Their background
Nora and Sean came to mediation to agree the financial arrangements. They were in their sixties and had been married for twenty-six years. Nora and Sean divorced in 2015.
Nora was living in the family house; she was on benefits as she had health issues.
Sean was employed and had two pensions which were paying out, he lives in private rented accommodation.
We carried out online mediation with Sean and Nora.
Their finances
The mediator helped Sean and Nora to talk about their shared “marital pot”, which included the family house that was paid for and their pensions.
Nora didn’t have a personal pension. Sean had several pension funds and he was getting an income from some of the pensions.
The mediator helped Sean and Nora to think about the difference in their incomes and a difference in their pensions. They also talked about the difference in the amounts they were spending each month as Sean was paying rent each month and Nora was living in the family house which was paid for.
In mediation Sean and Nora talked about:
- Their future needs, their ages and the fact that they could not borrow large amounts of money.
- The money they each had coming in and going out.
- The difference in their pensions.
- Nora and Sean agree they would like to achieve a clean break.
- Nora would like to stay in the family house which she sees as her home.
- Sean would like to keep the pensions intact as it will cost a lot to change them
In mediation they agreed:
- Nora would stay in the family home and it will be transferred to her name.
- Sean would keep the pensions in his name .
- Sean will not pay maintenance to Nora, and it would be a clean break settlement.
- They would go to court for a financial order to be made.
After mediation Sean and Nora said:
Nora “I was really worried about the future. I wanted the security of knowing my home is secure. The mediator helped us to see how we could do that.”
Sean “I wanted a clean break and to know that we were financially separate. Mediation helped us to see how to achieve that.”
The mediator said:
“Nora and Sean had separated and divorced some time ago but knew they had to sort out their finances. They shared the paperwork in mediation and looked at ideas to meet their needs for the future. Both took legal advice during mediation and worked hard to reach an agreement.”
Find out more about mediation later in life and how Mena Ruparel ran a course about that at Family Matters.
