In my last blog, we looked at how spouses can dissolve the community estate and create only separate property by executing a Partition & Exchange Agreement.  To read that blog, click here.  I mentioned that in this next blog, we'd look at a scenario where executing a Partition & Exchange Agreement may be...

It happens all too often that the Defense Finance & Accounting Service (DFAS) will reject a former spouse's application for the share of military retired pay awarded to him or her in a military divorce.  This occurs when the award expression in the divorce decree, or domestic relations order (DRO) that often complements...

First, you should know that the former spouse's military retired pay payments stop when the servicemember dies.  Former spouse SBP is a purchased annuity that, if available, can replace that stream of payments.  To have former spouse SBP protection, it must have been ordered as part of your decree and applied...

It depends.  In military divorce, Texas case law establishes that courts have authority to order the Servicemember to pay the SBP premiums and doing so does not equate to impermissible permanent alimony.  The Former Spouse, however, can be ordered to pay as well.  In short, there is no automatic answer since either outcome...

The Texas Supreme Court decided in a 1979 case that involuntary separation pay is not community property and, therefore, not divisible in divorce.  In its decision, the Supreme Court rejected the former spouse's argument that involuntary separation pay is a property right that, like military retired pay, should be divided...

Filing a suit for divorce doesn't automatically give a State court jurisdiction to divide military retired pay.  Federal law (specifically, Uniform Services Former Spouse Protection Act found in Title 10 of the United States Code at Section 1408) requires that a State court establish jurisdiction over military retired pay in one of...

Sometimes the Defense Finance and Accounting Service (DFAS) will not accept a former spouse application for military retired pay because the divorce decree or domestic relations order fails to provide enough information for DFAS to compute the former spouse's entitlement.  DFAS' letter of non-acceptance instructs the former spouse to obtain a a...

In this installment of military divorce myths, we'll look at the belief that a court can order the servicemember to provide TRICARE coverage for a former spouse.  False.

There is nothing a court can do to create or deny TRICARE coverage for a former spouse.  Whether a former spouse qualifies for TRICARE coverage is...

In this installment of "military divorce myths," we'll look at the belief that, if the servicemember already had elected Survivor Benefit Plan (SBP) coverage for the spouse at time of retirement, coverage for a former spouse continues automatically after divorce .  False.

SBP and Former Spouse SBP are not the same thing.  They are...

In this installment of "military divorce myths," we'll look at the belief that Federal law dictates how much of the Servicemember's military retired pay a Former Spouse gets in divorce.  In other words, it doesn't matter what State a military divorce occurs in.   The outcome always is the same.  False.

This misconception arises from...