New Year Post-Divorce Pension Check
More than 1.8 million couples will have contemplated divorcing their partner during the Christmas period. Counselling service, Relate, reported they have a 50% surge in the number of calls they receive over the festive period and this is often followed by the start of divorce proceedings in January1.
The week beginning 8thJanuary is one of the busiest weeks of the year for divorce lawyers2but according to Jeremy Wolff, founding partner of specialist divorce and pension settlement consultancy Divorce LifeLine: “This is often only the beginning of the pain people suffer. The whole trauma of divorce proceedings can be exacerbated by administrational errors made by divorce lawyers. We have found time and again that this often results in ordinary people being left without large amounts of money that is rightfully theirs.”
Financial strains in this festive period are usually worse for divorced people, and they are often unaware that their financial situation could be a lot better if it wasn’t for mis-calculations made in the original divorce settlement.
Divorce LifeLine, has revealed that around 750,000 affected divorcees in the UK are likely to be able to re-claim thousands of pounds, in mis-calculated or lost financial entitlements. These amounts are reclaimed from their former solicitors, not their ex-partners and can ease their financial pressures enormously.
Divorce LifeLine estimates that up to half of the 1.5 million divorces that have taken place in the UK since divorce laws were changed in 2000,3may have not had the divorce settlement pension correctly valued by an actuary or a financial expert. Most of those divorcees may have lost thousands of pounds as their matrimonial pensions were undervalued. These sums can now be reclaimed.
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Free Divorce Pension Check continued…
Divorce LifeLine is offering a free ‘Post-Divorce Pension Check’ to anyone who calls them in the New Year. This will entitle them to a free telephone consultation and if it confirms they may not have had their divorce settlement pension valued by an actuary or an independent financial advisor, Divorce LifeLine will carry out a full analysis of all financial aspects of the divorce and advise if the pension was wrongly valued.
Where clients have genuine claims, Divorce LifeLine will work to carry out all the necessary administration and reclaim the money owed to their client. Where claims can not be pursued, or if Divorce LifeLine does not recover anything, there is no fee to pay for any of the investigative work carried out by Divorce LifeLine and its team of professionals. Charges for successful claims are limited to 15% of what is recovered.
Jeremy continues: “We are able to help most of all the people who are approaching us at the moment in some way and a surprising 75% of all the claims we have had to date have had something wrong with them that we have been able to rectify.”
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1Source: The Family Mediation Helpline, Metro newspaper 26thOctober 2009
2Source: Metro, Today is Divorce Day, 7th January 2007
3Since a major change in the law in December 2000, pension sharing has become allowed. This means a pension provider can be told that a percentage of the pension of their member can be allocated to the members’ former spouse.
For help and advice, please telephone Divorce LifeLine
on: 01932 240048 or visit www.divorcelifeline.co.uk
Press Contact: Julia Arnold at Elite Communications:
Telephone: 01403 711 639 or email: julia.arnold@elite-communications.co.uk
Press Contact:
Julia Arnold
Elite Communications
44 (0)20 7097 8728
