key to the study guide - Name

Scope of provisions Lastly, you should take note that the provisions of the Divorce Act with
regard to pension sharing are applicable only to marriages in community
of property, marriages out of community of property with application of
the accrual system and marriages subject to complete separation of
property concluded before 1 November 1984. Therefore, on page 131 in
the prescribed textbook it is stated that spouses' pension interests are not
taken into account upon divorce if they married with complete separation
of property on or after 1 November 1984.
170
ACTIVITY
What is a spouse's pension interest upon divorce if
(1) the spouse is a member of a pension fund
(2) the spouse is a member of a retirement annuity fund
FEEDBACK
(1) You merely had to indicate that the spouse's pension interest in this
case is the benefit to which the spouse would have been entitled had
he or she terminated his or her membership of the fund on the date of
the divorce.
(2) With regard to the second part of this question you merely had to
indicate that the spouse's pension interest is equal to all the spouse's
contributionstotheretirementannuityfunduptothedateofthe
divorce, together with annual simple interest on those contributions
calculated at the prescribed interest rate.
QUESTIONS
NB: Make sure that you can answer these questions properly. They
are designed to test your knowledge of the study material in
this study unit.
. The patrimony of the spouses Ð general
(1) What determines the effect of divorce on the division of the
spouses' property?
(2) Does fault still play a role as far as the consequences of divorce are
concerned? Explain.
. Pension interests
(3) Does a spouse's pension interest automatically fall into his or her
estate upon divorce? Give a full explanation, with reference to
authority.