What is a Pension Sharing Order?

Posted onJanuary 5, 2026

Family law provides several mechanisms for dividing pension wealth when couples divorce in the UK. One of the most important provisions is the pension-sharing order.

In this article, our Family Law Solicitors explain what a pension sharing order is, how the order works, and what you should consider when negotiating a financial settlement involving pensions.

Contact OTS Solicitors Today for Expert Divorce and Pension Advice.

What is a pension sharing order?

A pension sharing order is an order made by the family court as part of a divorce financial settlement. The order can be made by agreement after a couple have negotiated the division of their assets through solicitor negotiations or family mediation, or after the court has heard evidence and determined that a pension sharing order is appropriate.

A pension sharing order transfers a percentage of one spouses or civil partners pension to the other spouse or civil partner. The percentage may range from 1% to 100%.

Once the pension provider has implemented a pension sharing order, the pension belongs to the receiving ex-spouse. If an ex-spouse retains some of their pension, any additional contributions they make to their share of the pension fund will be for their benefit and will not be shared with their ex-spouse’s fund.

When was pension sharing introduced?

Pension sharing was introduced in 2000. Before that date, the court could not share pensions. It could either make a pension attachment order or offset the value of the pension fund, giving the spouse with no or limited pension funds other family assets, such as a larger share of the equity in the family home.

Pension attachment orders were considered unfair to some spouses as the pension was not transferred to the other spouse. The pension attachment allowed the receiving spouse to obtain a share of the retiring spouse’s income on retirement, but the attachment order ended if the receiving ex-spouse remarried. In addition, the ex-spouse was unable to choose their retirement date, as their entitlement to pension income depended on the plans of their former husband, wife, or civil partner.

Pension offsetting does not always yield fair results when assets are limited or the pension is not comparable to other assets.

The limitations of pension attachment and offsetting resulted in the introduction of pension sharing orders. The court usually either orders offsetting in appropriate situations or makes a pension sharing order. Pension attachment orders are rarely made.

How pension sharing works

Pension sharing works through the family court making a pension sharing order as part of a financial court order. The court order records the division of assets, including pensions.

Some financial court orders are clean break orders, preventing either former spouse from making any further financial claims against the other spouse. Other types of financial orders allow an ex-spouse to apply to the court for some additional support, such as an increase in spousal maintenance.

Pension sharing takes effect only after the pension administrator has implemented the court order. To implement the order, the pension administrator needs:

A copy of the financial court order and pension sharing annexe, and
The final order of divorce.

If you have a separation agreement or a memorandum of agreement negotiated in family mediation, your Divorce Financial Settlement Solicitors in London can convert it into a draft financial consent order. The draft order is submitted to a family law judge for approval. Typically, there is no need for solicitors or spouses to attend a court hearing to obtain an agreed financial consent order.

Contact OTS Solicitors Today for Advice on Converting Your Financial Settlement into a Financial Consent Order.

Types of pensions that can be shared

Most pension types can be shared through the making of a pension sharing order, including:

Final salary schemes.
Defined benefit pensions.
Defined contribution pensions.
Personal pensions.
Public-funded and government-funded pensions, such as local government, police, fire service, teachers, and civil service schemes.
Employer workplace pensions.
Military pensions.
Additional state pension.
SSAS or small self-administered pension schemes.
Overseas pensions – depending on scheme rules and jurisdiction issues.

A pension cannot be shared if it has already been shared in previous court proceedings. For example, if a financial court and pension sharing order was made in divorce proceedings involving a first husband or wife.

Valuing pensions in financial proceedings

When you are negotiating a financial settlement or involved in financial proceedings, it is essential that all assets, including pensions, are accurately valued. This applies even if you have reached a financial agreement through family mediation or another form of alternative dispute resolution.

If you have a pension, you will generally receive an annual cash equivalent transfer value (CETV) from the pension provider. You may assume you can use the CETV to value each pension, add up all the pension CETVs, and divide by two to determine a fair pension division. That may not result in a fair outcome or equal pension income.

Using a CETV to value a pension may produce an unfair outcome depending on the pension schemes you are valuing. The CETV of most public-sector schemes undervalues the pension relative to an equivalent CETV for a private pension. A workplace pension scheme may be underfunded and therefore at risk despite its CETV.

In many situations, it may be in your financial interests to ask the court to order that a pension actuary or pension expert value the pensions and advise on the pension sharing order percentage required to achieve equal pension income in retirement.

Some people are reluctant to instruct pension experts. However, without a proper valuation of the pension assets:

The figure used for pension offsetting may be wrong, and
The percentage used for the pension sharing order may leave you with a pension income that is thousands of pounds lower each year than your ex-spouse's pension income.

Family Law Solicitors can advise on the benefits of a pension valuation and how it may affect your financial settlement.

