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Written by Ellen E. Schultz
Dividing retirement plans in a divorce is never easy. When one spouse is in the military, it gets even harder.
The issue affects millions of military couples for whom a pension is often their largest asset.
The benefits can be substantial. A lieutenant colonel in the Air Force with 30 years of service gets a pension worth $72,288 a year. The pensions aren’t paid in lump sums, but if they were, the “present value” of a career officer’s pension can easily exceed $1 million.
What makes military pensions more valuable than others is that there is no minimum age. Someone enlisting at 18 can retire at 38 and receive a pension, with cost-of-living increases, for the next 40 years.
A former spouse is entitled to one-half of the amount that accrued during the marriage.
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