A pension transfer to a spouse is not possible while you are alive: pensions move between schemes, not between people, except through divorce.

Can you do a pension transfer to a spouse or partner?

Not as a gift, and not while you are both alive and married. What the word "transfer" means for pensions is a move of your own pot from one scheme to another, and the Government's transfer guidance describes the destination as "another registered UK pension scheme". There is no ordinary route for handing part of it to a wife, husband or civil partner.

Which of the routes covered next suits a family like yours turns on the schemes involved; an FCA-authorised adviser will phone back at no charge when you send in this page's short form, then look at your own position.

A spouse can still end up better off in three ways, covered below: a court order on divorce, benefits when you die, and money you pay into their pension.

Why a pension cannot simply be put in a wife's or husband's name

For a workplace scheme of the occupational kind, the Pensions Act 1995 settles the point. Section 91 says that where someone is entitled to a pension under such a scheme, or has a right to a future one, "the entitlement or right cannot be assigned, commuted or surrendered". Subsection (5) then lists limited exceptions, among them an assignment in favour of the member's widow, widower, surviving civil partner or dependant, and a surrender at the member's option to provide benefits for those survivors or further benefits under the scheme. Those exceptions look after survivors or the member's own benefits; none gives a member a general power to sign a pension over to a living husband or wife.

Tax law points the same way for money that leaves the pension system. GOV.UK says that sending a pot "anywhere else" than a registered scheme, or taking it as an unauthorised lump sum, "will be an 'unauthorised payment' and you'll have to pay tax on the transfer". That charge is about moving a pot outside the registered system. Drawing your own pension in the normal way once you are old enough, then handing money to your spouse, is a different route with its own tax consequences, and worth talking through before anyone moves a penny.

Personal pensions and SIPPs are caught by tax law instead. Under section 172 of the Finance Act 2004, if a member of a registered pension scheme assigns, or agrees to assign, a benefit or a right under it, the scheme is treated as making an unauthorised payment, unless the assignment is made under a pension sharing order or provision. Putting a SIPP into a husband's or wife's name outside divorce would therefore bring the tax charge described above.

Pension transfer to a spouse on divorce: pension sharing

Divorce is the one situation where pension rights are moved from one spouse to the other. MoneyHelper lists three ways to split pensions, and the first, pension sharing, is described as a way to "transfer a portion of one person's pension to another". The agreed portion, it explains, is called a pension credit "and is moved from one person's name to the other for a fee". The same guide stresses that you "do not have to split or share your pensions when you separate" and have no automatic right to claim part of an ex-partner's pension, so what moves depends on what is agreed or ordered.

Pension sharing is not a way for a married couple to even out their pensions while the marriage continues, which answers the common question about splitting before 65: age does not come into it, because the tool belongs to the divorce or dissolution process. What the court can order, how a sharing order works and what it costs are covered in our pension sharing order guide and in pensions on divorce.

The first practical step is a valuation. Each pension provider can be asked for a cash equivalent transfer value, or CETV, "for divorce or dissolution purposes", and that figure tells both of you what each pension is worth before anything is agreed. The same guide says pensions belong in the calculations: many feel guilty about claiming part of an ex-partner's pension, but it is "a joint asset like anything else".

Three further points from MoneyHelper are worth knowing here:

  • Once the order is final and a provider has all the paperwork and its fees, it has up to four months to put the changes into effect.
  • In Scotland a sharing arrangement is set as a fixed amount, not a percentage; see pensions on divorce in Scotland.
  • The State Pension usually cannot be shared between you, unless you had already reached State Pension age before 6 April 2016; for which applies to you, see the State Pension after divorce.

A spouse who receives a credit may be able to take part of it tax free; the tax-free cash from a sharing order page covers that. Scheme-specific rules differ, and pages such as NHS pension and divorce and teachers' pension and divorce show how two public schemes handle it. MoneyHelper also describes a third way: keep the full pension and let the other partner take other assets of similar value. That is offsetting; see pension offsetting in divorce.

What your spouse can receive when you die

Where a spouse benefits from a pension in the ordinary course of life, it is mostly on death. MoneyHelper says that your pension money "can usually be paid to someone else when you die, depending on the type of pension you have". Two broad pictures:

  • Pension pots. A defined contribution pot can usually go to the beneficiaries named in your wishes, whether people or organisations. Providers and trustees usually decide who receives it, and, MoneyHelper notes, they will "usually choose those listed on your expression of wish form, but they do not have to". A form is how you tell them your wishes, and it needs keeping up to date after a marriage, a divorce or the birth of a child.
  • Guaranteed income. In a defined benefit scheme there is no pot to pass on, and the scheme decides what is paid. A typical example is a dependant's pension, a share of the promised pension, paid to a partner or to children until they reach 23. An annuity income usually stops at death, unless a joint-life option or similar was chosen when it was bought.

The State Pension can pass to a married or civil partner in certain cases, according to MoneyHelper, and GOV.UK has a tool for checking. Tax on what a spouse inherits, the inheritance tax position and the rules by scheme are in how pension death benefits work; the points that differ between a final salary scheme and a pot are in the final salary pension guide.

Details of your own plan are what matter here, and the adviser who rings you back after you fill in the form here can go through them.

Paying into your spouse's pension instead

If the aim is to build up your partner's retirement income rather than move yours, the usual answer is to pay into their pension. On tax, GOV.UK explains that a payment into your pension from someone else, a partner for instance, earns you relief at 20% automatically where the provider claims it through relief at source. The relief goes to the person whose pension it is, not to the payer. Limits, the effect on the annual allowance and the gifting position are in paying into a spouse's pension.

Can you give or transfer your pension to a child or someone else?

The same rules apply, whoever the recipient is: a pension in your name cannot be given to a daughter, son or friend while you are alive without it counting as something other than a scheme transfer. Where a child can benefit is after your death, as a named beneficiary of a pot or as a dependant under a defined benefit scheme (up to age 23, for the scheme example above).

Treat any offer to move your pension into someone else's hands, or into a scheme you do not recognise, with suspicion. The FCA says pension scams "often involve attractive offers that aim to persuade you to transfer your pension pot (or release funds from it)". For a cold call about your pension its advice is blunt: "the safest thing to do is hang up". More on spotting these is on the FCA's pension scams page, and our transfer step by step guide covers legitimate moves between schemes.

Common worries about moving a pension to a husband, wife or child

Can I transfer half my pension to my wife?

Not during the marriage through a normal transfer. On divorce, a court can order that part of a pension is shared, and the spouse receiving it gets a pension credit in their own name.

Is there a letter that moves a pension from husband to wife?

The letters and forms providers use are for moving your own pension to another scheme. A divorce case uses a court order instead, which the scheme then puts into effect.

Can I put my SIPP into my husband's name?

Not while you are married and both alive. Handing a SIPP to someone else is treated as an unauthorised payment for tax unless it happens under a pension sharing order, so the usual ways to help a husband are paying into his own pension or naming him for death benefits. The SIPP guide explains how one works, and the call-back arranged through this page's form can cover your own plan.

Will my spouse get my pension automatically if I die?

Not necessarily. For a pot, the trustees or provider usually decide, with your expression of wish form as guidance; for a guaranteed scheme, the scheme's own death benefit rules decide whether a partner receives a dependant's pension.

Can my pension go to my children when I die?

Often yes, depending on the type of pension. A pot can usually pass to the beneficiaries you choose, and children can qualify for a dependant's pension under some defined benefit schemes up to a certain age.

Does an annuity carry on paying my spouse after I die?

Only if you chose an option such as joint-life when you bought it. Without one, the income usually stops. The pension annuity guide sets out the choices.

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