Am I Entitled to My Ex Spouse's Retirement Plans Or Pension after a Divorce

As divorce financial planners, most of our clients that we encounter have retirement plans, or pensions, or 401k plans. And everybody has the same question, "Is my former spouse entitled to an interest in that plan?" Many people consider their pension to have been earned by their hard work, by their blood, sweat, and tears, and have a hard time realizing and coping with the fact that their former spouse, who didn't work for that pension, has an interest in it. Reality is, is that they almost always do. You have to look at the circumstances as to how the pension was earned, if it was earned prior to marriage or during marriage. Then you have to make a determination as to what the pension or the defined contribution plan might actually be worth. At Pacific Divorce Management, we help our clients understand what the true value is of the 401k plan, if there is any separate property interest in it for one client or the other, as well as the true value of the defined benefit or pension plan. This is so that our clients can make intelligent informed decisions about who gets to keep those plans, how much they're worth, and what the long-term financial ramifications are of those decisions. We'd like to give you a gift of our free report, "The Top 35 Divorce Financial Planning Mistakes." Please visit our website to download your free copy today.