Percentages and pension sharing orders

The court usually specifies a percentage of the pension to be shared rather than stating a fixed amount in the financial court order. That’s because the pension sharing order will not be implemented until the no-fault divorce proceedings are finalised and a financial court order is made. The pension provider then has four months from receipt of the divorce final order and the financial court order to implement the pension share. If the pension is invested in the stock market, the value could rise or fall sharply over those four months, potentially creating unfairness for the spouse who shares or receives a fixed amount of the pension fund.

Factors the court considers when making a pension sharing order

When you are negotiating a financial settlement or the court is making a financial court order, the objective is to achieve a fair settlement. To achieve this, Family Lawyers and the court consider a list of statutory factors, known as the Section 25 factors, set out in Section 25 of the Matrimonial Causes Act 1973.

The Section 25 factors include:

Your ages.
The length of the marriage and any period of cohabitation before the marriage.
Your health and whether your health may affect your earning capabilities or needs.
Your financial needs and obligations, such as housing requirements or income needs in retirement.
Your reasonable outgoings.
Your contributions to the marriage. These could be financial, as an income producer, or non-financial, as a homemaker.
The existence of a prenuptial agreement or postnuptial agreement.
The standard of living enjoyed during the marriage.
The extent of the family and non-family assets and the extent of your reasonable capital and income needs.
Your earnings capacities and whether it is reasonable to increase your income.

These factors need to be carefully considered. They may result in an equal division of all assets, including pensions; a departure from equal division after a short marriage without children; or pension offsetting, with you retaining the family home. Every family situation is different, and that’s why your financial court order and the pension provision need to be crafted around your financial and personal circumstances to reach a fair outcome.

Contact OTS Solicitors Today for Help With Negotiating a Financial Settlement.

Steps to obtain an agreed pension sharing order

The steps to obtain a pension sharing order can be broken down into 13 stages:

Take preliminary legal advice from a Divorce Solicitor.
Decide on the alternative dispute resolution option that best suits you to try to reach a financial settlement, such as solicitor negotiations or family mediation.
Provide financial disclosure of all assets, including pensions.
Review your spouse’s financial disclosure, ask questions and ask for additional information where necessary.
Take legal and financial advice on whether valuations are required, such as property or pension valuations.
Review the valuations and consider all your options, including keeping the family home, pension offsetting, spousal maintenance, clean break and pension sharing.
Negotiate and reach a financial settlement.
Record the financial agreement. This could involve your Divorce Solicitors drawing up a separation agreement or your family mediator preparing a memorandum of understanding.
Start or continue the no-fault divorce proceedings and obtain a conditional order of divorce.
Family Law Solicitors send the judge a draft financial consent order, pension sharing annexe and financial statement of information for approval.
The final order of divorce is obtained.
The pension administrator is sent the divorce final order, financial court order and pension annexe and asked to implement the pension sharing order.
Other aspects of the financial court order are implemented, such as the sale or transfer of the family home or the closure or transfer of joint bank accounts.

Each step in the agreed process for obtaining a pension sharing order will depend on your financial and personal circumstances. Once an order is made or a deal negotiated, it cannot be undone except in very rare circumstances, such as fraud or non-disclosure. That’s why it's best to take financial and divorce legal advice.

Steps to obtain a pension sharing order in financial court proceedings

If you or your spouse starts financial court proceedings, the steps to obtain a financial court order involve:

Apply for a financial order.
The court lists the application for a first directions hearing and provides a court timetable.
Form E financial disclosure provided.
First directions hearing when the court orders valuations if required and authorises questions about financial disclosure.
Questionnaire responses and valuations provided.
Financial dispute resolution hearing to try to reach a financial settlement with the judge’s help.
If no agreement can be reached, the court application is listed for a final hearing. If an agreement can be reached, the court proceedings are finalised at the financial dispute resolution hearing.
The court makes a financial court order at the financial dispute resolution or final hearing.
If a pension sharing order is made, the pension administrator is sent the final order of divorce, the financial court order and the pension annexe and given four months to implement the pension sharing order.

Implementing a pension sharing order

When the family court makes a pension sharing order, the pension administrator has up to four months to implement the order. The receiving spouse’s share of the pension fund is either:

Put into a new pension account in the spouse’s name with the same pension provider, or
Transferred into a new pension scheme.

Option one is an internal transfer; option two is an external transfer. Whether the receiving spouse may elect an internal transfer depends on the pension scheme rules.

A financial advisor can explain the options and advise on whether an internal or external transfer is in your best interests. Whether you opt for an internal or external transfer, once the pension sharing order has been implemented, the pension belongs to the spouse named in the court order. Any additional pension contributions made by either former spouse will be credited to their respective schemes.

Divorce pension advice

When you are separating and negotiating a separation agreement or financial consent order, or are involved in financial court proceedings, it is vital that you get financial and legal advice on your pension options and the making of a pension sharing order because:

Without expert pension advice, the real value of the pension fund may be undervalued. For example, the benefits of an NHS pension can, in real terms, be more valuable than the cash equivalent pension fund value allocated to it by the pension administrator, or a pension pot may be undervalued if it consists of commercial property that has not been formally valued since a period of property price growth, so the figure in the pension accounts is inaccurate.
Without financial advice on the specific pension scheme rules, you may not understand when you can draw down on the pension and the tax implications of doing so.

