MICRA’s Debora Price on pensions on divorce working party
14 July 2017
MICRA's Professor Debora Price and two UK other academics – Hilary Woodward, Honorary Research Associate at the Cardiff School of Law and Politics, and Joanna Miles, Senior Lecturer in Law at the University of Cambridge - have been funded by the Nuffield Foundation for their work with The Pension Advisory Group (PAG).
You can read about the formation, remit, and agenda of the PAG here, on the Family Law Blog .
The PAG is chaired by Mr Justice Francis and His Honour Judge Edward Hess. This multidisciplinary group of judges, academics, actuaries, financial experts, family and pension lawyers has been set a brief to conduct a review of how pensions are treated in cases of divorce in order to produce a Family Justice Council pension guide for the profession and members of the public. The PAG , which is endorsed by the President of the Family Division and the Family Justice Council had their initial meeting in June 2017, with the final report and guide expected to be completed and available by December 2018. Within PAG three overlapping working groups have been formed:
- A legal working group to review legal questions and how the Matrimonial Causes Act 1973 s.25 discretion is applied in this context.
- A valuation and offsetting working group to look at the assumptions used by experts when valuing pensions and calculating pension sharing and offsetting outcomes.
- An expert working group to consider the question of what regulation, qualifications and/or expertise Part 25 experts should have in order to assist the court. Consideration will be given to whether the use of a uniform technical standard might be advisable.
The PAG is keen to receive any contributions and/or insights on current pension and divorce law and suggestions of improvements and best practice. They are especially keen to hear from members of the judiciary, legal, actuarial and financial professionals, and representatives of special interest groups. Please contact Hilary Woodward at WoodwardHD@cardiff.ac.uk .
Further information
- For further details, including details of the PAG composition, please see the Family Law Blog
- The Nuffield Foundation