How do I transfer a pension sharing order as part of my divorce?

What is a pension sharing order?

In a divorce, or civil partnership dissolution, pensions can be shared with an ex-spouse or ex-partner as part of the settlement.

The court will issue a pension sharing order which usually shows the percentage of your pension that’s to be shared. For Scottish court orders it’s a fixed amount.

What pensions you can transfer to us as part of a pension sharing order

We accept most pensions. However, we do not accept any pensions where tax-free cash has been taken by the pension holder. This is known as a disqualifying pension credit.

Find out more about which pensions we accept

How to transfer a share of your ex-spouse's pension to us

Submit a pension transfer request to us using your ex-spouse’s policy number and pension provider details.

While logged in to your account, go to ‘Secure messages’ and send us a message letting us know you’ve submitted a transfer request for a pension sharing order.

We’ll get in touch with your ex-spouse's provider to arrange the transfer and keep you posted about its progress. It’s likely that you’ll need to fill in some paperwork.

How to transfer part of your Vanguard pension to your ex-spouse

The first thing to do is tell your solicitor that you wish to transfer part of your Vanguard pension to your ex-spouse.

Your solicitor can get in touch with us if they need any information to produce your pension sharing documents.

They can write to us at this address:

Vanguard
PO Box 24095
1 Tanfield
Edinburgh
EH3 1FS

Otherwise, your solicitor can give you their letter to pass on to us. If they do, log in to your account, go to ‘Documents’ and upload it.

Your solicitor should send us a copy of the draft order, so we can see whether we can implement the order. They can send it to us by post at the address above or you can upload it to the ‘Documents’ section of your account.

Once you have all your court documents, log in to your account and upload courtstamped versions of these documents (we do not accept certified copies):

• final order

• pension sharing annex

• decree absolute/conditional order made final (if this relates to a Northern Ireland order)

• minute of agreement or divorce certificate (if this relates to a Scottish order)

Then send us a secure message to let us know that this has been done.

We’ll get in touch with you if we need anything else and to update you and your ex-spouse about the transfer process.

How long it takes to transfer a pension sharing order

Once we’ve received all the documents, it can take several weeks or longer to transfer a pension sharing order.

It sometimes takes longer than a few weeks to transfer a pension sharing order because:

• they're often more complex than other types of transfers

• they usually involve paper rather than electronic forms

• there are several parties involved

Pension providers must complete a pension sharing order within 4 months of receiving all the information they need.