maintenance/asset split

The divorce calculator is throwing out some crazy figures... so if anyone can advise me on likely fair reasonable settlement, advices would be appreciated...

Me age 44
Him age 46
23 year marriage
4 children, two over 18, one age 10, one age 7

My income £7000 (CTC and child benefit only)
His income £160000 (net)

He sees the children maximum of 40 nights per annum remainder of time they are with me

house £275k
mortgage £50k

His pension £100k
my pension £50k

my savings £5k
his savings £3k

Car one each at £8k each

As things are we have been unable to even agree a pension offsetting figure and now it looks like court may be the only option. Despite high earnings he claims poverty as his spending is completely reckless, I think he wants to claim that he has high living costs if it goes to court.

Any advice as to how this might be dealt with by court would be very helpful.

Well, nick, before you even get to Court, there are some things you need to consider.

The first is that your husband's net income looks extremely high, probably so high that it exceeds the CMEC cap of £2000 a week and in those circumstances top up maintenance can be considered. He will have to pay something and it will be pretty substantial, you can be sure of that.

The second is benefits. You must look at what your benefits would be after separation, because his income will affect your benefits, so I would recommend a full benefits check from a CAB, which will cost you nothing.

The third is housing. Here it looks as though this might be one of those rare cases where there is enough to house both parties but as always it depends on where you live and what housing costs are like in your area,

Fourth is spousal maintenance. On these figures I would expect a subatantial award of maintenance and for joint lives ( or perhaps ending when a pension split takes effect ).

Fifth is pensions. I don't ' do ' pensions in the sense that I don't advise about them except in very general terms. You need very clear help here and I think wiki has a link up with someone who can give you the help. I repeat, I am not qualified to advise about pensions but you need the advice from someone who is.

As to poverty - well, sorry, please excuse while I try to stop laughing. If this is poverty then most readers of this site would ask how they get it too. And as for high living costs, his kids come first, as he will find out if he goes to Court.

I know this isn't what you asked for, but if I could give an accurate figure I would not be living in a small retirement flat !! You have a substantial claim, and you must not sell yourself short.

He won't starve. Nor, of course, should he, but he also needs a reality check. Get some advice.

LMM

160k gives a net of around £7500 which gives CM around £1100, (15% for the two kids) so yes SM is very likely certainly as a term order maybe even joint lives given the length of the marriage and the probability of the lady having a fairly low future income potential after raising four kids.

One number that does look slightly odd is his pension value, yes he`s young but at his age with his income i would have expected the CETV to be a fair bit higher?, i would just check that.

EDIT Ignore this post it was written by an idiot

Hi
Surely the CM would be 20% for 2 children ?

LB

I think Dukey made a mistake, if the income is £160k net that would be more than the capped CSA amount of child maintenance of £2k/week. Also although children under 18 are the priority children over 18 aren't irrelevant when they are in education.

Other factors are whether or not you have worked in the recent past and your potential earnings and how your husband generates his income. For example, if it is generated from a self employed business it may not be treated in exactly the same way as PAYE.

The starting point is how everyone is to be housed, local house prices and mortgage raising capabilities. Then it is a case of deducting your income needs from your income to establish the shortfall. Your husband's income needs are then deducted from his income to establish the amount of disposable income and his ability to pay maintenance. The more the capital settlement is in your favour, the larger mortgage your husband will require increasing his living expenses and decreasing the disposable income with which to pay spouse maintenance.

The CETV doesn't always reflect the true value of pensions and it may be necessary to have them valued by an actuary if it hasn't been done already. Because pensions aren't realizable until retirement the value of them isn't seen as equal to that of liquid assets so there is some discounting when offsetting pensions against other assets. How much discounting is rather a grey area.

When there is a discrepancy of £50k in pensions the legal fees involved in going to court could outweigh the value of arguing for a few percentage more or less of £25K (50%), if pensions were the only issue that couldn't be agreed.

Dear Mr Lost,b and Fiona,

Your both right i made a total hash of it, it is 20% for the two under 18 and i didn't see the net bit so i took tax and NI off.

I will now start writing lines.

I must actually read the question properly
I must actually read the question properly
I must actually read the question properly
I must actually read the question properly
I must actually read the question properly
I must actually read the question properly
I must actually read the question properly
I must actually read the question properly

This may take a while

I must actually read the question properly
I must actually read the question properly
I must actually read the question properly
I must actually read the question properly
I must actually read the question properly
I must actually read the question properly
I must actually read the question properly
I must actually read the question properly

Never mind, it's when you get to the stage that you read the question properly and forget it by the time you answer that's the real problem.

The advantage of misreading on a public forum is there are always smarta*ses who come along and correct it.