{"id":258,"date":"2017-09-01T18:31:16","date_gmt":"2017-09-01T18:31:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eralawgroup.wordpress.com\/?p=258"},"modified":"2018-09-28T12:14:26","modified_gmt":"2018-09-28T12:14:26","slug":"familyfriday-military-retirement-pay-disability-benefits-and-divorce","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eralawgroup.com\/familyfriday-military-retirement-pay-disability-benefits-and-divorce\/","title":{"rendered":"#FamilyFriday \u2013 Military Retirement Pay, Disability Benefits, and Divorce."},"content":{"rendered":"

On this week\u2019s #FamilyFriday article, the attorney\u2019s at ERA Law Group, LLC are discussing the recent change in how Court\u2019s treat a service member\u2019s waiver of retirement pay for disability benefits<\/a> and the effects it may have on the former spouse.\u00a0 A service member\u2019s retirement pay is considered marital property.\u00a0 Depending on the length of the marriage and the Court\u2019s Order, a percentage of the marital portion of the retirement pay is reserved for the former spouse upon the service member\u2019s retirement.\u00a0 Due to a recent Supreme Court decision, a former spouse may now lose a significant amount of their ex-spouse’s military retirement pay despite what was awarded to them in their Judgment of Absolute Divorce.<\/p>\n

In Maryland, upon entering a Judgment of Absolute Divorce<\/a>, couples negotiate what, if any, percentage of the service member\u2019s retirement pay will be awarded to the former spouse. If a service member applies for and receives disability benefits, the Department of Veterans\u2019 Affairs (DVA) automatically reduces the member\u2019s retirement pension on a dollar-for-dollar basis.\u00a0 This automatic waiver prevents members from double dipping and receiving both retirement pay and disability benefits.\u00a0 In practice, in exchange for the disability benefits, a member\u2019s retirement pay is decreased which also results in a decrease for the former spouse.\u00a0 Put simply, the former spouse will receive a smaller piece of the pie than what was originally contemplated.<\/p>\n

Until recently, Maryland and many other states, treated the award of the service member\u2019s retirement pay as a contractual arrangement.\u00a0 This permitted the former spouse to retain their agreed upon portion of the service member\u2019s retirement pay if and when a service member obtained disability benefits or increased benefits after the divorce which resulted in a waiver of their retirement pay.\u00a0 The Court interpreted the waiver as a dilution of the former spouse\u2019s share.\u00a0 Finding this arrangement unfair, Maryland Courts continued to enforce the award in the Judgment of Absolute Divorce. \u00a0In other words, the service member was still required to pay the difference.<\/p>\n

A recent Supreme Court decision, Howell v. Howell<\/em>, has changed the way Maryland and other states have treated such circumstances.\u00a0 Now \u2013 regardless of what the award was \u2013 a former spouse is only<\/u> entitled to receive a portion of the retirement pay even if that retirement pay is now significantly smaller.\u00a0 The Supreme Court suggested that state courts consider the unreliability of the former spouse\u2019s portion of retirement pay when making a marital award and, if applicable, compensate the spouse elsewhere.\u00a0 For example, perhaps this would increase alimony<\/a> or a lump sum award.<\/p>\n

If you are a military spouse, call the attorneys<\/a> at ERA Law Group, LLC today at (410) 919-1790 to ensure your rights and benefits are protected!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Due to a recent Supreme Court decision, a former spouse may now lose a significant amount of their ex-spouse’s military retirement pay despite what was awarded to them in their Judgment of Absolute Divorce. \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":262,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[426,413,416,419],"tags":[6,7,86,159,11,53,12,160,55,161,67,162,163,164,48,165,15,49,166],"class_list":{"0":"post-258","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-divorce-and-separation","8":"category-family-law","9":"category-medicaid-and-asset-preservation","10":"category-veterans-benefits","11":"tag-agreement","12":"tag-alimony","13":"tag-court-order","14":"tag-disability-benefits","15":"tag-divorce","16":"tag-family","17":"tag-family-law","18":"tag-judgment-of-absolute-divorce","19":"tag-lawyers","20":"tag-marital-award","21":"tag-marriage","22":"tag-military","23":"tag-military-divorce","24":"tag-military-spouse","25":"tag-retirement","26":"tag-retirement-pay","27":"tag-separation","28":"tag-settlement","29":"tag-supreme-court","30":"entry"},"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eralawgroup.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eralawgroup.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eralawgroup.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eralawgroup.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eralawgroup.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=258"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/eralawgroup.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":927,"href":"https:\/\/eralawgroup.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258\/revisions\/927"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eralawgroup.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/262"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eralawgroup.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=258"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eralawgroup.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=258"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eralawgroup.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=258"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}