5 types of financial order on divorce or civil partnership dissolution explained

Originally published on 20 May 2022 and updated on 9 December 2025.

Following the breakdown of a marriage or civil partnership, there can be a lot to consider. If you and your partner have reached the difficult decision that your relationship has irretrievably broken down, you’ll want to understand the process that’s involved in formally ending your relationship. 

Here, specialist family and divorce lawyers Amy Harris and Katie Coleman from our Brabners Personal team set out everything you need to know about financial orders — how they work, the different types and more.

Starting divorce proceedings & reaching a financial settlement

To formally dissolve a marriage or civil partnership, the starting point is to commence divorce proceedings. However, getting divorced doesn’t sever the financial ties between you and your partner. That’s why it’s also advisable for a financial settlement to be reached to ensure that financial matters are appropriately resolved following separation.

Once the divorce application has been made, it’s necessary to reach the conditional order stage of the divorce process before the court can make a financial order. This takes around 20 weeks and  following the conditional order, you must wait just over six weeks before you can apply for your financial divorce order. Yet for many people it’s advisable to delay applying for the final divorce order until you have a legally binding financial order in place. 

What financial orders can the court make?

The court has the power to make a variety of financial orders upon divorce or the dissolution of a civil partnership. It has wide ranging discretion to consider all financial resources available to a couple, which extend to property, pensions, investments and other assets owned by either spouse. 

The court can further consider both parties’ liabilities — such as loans or credit cards — as well as income. In some cases, there may also be trust assets or businesses too.

Before reaching a financial settlement, it’s advisable for a couple to exchange full and frank disclosure of all their financial and other relevant matters to each other. If either person has real concerns that the other won’t provide full and frank disclosure voluntarily, they may wish to consider issuing court proceedings to compel the other person to provide disclosure as to their circumstances. 

Disclosure is important because it helps family lawyers to advise their clients on what an appropriate financial settlement might be, while minimising the risk of any agreement being set aside in the future. In some circumstances, non-disclosure can result in a final financial order being set-aside by a court, therefore providing full disclosure of all relevant information is advisable. 

When considering what an appropriate outcome should be, the court will consider Section 25 of the Matrimonial Causes Act 1989 or Schedule 5 to the Civil Partnership Act 2004. These provide that the court must consider all circumstances of the case and set out factors that the court must have particular regard to. These include earning capacity, financial needs and obligations and the standard of living enjoyed during the marriage.

1. Property Adjustment Order

For many divorcing couples, property will be their primary asset. The court is able to make a property adjustment order to deal with any property owned by the couple. It’s common for such an order to be made in respect of the family home and any holiday or investment properties. The court will be able to order for property (or an interest in it) to be transferred from one spouse to the other, for property to be sold (and the net sale proceeds provided to one person or shared) or for the property to be retained by a spouse who holds a property in their sole name. 

When considering whether to make a property adjustment order, the court will firstly consider the housing needs of any children as well as the housing needs of the couple. The court will take into account each person’s housing requirements (e.g., how many bedrooms they need) and mortgage capacity. 

A family home will often (but not always) be shared equally between a couple. One person may require in excess of 50% of the family home to meet their housing needs because they have a lower borrowing capacity. Ultimately, there’s no ‘one size fits all’ approach and the sharing of property assets following a divorce will depend on each family’s circumstances. 

For example, if one person owned an investment flat that they inherited prior to the marriage, it may be the case that this asset wouldn’t be shared in the event of a divorce because it’d be considered a ‘non-matrimonial’ asset. However, in some cases non-matrimonial assets can be used to meet needs. 

2. Lump Sum Order

A lump sum order requires one spouse to transfer a sum of money to the other for their (or their children’s) benefit. Such orders may be made to account for the spouses’ needs or to provide for a fair sharing of capital assets. 

The advantage of a lump sum compared with ongoing maintenance payments is that it helps to achieve a clean break between a couple following a divorce. 

3. Maintenance Order

A spousal maintenance order (also known as a periodical payment order) requires one person to make payments to the other (typically monthly) to meet the income needs of the spouse who receives the payment.

When considering financial matters following divorce or dissolution, the court has a duty to consider whether it’s possible to achieve a clean break. The benefit of a clean break is that there are no ongoing financial ties between the couple following their relationship.

Making a maintenance order can delay a clean break on either a short or long-term basis. The court will consider whether an order is necessary for a limited time only (a term order), for example while one party adjusts to financial independence, rather than being continuous for the remainder of the couple’s ‘joint lives’.

There’s no exact formula for determining whether maintenance payments are necessary or the amount that should be paid. However, the court will assess the income needs of both individuals and whether they’re able to meet those needs from their own income. If they can’t, there may be scope for a maintenance order but the paying person must also be able to afford to meet the payments themselves. Following separation, each person must maximise their earning capacity and if maintenance is needed to help a person adjust to separation, it’s possible that maintenance may only be paid for a short term. It’s unusual for maintenance orders to be made for the rest of someone’s life since people are expected to become independent following separation.

Notably, an ongoing spousal maintenance order will be subject to the possibility of applications to vary where the circumstances of the paying or receiving party alters. In addition, spousal maintenance orders will cease if the receiving party remarries or enters into a new civil partnership.

4. Pension Sharing Order

If a couple has broadly similar pension provision, it may be agreed that there shall be a clean break and they can each retain their own pensions. However, if there’s a disparity in pension provision this will commonly be dealt with by either a pension sharing order or an offset, which is where one person receives more of the other asset instead of a pension share. 

Pensions are complex assets and in many cases a couple will jointly instruct a pension expert — known as an actuary — who can advise on an appropriate pension share or offset.

A pension sharing order will provide for the division of rights under a pension scheme so that each spouse has their own respective rights and entitlement. Sometimes this means that each couple will receive their own separate pensions within the same scheme which is common with public sector pensions. For some other couples, they may receive a share of their spouse’s pension and need to invest that elsewhere. 

Either way, a pension share achieves a ‘clean break’ between the parties. The member’s pension rights will be valued as a ‘cash equivalent’ and part of this value is used for the benefit of the ex-spouse. The member’s rights will be reduced, while the member’s ex-spouse will benefit from a pension credit. However, parties who wish to preserve their pension may consider pension ‘off-setting’, whereby the pension is left intact and the party seeking a portion will receive a lump sum or higher portion of capital.

5. Consent Order

Whether a couple is able to reach an agreement between themselves or with the benefit of their legal advisors, it’s recommended that they enter a legally binding financial order also known as a consent order. This sets out a clean break, which prevents the other person from making a financial claim in the future. A consent order may result in an immediate clean break or a future one (for example, following the sale of a property or the end of a maintenance order). 

The financial order or consent order must be approved by a judge within divorce proceedings to make it legally binding and enforceable. It’s important that the agreement is enforceable so that if someone doesn’t do something that they’ve agreed to you can take steps to enforce the agreement at court. The court doesn’t simply ‘rubber stamp’ the agreement — it also assesses whether the agreement is fair by reviewing each person’s financial and personal information on the statement of information form (D81). 

If it’s impossible to reach an agreement ‘by consent’ then financial remedy proceedings may be advisable to ensure that matters are resolved and a fair outcome is achieved.

Talk to us

The division of finances on divorce or the dissolution of civil partnership can be highly case specific based on your individual circumstances. If you’re thinking about seeking a divorce or dissolution, it’s critical to take trusted legal advice. 

Our award-winning family law team is recognised by The Times Best Law Firms as among the best in the country. Speak to our specialist divorce and financial settlement solicitors today by calling 0333 004 4488, emailing family@brabners.com or completing our contact form below.

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