FERS division during divorce

[Anonymous]

Separation under works currently. We both have FERS accounts-his is more than mine, we are both early 50s and he plans to keep working past 70. If you divided FERS did you take a bulk payment of opted to wait? I read that one can also opt to receive the payouts on their retirement vs spouse. Would appreciate any insight based on your experience.

[Anonymous]

It would be 1/2 of the number of years you were married. If your salaries were same for all the time you were married as a fed then it would be a wash and no need to spend time over it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It would be 1/2 of the number of years you were married. If your salaries were same for all the time you were married as a fed then it would be a wash and no need to spend time over it.

Spouses salary is much more than mine and the number of years are more by 7-8 years. Still not worth it?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It would be 1/2 of the number of years you were married. If your salaries were same for all the time you were married as a fed then it would be a wash and no need to spend time over it.

Spouses salary is much more than mine and the number of years are more by 7-8 years. Still not worth it?

Were you married during his extra 7-8 years? You should be entitled to half of what he earned while you were married (and he’s entitled to half of what you earned). But if he’s planning to work til 70 you may want to consider whether you’d rather just call it even/ask for a lump sum offset so you have full control of when yours starts (ie you can’t force home to retire so you can draw your portion of his pension so if you needed that to retire you might be stuck working).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It would be 1/2 of the number of years you were married. If your salaries were same for all the time you were married as a fed then it would be a wash and no need to spend time over it.

Spouses salary is much more than mine and the number of years are more by 7-8 years. Still not worth it?

Were you married during his extra 7-8 years? You should be entitled to half of what he earned while you were married (and he’s entitled to half of what you earned). But if he’s planning to work til 70 you may want to consider whether you’d rather just call it even/ask for a lump sum offset so you have full control of when yours starts (ie you can’t force home to retire so you can draw your portion of his pension so if you needed that to retire you might be stuck working).

Yes, married for the entire duration. Is there a clause that can allow me to start withdrawing earlier? We are both the same age.

[Anonymous]

You can’t withdraw early.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You can’t withdraw early.

Also he can take 1/2 of yours when u retire.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You can’t withdraw early.

Also he can take 1/2 of yours when u retire.

Can he do that even though mine is lower?

[Anonymous]

Saying he will work past 70 doesn't mean he will or even can work past 70. A lot can happen in nearly 20 years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You can’t withdraw early.

Also he can take 1/2 of yours when u retire.

Can he do that even though mine is lower?

If you take 1/2 of his he can take 1/2 of yours.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It would be 1/2 of the number of years you were married. If your salaries were same for all the time you were married as a fed then it would be a wash and no need to spend time over it.

Spouses salary is much more than mine and the number of years are more by 7-8 years. Still not worth it?

so, your difference in salaries would be seen as well as the 401K. The wash would be the number of years you have worked as a fed and for additional 8 years, you would get 4 years worth of share in his pension. It is worth trying. Don't let lawyers figure this out - they will suck you dry and then it will definitely be not worth it.

[Anonymous]

"Also he can take 1/2 of yours when u retire.


Can he do that even though mine is lower?"

Everything earned, including interest growth, during the marriage is owned 50/50.
I'd do a lot of research on this before deciding how to handle. Start with Reddit. I'm more familiar with military divorce issues but some of them are very similar, like the ability to buy the life insurance that pays out post-divorce.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It would be 1/2 of the number of years you were married. If your salaries were same for all the time you were married as a fed then it would be a wash and no need to spend time over it.

Spouses salary is much more than mine and the number of years are more by 7-8 years. Still not worth it?

Were you married during his extra 7-8 years? You should be entitled to half of what he earned while you were married (and he’s entitled to half of what you earned). But if he’s planning to work til 70 you may want to consider whether you’d rather just call it even/ask for a lump sum offset so you have full control of when yours starts (ie you can’t force home to retire so you can draw your portion of his pension so if you needed that to retire you might be stuck working).

Yes, married for the entire duration. Is there a clause that can allow me to start withdrawing earlier? We are both the same age.

You both are entitled to half of what was earned during the marriage. So one way to do that is for each of you to owe the other that fraction out of your pension. A risk doing that is that it complicates your financial planning. For example, if that means you get 25% of his pension (half of his time so far but he’s going to work a lot longer) but he doesn’t retire for 20 years then you’d have to wait that long. One the other hand, if you are entitled to half of everything up til now, but he switches to private sector immediately after the divorce, the pension will be eroded by penalties (for not reaching retirement age) and inflation reducing what you get. Both of those decisions are in his hands not yours. If things are civil I see some advantage to both of you keeping your own pensions and for him to settle the difference in value with a lump sum transfer from his TSP to yours. There’s no magic equation to set the number but once it’s done you would each control your financial planning

[Anonymous]

So the lawyer thinks that FERS is an important asset and should not be used right now to trade off with home equity while I would like to keep more tsp and liquid assets.