Divorce financial order

The main types of financial order

• Consent order: records an agreement you have both reached, approved by a judge
• Clean break order: ends future financial claims between you
• Pension sharing order: transfers a percentage of one pension to the other person
• Property adjustment order: transfers or deals with ownership of property
• Maintenance order: ongoing payments from one person to the other

Two separate processes

It helps to keep two things apart. Ending your marriage is a court process that follows a fixed timetable and does not look at your finances. Sorting your finances is about who keeps what: the home, savings, pensions and debts. You can run them side by side, but one does not automatically decide the other.

• Ending your marriage: the divorce application, conditional order and final order
• Sorting your finances: an agreement between you, and usually a financial court order to make it binding
• CalmSplit's £159 fee covers the divorce itself, not a financial settlement

The usual order of events

• Divorce application issued by HMCTS
• Conditional order after 20 weeks, once the court is satisfied
• Financial agreement reached, and a consent order applied for where appropriate
• Final order at least 6 weeks and 1 day after the conditional order, ending the marriage

Do you need one?

If you own property, have pensions or meaningful savings, or want certainty that neither of you can claim later, a financial order is usually the sensible step. If you have almost nothing to divide and both accept that, some people proceed without one, but they accept the risk that claims stay open.

When to get advice

Consider independent legal or financial advice where there are pensions of real value, a business, complex property, significant debts, or where you are unsure whether what you have agreed is reasonable. CalmSplit can refer you to an independent solicitor. That does not change your £159 CalmSplit fee, and we do not take a fee for the referral.