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Many divorced women are ending up as the "poor relations" when it comes to division of assets, according to research.

Royal London claims divorced women end up with less than half the property wealth of married couples and less than a third of the average pension wealth.

According to their research, the average divorced woman over 50 has £131,000 in pension wealth, compared with £454,000 for the average married couple.

Relationship charity Relate shows January to be ‘divorce month', with an 84% surge in website visitors reported in the first three days of January 2019 compared to the same time last year.

In addition, 455 online applications for divorce were submitted between Christmas Eve and New Year's Day - with 13 of those filed on Christmas Day.

Steve Webb, director of policy at Royal London, said:

"Divorced women are ending up as the poor relations when it comes to pensions wealth in later life.

"When couples split up there's an understandable focus on family issues and on highly visible assets, such as the family home.

"Very often one partner will have pension rights which are less visible but can be just as valuable, and people need to take expert financial advice on this crucial issue."

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