Is retirement pay forever if you get a divorce?

Question

If you get a divorce and your spouse gets a percentage of a service members retirement pay-will they get it forever? Or does it end with remarriage like alimony?

i personally dont think military pay should be divided after all the military member deserves it-they served there country right/

Answer 1

It ends if you remarry, and you must have been married to the military member for at least 10 years, The law sucks by the way. The divorcing spouse deserves nothing. Especially out of the MEMBERS retirement pay!

Answer 2

Well the above answer may be correct, I could not find anything on it except that divorces seem to be left to the states. As for most states, retirement divides on the date of the divorce and become separate property which can be moved over to the alternate payee's (person getting the other person's retirement $$$) own retirement account. BUT federal law trumps state law sometimes and there may be an act saying that these benefits disappear on remarriage. Get an attorney to do your divorce, preferably a retired military judge (every decent sized city seems to have one, I do not know why). One thing you may want to consider is not going after the retirement at all and instead trading your portion of the retirement for alimony payments. Alimony payments grant a tax break and while there may be some math involved, it basically allows you and your spouse to keep more of the money between you 2 instead of it going to the government. It also prevents you from having to wait on your money, even though you have to grant a discount for that payment (there is a 40% early withdrawl penalty on retirement so a middle ground adjusted for the alimony tax break - get an accountant if you can - will give you a fair number). To save on legal fees it is best for the 2 spouses to sit down (I know it can be hard) and divide up their assets and decide what a fair arrangement is BEFORE checking it with an attorney. The reason is the more work you do up front, the less the attorney can bill you for. Than have an attorney look over your arrangement and see if they think it is fair based on the law where you are getting divorced and what changes they recommend, then go back with your spouse and discuss the changes recommended by each of your attorneys then come to an agreement, have the attorney write it up and all you bring to the court is the issue of divorce (shorter hearing, usually 15-30 min).

Answer 3

According to the current DOD regulations for divorced personnel, my experience is with the Navy, retirement pay shall be paid out to the ex-spouse at 50%, unless stated differently by individual states, with incremental payments as the cost of living increases over the years of retirement. No to the statement that payments cease once the retired military person gets remarried or even if the ex-spouse gets remarried. It does cease to the ex-spouse once they die. But, if the ex-military person dies, the money goes to the current spouse, it that is applicable.

I find it offensive, for some of you who think that even though the military personnel is the one who wore the uniform, you think the ex-spouse is not derserving of any entitlements if they divorce. My mother "served" as a Navy wife and care giver for over 23 years to my father. They retired from the Navy and then my dad had an affair and eventually left her after 8 years of being out of the Navy. He fought with all his might in hoping that she did not receive a penny of "his" retirement pay! All four sons fought against him as a back lash to his treatment of our mother.
My mom moved when he moved, packed and flew to bases when he was "out on duty" and gone for over 9 months at a time. She had two of her children with only her own mother and father present. She gave up her own career as a music teacher to "serve in a military branch of the US armed forces". Do not tell me that ex-spouses are not deserving of any monies because they did not serve.
To this day, 25 years later, my dad refuses to think what he did was wrong. I have a whole new perspective since I was a Navy brat for 15 years and now I am a Air Force spouse for these past 13 years. "We Also Serve" is the motto I go by and no one can tell me othewise.

Many of the divorces I see today and the sequential legal battles over retirement pay is mainly out of vindictiveness, from one or both of the parties.

Answer 4

Pretty much, it pays to divorce if you are a woman. That's why the divorce rate is so high and 88% of divorces are intitiated by women.

Answer 5

you get a percent if you were with him for 10 years and that means married to him for 10 years of his enlistment otherwise you get nothing

Answer 6

It works the same as alimony.. once remarried it stops....