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Pensions and divorce: Understanding what happens to your pension when you divorce

22 September 2026

When you and your spouse choose to divorce, there are many things that you will have to sort out, some being more obvious than others.

When people think about splitting assets, they think about the family home or savings accounts. However, one of the most overlooked assets is a pension.

Pensions can be particularly important where one spouse has spent time out of the workplace to support the family. For example, one party may have given up work to care for children, stopped building their pension and is now starting to consider their future.

This is why seeking legal advice is imperative when considering pensions in a divorce.

Are pensions an asset in divorce?

Yes! When you divorce, pension pots tend to be one of the biggest assets a person can have, aside from their family home.

However, only one in five divorces takes a pension into account when splitting assets and one in four turn down a share of their ex-partner’s pension.

It is often the case that when people are going through a divorce, they do not know which assets they are entitled to. For partners who have given up their livelihood in the face of marriage, they could be left worse off in retirement.

How are pensions split in divorce?

Pensions tend to be a part of the matrimonial assets when a couple divorces.

How the pension is split will depend on the couple’s circumstances, such as how many children they have, their individual financial needs, how long the marriage has lasted, their ages and health conditions and their marital contributions.

When you are divorcing, the pension can be split in several ways. These include:

Pension sharing order – The pension holder will have to share a specific amount or percentage of the transfer value of their pension.
Pension offsetting – The pension holder will share less or none of their pension and will let the spouse take another asset, like a shared home.

It is important to remember that this only applies to workplace pensions, not state pensions. You cannot share a state pension.

How will my pension be valued during the divorce?

Before a pension can be divided, it must be accurately valued. Typically, this is done by using a Cash Equivalent Transfer Value (CETV), which is an estimate provided by the pension provider.

CETV’s can sometimes over- or undervalue how much the pension may actually be worth, especially for final salary schemes.

Sometimes, a pension expert may be needed to give an independent assessment to ensure that both parties have a clear understanding before an agreement is reached.