Offsetting is commonly used when a wife wants to keeps the family home and to offset that the husband keeps his pension.

Offsetting is really treating pensions like any other asset, except that the pension is kept by the pension holder.

The reason is that it is kept by the pension holder is that a pension cannot be simply given, or assigned, to a third-party such as an ex-spouse.  That is why attachment and pension sharing were developed for use in divorces.

There are issues with offsetting.

• There may not be enough other assets to offset against the pension
• It is often felt that the value of a pension should be reduced when offsetting as it cannot be realised for cash, at a time when both parties finances are probably under stress.