Pension rights adjustment

Anyone who held back professionally during the marriage, for the children, for a move, for the other’s career, often notices it late and in an unexpected place: on the pension statement. That is exactly where the Versorgungsausgleich (pension rights adjustment) comes in.

Usually one side builds up considerably more retirement provision than the other, because they earn more or because the other looks after the children. Without an adjustment, one would end up with a full pension and the other with a gap that can no longer be closed in old age. Whatever provision arose during the marriage is therefore divided in half (§ 1 VersAusglG).

Every right arising during the marriage is adjusted if it was created through work or assets, serves to provide for old age or invalidity and provides for a pension (§ 2 VersAusglG). Company pensions and certified contracts count whether they pay out as a pension or as capital. The state pension belongs to that, and so do civil service pensions, professional body schemes, company pensions and private pensions such as Riester or Rürup.

What counts is the Ehezeit (marital period) alone, and it is precisely drawn. It begins with the month of the marriage and ends on the last day of the month before the Scheidungsantrag (divorce petition) is served (§ 3 (1) VersAusglG). Whatever was built up before or after that stays out of it.

Each right is divided separately, and as a rule internally (§ 10 VersAusglG). The side entitled to the adjustment receives a right of its own within the same pension scheme: one pension account becomes two. After that each side disposes of its share with the same provider, independently of the other.

Because the adjustment runs of the court’s own motion, the court obtains statements from every pension provider involved. Their follow-up queries are the most common reason for a divorce hearing being put back.

Here you really do have an influence on the pace. The more promptly and completely the providers’ questionnaires go back, the fewer queries arise, and every open query costs weeks.

In a short marriage of up to three years the adjustment only takes place if one side expressly applies for it (§ 3 (3) VersAusglG). Otherwise it is left out. Where the difference between both sides’ rights of the same type is small, or a single right has a low equalization value, the court should leave the adjustment aside (§ 18 VersAusglG); that spares everyone the effort over tiny amounts.

It can also be excluded, by a notarial agreement in a marital agreement or in a Scheidungsfolgenvereinbarung (divorce settlement agreement) (§§ 6 to 8 VersAusglG). You can exclude it entirely or settle it differently.

That the court carries out the adjustment of its own motion does not mean it comes out right without anyone’s help. The calculation is only as good as the statements it rests on. In practice rights get forgotten: an old company pension, a direct insurance policy from an earlier job, an entitlement from a few working years abroad.

So we first establish which rights count at all and what the adjustment means for your provision in old age. We go through the providers' statements and check the division; we fill in the questionnaires with you, promptly and completely. Whether an adjustment falls away in a short marriage or over marginal rights, we examine, and we examine any agreement you want before you sign it.

Where the adjustment is to be contracted out of in connection with a property or with business assets, Dietrich Karcher takes on that part. Whether waiving pension rights is worth taking on a house is not a matter for negotiation but a matter of arithmetic.

60 minutes, at our office or by Zoom. You describe your situation, and you find out which rights count in your case and what the adjustment means for you. You are under no obligation to hire us afterwards.