Overview

• Reporting highlights a March 25 appellate judgment in Brandenburg that confined pension division to the years of actual cohabitation plus a twelve‑month buffer.
• The case involved spouses married since 1985 who lived together for about a decade, spent nearly three decades largely apart, and divorced in 2024.
• An initial court had ordered an equal split of all pension rights accrued over the 39‑year marriage, but the wife prevailed on appeal.
• The panel cited BGH precedent (NJW 2006, 1967) and applied a balancing test, stating that long separation alone is insufficient without demonstrated economic independence.
• Outlets describe the decision as precedent‑setting yet still subject to case‑by‑case judicial assessment, noting the Versorgungsausgleich’s protective purpose for retirement fairness.