Pensions are less common as fewer companies offer them to employees, but they still show up during a divorce. The attached question usually runs along the lines of: Does your ex get part of your pension in divorce?
The short answer is yes, your ex can receive part of your pension in your divorce settlement. California is a community property state, thus the courts view this type of benefit accrued during a marriage as shared property to divide in a divorce.
That said, like many legal matters, it’s not always so simple. There’s math involved and the length of your marriage comes into play when determining how pensions are divided.
Our founding partner, Rick Jones, regularly appears on the radio, where he answers family law questions from listeners. One caller wants to know if his ex will get some or all of his pension in the settlement.
Take a listen below.
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How Are Pensions Divided in Divorce?
Caller: “I was just wondering how a pension works. If one person has a pension, and the other doesn’t, do they get some of that or not until they start receiving it?”
Rick: “Is it truly a pension, or is it like a 401(k)?”
Caller: “He has both, but this is the pension.”
Rick: “Really good question. Certainly, over time, there are fewer and fewer companies that offer these, so we’re dealing with a whole lot less than we were ten and 20 years ago.
“A pension is looked at as community property. The only difference is that creates a little bit of complexity. Because on a 401(k) account, it’s a dollar amount, you can chop that in half, so to speak. [But] when it comes to a pension, the number is unknown, especially if the person is still working.
“So let’s use this as an example, I’ll try to keep this simple:
“Let’s say a person gets 30 years of employment in. So it’s a 30-year pension. You were married for the first 15 of it. That means the pension would be divided 15 years into the marriage. So it’s still alive for another 15.
“But the way the formula works is it would have said: the community value is half the pension and the worker’s value is half the pension. So he gets all of that, but the 50% that was community then gets divided up.
“The simple answer, half of that. Meaning 1/4 total to the wife, 3/4 total to the husband, and that gets paid when he is eligible to receive it.”
Danny: “Just to add on to that a little bit Julie, here’s what I think of how pensions work. I think they work like this: I work all my life and get a pension, then a woman I hardly knew divorces me and gets a bunch of the money!”
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