When a marriage or civil partnership ends, one of the main concerns is usually over money. What happens to the house, the savings, the pension and everything else the two of you have built up over the years?
Plenty of people assume it all just gets halved, with each person walking away with an equal 50% split. However, in reality, it rarely works out that neatly.
Divorce is the process of bringing the marriage itself to an end, but it does nothing to untangle your finances. Property, savings, pensions, investments and debts all have to be dealt with in their own right. If you are unable to agree on how these assets should be split, the court can step in and decide what it thinks is fair for your situation.
This often raises the question: does fair mean equal? Not always.
In a previous article, we covered frequently asked questions about ‘no-fault divorce’, and in this guide, our family law team explains how assets are divided when a marriage ends, what the court weighs up, and why an even split is not always the fairest result.
Is Everything Split 50/50 in a Divorce
Under the Matrimonial Causes Act 1973, courts in England and Wales divide assets upon divorce to achieve fairness, but there is no set rule that says every asset must be split down the middle.
Equal is often the sensible place to start, especially after a long marriage or civil partnership where both people have put years into building a life together. However, where things end up depends far more on your circumstances, and above all on what each of you needs going forward.
Factors often considered include situations where one spouse earns significantly more than the other, or one of you stepped back from their career to raise the children while the other kept working and paying into a pension. Perhaps there are young children who need a settled home. The courts will also consider pre-marital assets and whether these should be ring-fenced from any settlement. Any of these factors can shift what a fair outcome looks like.
When the court weighs things up, it typically looks at how long you were married, your ages, what each of you earns and could earn, the property, assets and money available, your outgoings, the standard of living you had, and what each of you will need and be responsible for afterwards. Contributions to family life count too, including the years spent caring for children and running the home.
What Assets Are Considered During Divorce?
It helps to look at the whole financial picture rather than getting stuck on who technically owns what.
- Depending on your circumstances, that might take in:
- the family home and any other property
- savings and investments
- pensions
- business interests
- vehicles and valuable possessions
- income
- mortgages, loans and other debts
Pensions are the ones people forget, focusing more on tangible assets such as sorting out who keeps the house, yet a pension can be one of the largest assets a couple has built up. We have written separately about how pensions are split on divorce if you want to look at that in more detail.
Getting a proper handle on the full picture really is the first job before anyone starts talking about who gets what.
What About Assets You Owned Before Marriage
This is where things become less clear-cut. Although it might seem like a house, investments, or some savings you had before you married will simply stay yours, it is not always the case.
While it is true that there is a difference between the assets built up during the marriage and those brought into it, there is not always a distinctive line. What happens to those assets over the length of the marriage matters as much as when they arrived.
The property you owned before you married may have become the family home, or money you once kept separate may have been folded into the household finances long ago. On top of that, the length of the marriage or civil partnership and whether both of you can be properly provided for without sharing those assets can tip the balance. So, the name on the deeds or the bank statement is not always the deciding factor.
In 2025, the Supreme Court looked at precisely this question in Standish v Standish. A husband had moved around £80 million of largely pre-marital wealth into his wife’s name, mostly as part of a tax planning arrangement. When the marriage broke down, she argued the money had become shared and should be divided between them. The court did not agree. It held that the sharing principle, the starting point that marital assets are split equally, applies to matrimonial property and not to what one person brought into the marriage. Just as importantly, putting an asset into a spouse’s name, or transferring it to save tax, does not, on its own turn it into shared property. What the court looks at is how the couple actually treated the asset over the years they were together. Although the assets in this case are significant, the same thinking applies whatever the size of the matrimonial pot.
Does it Matter Who Earned More?
Earnings are part of the conversation, but earning more than your spouse does not entitle you to a larger share.
The law treats marriage as a partnership, and contribution is not just financial. One of you may have been the main breadwinner while the other took on more of the childcare and kept the household running. That is just as important, and the court takes it into account.
It is often more significant when one person has taken a career break or cut their hours to look after the family and comes out of the marriage with less income or a thinner pension as a result. That gap does not go unnoticed.
What Happens to the Family Home?
Understandably, the family home is often the hardest thing to resolve, but there is no set answer.
Depending on the family circumstances, it might mean selling up and splitting the proceeds, one person buying out the other’s share, or one of you remaining in the home for a while. Where there are children, their need for a stable home carries real weight, and the court puts arrangements for children first when it decides how the money should be divided.
Sometimes that rules out splitting the property in half.
Can We Agree How to Divide Our Assets Ourselves?
Yes, and often avoiding the courts is the best approach.
Lots of separating couples work it out between themselves, through their solicitors, or with the help of family mediation. Reaching an agreement without involving a court gives you more say over the result and spares you the time and cost of a contested case.
However, you should still formalise the arrangement. A verbal agreement with your former spouse may not give you the security you think it does. If you have settled how to divide money and property, you can ask the court to approve a Consent Order, which makes the agreement legally binding. And if you cannot reach an agreement at all, either of you can apply for a financial order and ask the court to decide.
The Importance of Full Financial Disclosure
Before anyone can judge what a fair settlement looks like, both of you need a clear, honest view of the finances.
That means being open about property, savings, investments, pensions, income, debts and anything else of financial value. If it goes to financial proceedings, you will both usually have to hand over detailed information and paperwork to support your disclosure.
Trying to hide assets, or being less than honest about your financial situation, can make a hard process even harder and can lengthen it. It can also count against you in a final settlement.
What Is a Fair Split?
No family situations are the same, and no single percentage split fits every divorce. While a 50/50 split may be right for one couple, another may need something quite different to meet the needs of both people and their children. A settlement has to account not only for what each of you owns now, but for what you will genuinely need once you are running separate lives.
That is why it is worth taking advice before you agree to anything. Something that looks equal on paper can still leave one person struggling later on.
How Langley Wellington Can Help
Sorting out the finances is often one of the trickier parts of ending a marriage or civil partnership, particularly when there is property, pensions, a business, or disagreement about what should happen next.
At Langley Wellington LLP, our experienced family lawyers can offer legal advice on all matrimonial matters following a divorce or the dissolution of a civil partnership, including with financial agreements and consent orders.
You may also find our Family Law FAQs helpful: Family Law Frequently Asked Questions.
To speak with a member of our team today, please call 01452 521 286 (Gloucester Office), 01242 269 998 (Cheltenham Office), email lawyers@langleywellington.co.uk, or fill in our contact form.
This blog is not intended to be taken as advice or acted upon, and information may have changed since publication. If you are seeking legal advice, please contact our team of solicitors.