Pension sharing orders are complex. Therefore, if you or your partner has a pension, it is best to get specialist legal advice from expert Divorce Solicitors on your pension options and on which type of financial court order best suits your personal and financial circumstances.

Contact OTS Solicitors Today for Expert Divorce and Pension Advice.

Frequently Asked Questions on Pension Sharing Orders

Can I access my pension money with a pension sharing order?

If the court makes a pension sharing order as part of your divorce financial settlement, you will only be able to access the pension funds allocated to you under the pension sharing order if:

Your final order of divorce or dissolution of civil partnership has been pronounced, and
The pension administrators have implemented the pension sharing order, and
The pension scheme rules allow you to access the pension funds. Access to pension funds may be via income or capital drawdown, following an internal or external pension share.

Whether you can access your pension fund depends on your age. If you are under 55, you probably won't be able to do so. If you are over 55, you may be able to do so depending on the pension scheme rules. If you can access the pension funds, it is best to get expert financial advice before doing so, because of the impact of early retirement on your pension income and the tax implications of pension drawdown.

The fact that you can or cannot immediately access pension funds should not completely influence your decision on whether to ask for a pension sharing order, as pension sharing should be considered as part of your long-term financial needs.

Will my ex-spouse get the benefit of my future pension contributions?

After a pension sharing order is implemented by the pension administrator, your former husband, wife, or civil partner won't get the benefit of any growth in the pension pot allocated to them if your fund grows in value through stock market rises or through your continued monthly pension contributions into your pension fund. Likewise, you won't get the benefit of any increases in the percentage value of the pension fund allocated to them.

This means if the court makes a pension sharing order allocating 50% of the pension fund to your spouse, and after the order is implemented, you or your employer contributes to the pension, those contributions will be allocated to your 50% share of the fund. A pension sharing order splits the pension, even though neither you nor your spouse may be able to access the funds yet due to your ages.

Can all pensions be shared in financial proceedings?

Most pensions can be shared through pension sharing orders in financial court proceedings. However, it may not be in your best interests to share all your pension funds. For example, if a pension fund only has a very modest value, the pension administrators' costs and fees to implement the pension sharing order may be disproportionate.

If a pension is complex, it may not be in your best interests to share it. For example, a pension could comprise commercial property used as the business premises of a family business, placed in a SASS pension for tax or other efficiency reasons. Given the complexities of an internal transfer, an income drawdown, or an external transfer, your best financial settlement option may be to offset the pension fund value. Hence, you get other property assets instead of a share of the pension.

Will the full value of my pension be shared if I had my pension before I got married?

There may be an argument to say that the full value of your pension should not be considered when the court decides on the percentage to be shared with your ex-spouse. For example, if you made 25 years of pension contributions before your marriage, and your marriage was of short duration. Other factors may be relevant, such as a prenuptial agreement or your spouse's retirement income needs. Family Law Solicitors can advise you on the relevance of your pre-marriage acquired assets, including your pension.

Will a 50% share of my ex-husband's pension provide me with the same retirement income as him?

A 50% share of your ex-spouse’s pension won't necessarily give you the same pension income in retirement as your former spouse because:

Your pension income may be based on your age or gender. A pension actuary can work out that you need 56% or 42% of your ex’s pension to achieve parity of pension income based on your age and gender.
You or your former spouse could continue to make contributions to your pensions. As the pension is split into two pots, you will not receive the benefit of their additional contributions.
If the pension administrator requires you to choose an external transfer, or you elect to do so, the pension income generated from the external transfer may be higher or lower than your ex-spouse's pension income.
You or your former spouse could choose to take a tax-free lump sum, and this will affect the level of pension income. If your spouse decides to take a tax-free sum, you are not obligated to do so.

Can a pension be shared if it is already in payment?

A pension can be shared through a pension sharing order if it is already in payment. However, if the pension is in payment, you will not be able to take a tax-free lump sum when the order is implemented, and you start to draw your pension income.

Can my civil partner claim a share of my pension?

A civil partner has the same financial claims as a husband or wife upon the dissolution of a civil partnership. A civil partner can therefore claim a share of a pension and ask the court to make a pension sharing order. The court considers the same factors as a married couple when deciding whether to make a pension sharing order.

Which is better: spousal maintenance or a pension sharing order?

Whether it is better to get a share of a pension or a spousal maintenance order depends on your situation. It’s also possible for the court to order that you get time-limited spousal maintenance until a specified age, when you can draw down on your pension income generated through a pension sharing order. If the court ordered lifetime spousal maintenance without making a pension sharing order, you can apply to the court and ask the court to make a pension sharing order in place of the spousal maintenance order.

Choosing the right type of financial settlement can be complex, depending on your priorities and goals. It's best to consult a Family Lawyer and a financial advisor to ensure you understand your options and their advantages and disadvantages so that you can make informed decisions.

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