Referring a client going through divorce

Divorce dismantles and rebuilds a client's entire financial position, often at the worst possible moment to be making major decisions. Pensions to be shared or offset, a family home to be split or retained, income to be restructured, protection and beneficiaries to be revisited, a will that suddenly names the wrong person. You may be one of the few steady professional presences the client has through it, and that puts you in a position of real responsibility.

As a SmartPeer member you remain the introducer. You are not advising on how a pension should be split, or how the settlement should be invested. You are the trusted professional who can see that specialist, regulated help is needed, and who can make that introduction with care, at a time when your client may not have the clarity to seek it out alone.

The signals in a divorce are rarely subtle, but they are easy to leave unaddressed while the emotional weight dominates. Watch for:

• Pension assets on the table, where sharing or offsetting needs regulated advice to value and structure properly.
• A lump-sum settlement that will need investing and a plan to produce income.
• Protection policies and beneficiary nominations that no longer reflect the client's wishes.
• A will that still leaves everything to a soon-to-be former spouse.
• A newly single client, often with children, whose income and outgoings have changed completely.

Each is a conversation for a regulated adviser or an estate specialist, alongside the legal process the client is already in.

Divorce is a moment where how you refer matters as much as whether you do. The client is under strain, and a clumsy or premature push toward financial decisions can feel cold. The role is not to hurry them, but to make sure that when the practical questions arise, they are pointed to the right regulated help rather than left to guess or to rely on you for answers you cannot give.

Resist any temptation to advise on the settlement itself or on what to do with the proceeds. Whether a pension-sharing arrangement or an investment plan is suitable is regulated advice. Your value here is human as much as technical: staying calm, staying in your lane, and making a considered introduction to a vetted, regulated advice firm when the client is ready to think about the future.

SmartPeer keeps the mechanics quiet and simple, which suits a sensitive situation. You identify the moment, introduce the client to a vetted, regulated advice firm or a vetted estate specialist, and let that professional take on the detail. You are not managing the financial settlement or signing anything off. Your role is the introduction and a gentle check-in afterwards.

Because SmartPeer is commission-only, introductions cost you nothing, and members typically receive a 60-70% share of the fee when an introduction leads to business. In a divorce the point is never the fee; it is that a client at a low ebb is guided to properly qualified help rather than left to cope alone. The economics simply follow.

The framing should be quiet and unhurried. You might say that when the client is ready, the settlement will raise questions about pensions, income and their will that deserve proper regulated advice, and that you know vetted specialists who handle exactly this with discretion. Then you leave the door open rather than pushing them through it.

That keeps you firmly as the introducer and, just as importantly, as a source of steadiness. You have not advised on the settlement or judged what is suitable; you have made sure your client knows help is there and can reach it when they choose. Clients remember who looked after them at their hardest moments, and that memory is the most durable form of loyalty a practice can earn.

You will not need to go looking for these moments; they arrive. When one does, a calm, well-judged introduction is one of the most valuable things you can offer, both to the client and, in time, to your practice.