Personal support

Divorce is another extremely stressful fact of life, when a relationship breaks down it can easily cause lots of uncertainty and splitting the matrimonial assets amicably can seem impossible.

Some of the most difficult issues can be the children, the home and how to go about negotiating the money side of things, in particular what to do about pensions.  Where communication has broken down completely, things can quickly escalate and where an amicable agreement is impossible to achieve, the costs and legal/advice fees can quickly grow.  In theory the best solution for all parties is to agree a clean break with limited use of the courts.

If amicable agreement can be reached, the process can be reasonably swift and pain free but more often than not it comes down to the courts.  In theory the assets of all parties should be split 50/50 but with many assets this is impossible in reality to achieve – think of the family home, will one partner take the upstairs and one the downstairs? – not really very practical.  The other major asset is often pensions and again are not very easy to split.

When pensions and financial assets are involved, this is where a trusted Independent Financial Adviser (IFA) is important.  If both parties agree, you can work with an IFA who will have a clear “conflict of interest policy” and will make suggestions as to how the assets may be split equally.  Ultimately if you can agree a settlement, this will save many thousands of pounds in court and legal costs.

At Financial Fortress, we hold the advanced pensions qualification AF3 and have many years experience helping clients negotiate and reach an appropriate divorce settlements.  We can work with both parties, where agreement is obtained and put in place an appropriate conflict of interest policy.  Alternatively we can be engaged by any ex-spouse independently.  Your adviser will work ethically to keep the stress and disagreements to a minimum and work with your own legal advisers or recommend experts who can help.  We can also help each party re-start their lives going forward, providing advice on life insurance policies and mortgages as required.