. The information required to be provided by a pension scheme under the Provision of Information Regulations 2000 in connection with divorce proceedings. Please ensure this is as current as possible.
2. Copies of annual benefit statements for the last 3 years if you are still actively accruing benefits.
3. Copies of a deferred benefit statement, or any such further statement of benefits received since leaving, if you have left active service in a scheme, but have not yet started to receive your pension.
4. Copies of any documentation received at retirement which detail your retirement options together with the letter or statement at retirement which definitively set out your retirement benefits.
5. Copies of letters which advise you of how your pension increases each year.
6. A copy of the scheme booklet that applies to your scheme membership.
7. Copies of any correspondence received from your pension scheme that details changes to your benefits.
8. If you are able to log in to a web based database for your scheme then provide full copies of all pension data you can access online.
9. If you have a personal pension then provide a complete history of the amounts and dates of all contributions paid into the policy.
10. If you have a personal pension and transferred benefits into that pension from another pension provider then for all pensions transferred you will need to provide either the service dates in the former scheme (for a final salary scheme) or provide a complete history of the amounts and dates of all contributions paid into the former policy.
11. If you have a personal pension and it provides Guaranteed Annuity Rates or Guaranteed Conversion Options or a Guaranteed Minimum Pension then you will need to provide documents that fully explain those guarantees.
12. A State Pension Retirement Forecast if you have not yet started to receive your State Pension.
13. The last 3 annual breakdowns of your State Pension entitlement if you have started to receive your State Pension.

If you have not yet created your Data Collection Letters then you can do so below:

Create Data Collection Letters »

It should be noted that Collins Pension Actuaries does not undertake direct data collection on behalf of parties, but does guided data collection.

Under guided data collection we will advise the parties of the information required in respect of their pensions and they obtain it directly from their pension providers. That way, the parties can control the speed at which the information we require is obtained.

When information is received full copies of it should be sent to us for analysis so we can specify any further information that might be required or any technical questions that might need to be asked of the scheme.

We say why would you not want to take responsibility for collecting the necessary information about your own pension? It is after all your pension, your benefits and your future. You will be facing a significant financial upheaval following divorce and forward financial planning will be an essential part of that. Pensions represent future income and therefore it makes perfect sense that you are in control of the information to be provided in respect of your pension.

You will have to provide all sorts of other financial data for the divorce disclosure purposes such as bank statements, credit card statements, house valuations, savings account details, investment details, an itinerary of your most valuable assets and so on.

Pensions are no different.

However, the principal reason why Collins Pension Actuaries advises that it is in the best interests for divorcing couples to collect their own pension data is that it leads to the quicker production of Pension Sharing Reports. This is based on our extensive experience in providing Pension Sharing Reports and the way in which issues such as the GDPR requirements make it ever harder for third parties acting on behalf of divorcing couples to obtain swift and comprehensive replies to data requests.

Other issues arise. For example, it should be remembered that the pensions are your pensions. In our experience, parties often overlook to tell their former pension scheme administrators that they have changed address or married and changed name. Accordingly, very often pension schemes are unable to provide any data because the contact address details, name or signatures held on its system do not match that which are currently provided by the member.

This issue can only be resolved by the pension scheme member and therefore by undertaking data collection yourself you are also ensuring that the pension scheme concerned is aware of your current contact details.

Collins Pension Actuaries provides on its website an extremely simple Data Collection Form which provides you with a step by step guide to produce bespoke Data Collection Letters to send to your pension schemes. These bespoke Data Collection Letters can be printed, downloaded or emailed straight to you or to your pension scheme. The Data Collection process is easy to follow, efficient and can be done anywhere – all you need is an internet connection.

If you have not yet created your Data Collection Letters then you can do so below:

Create Data Collection Letters »

Once the parties have provided all of the information that Collins Pension Actuaries requires in order to prepare a Pension Sharing Report then we will provide an estimated timescale for the preparation of the Report. This is likely to be of the order of 6 weeks depending upon the demand for Pension Sharing Reports at the time. However, our aim is to produce the Pension Sharing Report comfortably within that 6 week timescale.

Please remember that you will need to allow sufficient time for your pension providers to provide you with the information that we require and this can take 12 to 16 weeks as a general rule.

If you have a Court Hearing scheduled within the next 8 weeks and have only just contacted Collins Pension Actuaries to request a Pension Sharing Report then you should realistically expect that it will not be possible to have a Report for the Court Hearing. This is nothing to do with our ability to prepare a Report quickly, but because it is invariably the case that the pension information that you have will be insufficient for the detailed Pension Sharing Reports that we are requested to prepare. The process of obtaining the required, additional information is laborious since pension providers can take weeks to provide even the most basic of data.

If you have yet to schedule a Court Hearing and have only just contacted Collins Pension Actuaries to request a Pension Sharing Report then you should realistically allow 20 weeks to receive the Report. This timescale allows you 12 to 16 weeks to obtain all of the required pensions information and a further 6 weeks for us to prepare the Report.

Collins Pension Actuaries charges on a fixed fee basis which means that no matter how much work is required in order to prepare a Pension Sharing Report only one fee is paid. Accordingly, prior to providing a fixed fee quotation it is necessary to know the number and sizes of the pensions involved in a case and the scope of the instructions. In general, the greater the number of pensions and the more valuable the pension assets and the wider the scope of the instructions the greater the fixed fee will be.

Additional calculations following the issue of the Pension Sharing Report will incur additional fees if they require a significant reworking of figures that was not within the scope of the original instructions, but such fees would be notified prior to calculations being done. Appearance in Court as an expert witness would incur separate fees, which would be quoted for at the time.

We believe our fees are competitive in the pensions on divorce field. Other pensions on divorce practitioners may well indicate lower charges, but then subsequently increase the fees once details of the instructions have been provided. This is not something that Collins Pension Actuaries will do. We will only increase fees beyond the original fixed fee quotation if we are subsequently informed of a pension that was not originally disclosed or are not fully informed at the outset of the likely extent of any instructions with regards to calculation scenarios.

To avoid any misunderstanding please note that Collins Pension Actuaries will only issue a Pension Sharing Report once cleared funds have been received. This does not mean that no work will be undertaken until fees are settled. It simply means that the Pension Sharing Report will not be issued.

If you have not yet requested a quotation for us to prepare a Pension Sharing Report for you then you can do so below:

Obtain A Quote »