His assets total £1.2mil and he’s asking me for money!?

Hoping someone can give me a steer on if this is fair or not.

6 year marriage, no prior cohabitation.

Wife (me) age 48 works full time, income (net):£5500pm (salary). 2 children ages 12 and 13 from previous marriage live with me 9 nights a fortnight.

Husband (respondent) age 60 works part time 4 days per week £4000pm (salary plus interest on savings). 1 daughter age 17 from previous relationship lives with her mum. Husband pays £380pm child maintenance.

Husbands assets: 1.2mil comprises savings £600k and pensions CETV £600k.

Wifes assets: Equity in marital home (owned in wife's sole name) £455k Savings £18k Pension CETV awaited but estimate is £200k

Joint savings: £46,000

He is asking me to pay him a settlement of 40k stating he has paid into my mortgage for the last 6 years and we paid a lump sum of £30k off the mortgage during the marriage.

He is saying that he is close to retirement and won't have a good income in retirement as he will have to sacrifice the majority of his savings to buy a property so he won't have the interest on his savings which is a major source of his income. Meanwhile I earn more than he does and am 12 years younger than him so have longer to retirement.

Is it fair I should pay him a settlement? Or should I say that he has got plenty as is? Does it matter that he got his £600k savings from a combination of selling his property when we married (he moved in with me) and inheritance (he inherited £370k Sept 2023)? He is saying because he kept the proceeds of his property sale separate from the marriage it's not a marital asset and that inheritance isn't a marital asset.

Please help - it doesn't seem fair that he already had so much more than me and yet is asking me for money.

You’ve both clearly got enormous salaries and there are more assets than are needed.

Plus it is a relatively short childless marriage.

How was the FMH purchased? Did he pay towards the deposit and has he contributed towards the mortgage?

What sort of pension do you have and how sure are you of the estimated CETV? It seems low for someone on a six figure salary.

What sort of pension does he have and what income is he expecting to need in retirement? Again, he is a very high earner but why will he need that sort of income in retirement?

Thank you for replying.

I purchased the FMH for 297k before I met him by myself. paid deposit myself. I then spent 240k renovating it before we met.

Re pensions both of us have 100k in private super annuation funds the rest is defined benefit public sector pension - me nhs him universities superannuation scheme.

My CETV at the time of my last divorce in 2015 was 15k. I’m awaiting a current CETV but since I joined the scheme in 2001 I’ve taken about 10 years out of the scheme due to working overseas, breaks in employment for maternity leave, sick leave (cancer) and doing locum work to raise funds to renovate house. This is why my pension will be rubbish so I’ve estimated my CETV will be around 100k. I have a friend in the same job who hasn’t had the employment breaks I have and her CETV in 2018 was 200k. My high earnings are only a very recent phenomenon and are the culmination of working all the hours god sent (80h weeks) up until this point.

His take home pay is £2000k pm and the interest on his savings is £2000k so his total income is £4000k pm

I am the main carer for my 2 kids from my first marriage.

Just don’t think I should be paying him a settlement given that his total assets are 1.2mil and mine are 475k?

I bought and renovated my house by myself and it’s my only asset - just doesn’t seem right that he is stating I pay him a settlement as it’s a marital asset yet he’s stating none of his savings count as marital assets since they’ve been kept separate from the marriage and include a recent (Sept 2023) inheritance - sounds a bit suspicious to me?

He has the resources to meet his reasonable housing needs. He has a substantial pension.
You have to provide a home for 2 minor children.
Arguably this could be a case for sharing the acquest of the marriage - pension accruals, increase in house value, savings interest. Needs though will always come first.
You both need to consider how much this could cost to argue through the courts. It's likely to be more than he's asking for. You could save costs by self representing. Before you take this route I would strongly advise you both take legal advice. You may want to use the fixed price legal financial consultation offered by this site.

Hadenoughnow

Thank you hadenoughnow.

I had an initial fixed fee consultation with the head of family law at my local high street solicitors. She said there was a case for off setting the growth in equity in the house against his pension and we both walk away with what we currently have. I don’t want anything from him. I just don’t think I should have to pay him anything either.

Over the course of the marriage he had been making £900 pcm additional voluntary contributions into his pension (I only found out last year once it had been going on for 5 years). We both got paid into a joint current account throughout the marriage so this is why we don’t have more in joint savings. I would be prepared to let that go (even though it equates to about 65k over the course of the marriage) as long as he doesn’t ask me for anything.

Does anyone know if it’s true that inheritances acquired during the marriage are not considered marital assets? Also is it true that because he sold his property at the start of the marriage and moved into my home that the sale proceeds from his property aren’t marital assets either? Because that is what he is telling me? I asked the solicitor I saw what I should do but I got no clear advice hence posting on here. Can somebody kindly advise if what my husband is saying is true?

There is no hard and fast answer it depends on the circumstances in each case.

This is not a needs based case so if the money has always been kept apart from the family finances then he has a strong argument that it should be ring fenced and not included.

What is the situation with the FMH? Did he contribute to the mortgage and upkeep? Where did the £30k lump sum come from?

The FMH was purchased by me before we met for 297k I renovated it at a cost of 240k before we were engaged.

6 months after we married he sold his flat proceeds 171k he then moved into my house with me and my 2 kids.

Since he moved in we’ve both been paid into one joint current account that mortgage and all bills come out of.

The 30k to pay off the sub mortgage came from our joint savings.

Is it true that he has claim on m house yet I don’t have claim on the proceeds from his flat sale and the interest he’s had on that for last 5.5 years? Because that’s what he’s telling me?