Pension Rights Adjustment

If the divorce is based on German law, the family court officially carries out the pension rights adjustment. It will carry this out without an appropriate application. In the event of the pension rights adjustment, the rights to future pension benefits accrued by each spouse during the marriage will be balanced out against each other.
This should mean that any gaps in coverage suffered by a spouse who did not enter into paid employment, e.g. to care for children, which thus benefited the other spouse, will become closed.

Delays to the preparation of the pension rights adjustment can lead to the divorce proceedings becoming extremely long and drawn out.
The family court obtains the information about the pension rights accrued during the marriage from the pension fund institutions.
The pension insurance funds frequently require supplementary information or supporting documentation regarding the participants – about vocational training for instance, the acquisition of which can be an arduous and time consuming task.
In order to relieve the strain on the subsequent divorce proceedings, the filing of a request for account clarification at the pension insurance fund is therefore recommended during the period of separation prior to the filing of the petition for divorce.
It may also be possible for the pension rights adjustment to be concluded in a notarised agreement. This must be concluded at least one year prior to the filing of the petition for divorce to be effective, however.