Company Pension

[SingleDadofTwo]

Here is a general question I would like to receive information on. My ex-wife and I were married for 13 years ending two years ago. She was with the same company for the 13 plus 4 more years prior to us getting married. I moved jobs alot and didn't end up with any pension or contribution plan to equalize but I believe I would be entitled to part of her contributions. I am aware that I can apply for CPP equalization and that part can be done without much of a hitch but how do I go about requesting the information from my ex-wife in regards to the contributions based on the time lines that we were married? Is she obligated to provide me with that information and am I entitled to it?

[Gary M]

Pensions are, unfortunately, considered a marital asset and are subject to division/equalization.

The process to calculate one person's entitlement is complicated and is performed by accountants - sometimes 3 different sets of them: yours, theirs, and the company's. It's not a black-and-white $X contributions times X years divided by two, but an actuarial value based on a magical-mystical future value determined by several formulae, consulting an Oracle, and the casting of chicken bones.

In my case, the federal government provided an actuarial value and both my X and myself were content to accept it instead of fighting it out through lawyers and other professionals.

What to do afterward is a decision the parties can make together: The "losing" person can offer to "buy out" the other's entitlement. These offers are usually for a reduced cash lump-sum vice pernsion transfer... From the payee's point of view, a "good" deal can be $0.25 on the dollar, a "bad" deal can be $0.75, and a decent one anywhere in-between. If an agreement can not be reached, the final determined value is transferred from the payor's pension fund to a "locked in" vehicle of the payee's choosing.

I think I'll stop here, as I am about to launch into a rant on double-dipping bloodsuckers.

There are people here on this forum who are money geeks (grin) and can give you better information than I ... this post should serve as a starting/discussion point.

Cheers!

Gary

[SingleDadofTwo]

This topic has never come up with my ex-wife yet. Everything that I send to her directly goes through the filter which is her lawyer and then the whole court process starts because he likes to get paid. I wish there was a way to approach this from a neutral stand point. ugh.

[Gary M]

Lawyers will do everything they can to prevent you two from communicating.

At $200/hour, they bill you 0.2 hours for every phonecall, fax, email, and anything else they can dream of. My ex was convinced that her lawyer cared about her and was "protecting her" from me... and then she got the bill. It was amazing how quickly she changed her tune and wanted to communicate when she realized that every time her lawyer looked at a piece of paper, it cost $40.

As soon as the endless billing circus started I changed to self-rep and was happy to answer every email, fax, and telephone call from her lawyer with the same. Her lawyer was happy too... in fact we're still happily emailing and faxing and calling

Cheers!

Gary

[SingleDadofTwo]

I will keep you posted but I have to wait until after my Jan 11th case conference for CS before I stir the pot for equalization of assets. I always told people that this woman was not going to be one of those evil witch of an ex-wife's that you hear about. I was so wrong.

[Teenwolf]

Originally Posted by SingleDadofTwo

I will keep you posted but I have to wait until after my Jan 11th case conference for CS before I stir the pot for equalization of assets. I always told people that this woman was not going to be one of those evil witch of an ex-wife's that you hear about. I was so wrong.

As the old saying goes, it's all about love at the beginning of the relationship and all about money at the end of the relationship.

[SingleDadofTwo]

Nah, it isn't about money for her. It is about trying to do as much as she possibly can to mess me up and show me just how much she is hurting. She can't move on.