Simply stated, what you need to know about dividing the service member’s retirement in the context of a military divorce is too extensive to describe in this brief article, so we encourage you to view the websites cited in the source information below.

There are, however, four possible methods of determining the portion that will be awarded to the soon-to-be ex-spouse of the military member. It could be divided by percentage amount, dollar amount, a fraction, or a delayed order option. If it sounds complicated, it’s because it is. There are advantages and disadvantages to each method. All methods are governed by the Uniformed Services Former Spouses Protection Act.

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There are over a million American active duty personnel stationed worldwide at any given time. Many of them are married and many of them don’t manage to stay married. And when they don’t, they and their spouses can end up facing a whole slew of issues that their civilian counterparts who are breaking up don’t have to deal with.

If your soon-to-be ex is in the military, you can end up facing a number of complications, including where your divorce will be filed, how alimony and child support will be calculated, how to divide the military pension, and what to do about custody and visitation if children are involved.

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If you’re going through a military divorce, you’re in a whole different category from your civilian counterparts. One of the biggest issues you can encounter is the division of your spouse’s military pension. It’s an asset, and you want to be assured of getting your fair share, so what do you do?

Ask

The first thing you should do is ask about the pension when you begin divorce proceedings – don’t try to deal with it once the decree has been issued. Even if it looks like your spouse won’t be retiring for a long time, you should still get a court order that provides for equitable division of the pension.

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Divorce isn’t easy. It brings anger, resentment and emotional turmoil, and that’s in the best of circumstances. When you’re involved in a military divorce, you have a whole additional set of complications.

Military divorce is different from civilian divorce, and if you’ve lived on base for any length of time, you’ve almost certainly witnessed breakups, and heard military spouses talking about the 10/10 rule. So what is it, exactly?

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When you’re living as a civilian, divorce isn’t really all that difficult. You decide to split up, and then you file wherever you live. When one spouse is in the military, though, it’s not uncommon for a couple to actually own property in one state, be living in another state, and have gotten married in yet another. As if that’s not complicated enough, the couple could have been moved to a state where they’re living, but they might not have been there long enough to achieve resident status. So, where do they file for divorce? Does it matter?

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