Divorced women missing out on £5bn in pension payments

According to research carried out by Scottish Widows 7 out of 10 divorcing couples don't take pensions into account. The suggestion then is that this leaves women at a significant financial disadvantage when it comes to pension income in retirement.

When looking at this as a family mediator and family lawyer, it's highly unlikely that anyone with a background in law would ever overlook a pension when helping people deal with a financial settlement arising from separation and divorce.

So, what might this research mean? Perhaps, with the withdrawal of legal aid meaning that less people are accessing legal advice and even mediation, more couples are dealing with their divorce and financial settlement on their own. In those circumstances, people won't necessarily know that pensions need to be looked at and considered too.

It is entirely understandable that at such a difficult time, people want to save money and that might mean that they don't think legal advice could help them so why pay for it. The fact remains that good legal advice, that does inevitably come at a cost, can save you considerable amounts of money because it can save you from making costly mistakes.