Pension Splitting Explainer

Pension equalization is one of the most misunderstood parts of a divorce. Many think they have to transfer money to the ex-partner. That is not true. It is a rebooking of pension entitlements: whatever retirement provision you built during the marriage is split in half, so both have equal security in old age - regardless of who worked how much or who raised the children. The explainer takes the fear out of the term and shows what really happens.

The core is the half-split principle under Section 1 VersAusglG: every entitlement acquired during the marriage period is split in half. Not your entire pension - only the part built during the marriage. And it covers all forms of retirement provision: the statutory DRV pension, civil servant pensions, occupational pensions, Riester, Ruerup, private pension insurance and professional pension funds. The explainer goes through the entitlement types one by one so you know what is in the pot.

The marriage period is decisive. It starts in the month of the wedding and ends in the month the divorce petition is served (Section 3 VersAusglG) - not only at the divorce itself. Only the entitlements acquired in this window are split. The built-in marriage-period calculator derives the exact duration in months and years from the wedding date and the cut-off date, and points out the short-marriage rule: for a marriage under three years, equalization only takes place on request.

The rough estimate helps you grasp the order of magnitude. You enter the figures from your annual DRV pension statement, the explainer works out the marital portion, halves it to the equalization value and shows the net equalization between both partners. This is deliberately simplified - the exact amount is later calculated by the family court from the official pension carrier statements. But you get a feel for the direction of travel.

An important distinction is internal versus external splitting. With internal splitting the entitled partner receives their own entitlement with the same pension carrier. With external splitting the value is transferred to a different carrier. The explainer contrasts both variants and shows in the impact view how pension points and monthly pension change before and after.

On top of that come the exceptions and the procedure: when can pension equalization be excluded or arranged by marriage contract, when must it be limited due to gross inequity, and how the family court proceeding works. A glossary explains the jargon from entitlement to equalization value, and you can generate a PDF summary. All of it is an understandable orientation, not legal advice - for your specific case the family court with the pension carrier statements remains decisive.