'Suddenly, my pension was halved.'
Babette (47) and Jeroen (55) have three children of 6, 8, and 9. Jeroen joined TNO in 2002. Babette stayed at home to look after the children for a period of nine years. She joined TNO a couple of months ago and works at another location. Babette also worked for TNO before her marriage. Babette and Jeroen were planning to celebrate their 22nd wedding anniversary in May, but it all went wrong during the summer holidays. They divorced in September. Jeroen has found a new love and has remarried. The division of Jeroen's pension was a great and unexpected disappointment.
Jeroen would like to share his experiences. It's all too much for Babette at the moment. This article therefore focuses on the consequences for Jeroen. That does not mean that the consequences for Babette are no less. On the contrary. She interrupted her career and took care of the children. Her salary and pension accrual are therefore lower. Because of the divorce, that impact is now even greater. If she had known more about this when they married then she would have made other decisions. This is also why she hopes that others can learn from their experience.
‘I want other married members to know about this.’
Did you know that your pension would be divided on your divorce?
‘No, I didn't know. I just thought that it was my pension. I pay the contributions, I accrue the entitlements, and it’s in my name. I had absolutely no idea that the pension that I had accrued until the divorce date would be divided between us. Suddenly, the pension entitlements I'd accrued have been halved.’
‘I knew that I was accruing a partner pension for my partner in the event of my death. However, apparently she has kept her entitlement to the partner pension after our divorce. She has the right to the partner pension accrued until the divorce date. This is not the case with the portion of the partner pension that I accrue after the official divorce date – that's for my new partner.’
How did you find out about the financial impact of the divorce on your pension?
‘The pension fund informed me. They receive automatic notification from the municipal Persons Database to inform them that a person is no longer married. And that's how they contacted me.’
‘I also understand that your pension is divided even when you legally separate and don't divorce. The only exception is cohabitation, where the pension is not automatically divided.’
Have you reached other agreements with your partner?
A new legislative proposal was adopted recently. As from 2021, each divorced partner automatically receives half of the pension accrued by the other partner during the marriage, unless they give notification that they have reached other agreements within a period of six months. A two-year period is applicable until 2021.
Are you cohabiting?
What were the financial consequences?
‘It was quite a shock. My ex also receives part of the TOP capital and extra pension capital that I'd accrued during our marriage. I'm now going to have to carry on working for much longer than I had originally planned. I was intending to retire around my 60th. Luckily, the time in which we were living together isn't taken into account. However, I am really concerned about my financial future when I reach my state pension age, and retiring early is now financially out of the question.'
'Obviously, I am also entitled to part of the old-age pension accrued by my ex. However, as she has a much lower salary and didn't work for a number of years, a share of her much smaller pension is certainly not going to compensate the reduction of my pension.’
Would you have made other arrangements if you had known this in advance?
‘I knew that there would be consequences for my pension, but I hadn't expected that it would be so drastic. My wife looked after the children for several years, so she didn't have a job and didn't accrue a pension during our marriage. Moreover, her pension before we married doesn't count. So, I can’t expect much from her side.'
‘Watching my pension being divided is very painful, and I don't know whether there is anything I can do about it. I do know that when you marry after making a prenuptial agreement you can include a provision in this agreement on the division of your pension on your divorce. However, we didn't do that: Babette and I married in community of property. It's different now. The rules changed on 1 January 2018.’
Did you marry before or after 2018?
Previously, the pension was not divided if you were divorced. The division, also known as the "equalization" of your pension, has been in effect since 1 May 1995. For this Act on the equalization of pension rights in the event of divorce, there was the Boon van Loon judgment.
In the past, there was no 'bijzonder partnerpensioen' (special partner's pension).
You have just remarried. Have you made other arrangements with your new partner?
‘Yes, I certainly have. We have had an agreement drawn up by a civil-law notary to confirm that the pension will not be divided in the event that we divorce. That might not seem very kind – but I lost more than enough pension on my first divorce and I certainly don't want that to happen again. We also laid down in the agreement that the partner pension will be reserved for a possible new partner. My partner signed a waiver document for that.’
How do you feel about your future pension?
‘My pension is going to be much smaller. Obviously, I will also receive a state old-age pension benefit, but I had hoped for a nice supplement from my private pension. We all want to maintain our standard of living after we retire and have enough to carry on enjoying ourselves. That's not going to be the case in my situation. I am going to miss a hefty chunk of my accrued pension. So how do I feel about my pension? Obviously, I'm not happy. But at the moment, my attitude is simply “I’ll worry about it when the time comes."
'I can't do anything about it – maybe I just need to win the lottery. I can't save, because I also have to pay maintenance and other costs. So, I can't open a tax-efficient blocked bank savings account to supplement my pension. Moreover, I assume that my children will want to study after leaving school – and that’s going to be expensive as well. My only hope is that I can pay off my mortgage by the time I'm 67. That will make a big difference to my fixed costs.’
'I am going to miss a hefty chunk of my accrued pension.'
More information is available on our site
Things are different when you divorce after you have retired. Did you know that?
‘Yes, I do now. I know that divorcing after you have retired impacts your state old-age pension benefit because it reduces it. You can't make that up by working longer if you've already retired. There's no way you can absorb part of the difference.’
The names have been changed for privacy reasons.