San Antonio, TX Family Law and Military Divorce Blog

When facing military divorce, there are two scenarios where the Defense Finance and Accounting Service (DFAS) might be unable to make full payment to a former spouse.  The first scenario is where the Servicemember's retired pay is subject to garnishment for more than one former spouse's retired pay entitlement.  The second scenario is where the Servicemember's military retired pay is subject to garnishment for both former spouse retired pay and child support.

In the first scenario, with multiple former spouses entitled to retired pay, the most that DFAS can garnish is 50% of the Servicemember's retired pay.  Garnishment orders are processed by DFAS on a first come, first served basis until the cap is reached.

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The collaborative divorce model is an alternative to traditional “contested litigation” in that it is based on resolving a divorce using open discussion and cooperation in a private environment.  The Collaborative Family Law Act is specified in Chapter 15 of the Texas Family Code.  In collaborative divorce, each party is represented by his or her own attorney, and major aspects of the process include the following:

• Signing of a collaborative family law participation agreement and filing it with the court.
• The agreement includes each party’s commitment not to use court hearings to resolve issues.
• Rather, issues are resolved based on a series of informal meetings among the two parties and their respective attorneys where information is exchanged without formal discovery processes.

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Pay raises for military and Federal civil service families will be modest in 2017. 

Active duty members will receive a 1.6% pay increase, while military retirees will only see a 0.3% increase.

Federal civil servicemember will receive a 1% across the board pay increase with an additional 0.
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You have a valid will, what steps must be taken to make sure that it can properly be admitted into probate?  

For a valid will to be admitted into probate, it must be proven to the court to be the last will and testament of the testator.   Before I explain that, here are the two types of valid wills in Texas. 

1. A holographic will is a testamentary instrument written solely in the testator’s own handwriting.  It can be attached to a document with typed writing on the document, however to be valid, the will itself must only be in the testator’s handwriting.
2. An attested will is a testamentary instrument that can be typed or hand written, but is not entirely in the testator’s handwriting.

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1. On the death of the FS, or
2. On death of the SM.

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In our previous blog about Federal Civil Service Divorce, we discussed that the Employee must have at least 10 years of creditable service before a Former Spouse qualifies in divorce for award of a Former Spouse Survivor Annuity (FSSA).  To read that blog,

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Military members and their spouses do not automatically acquire a new “domicile” when the relocate (“PCS”) to a new duty station in a new State. 

First, let’s distinguish the terms “residence” from “domicile.”  A residence is an address or place where you live.  A domicile is the one residence that you consider to be your permanent home.  To better understand the concept, think of the rich and famous.

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Until passage of the 2016 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), any Survivor Benefit Plan (SBP) coverage awarded a former spouse in a military divorce vanished when the former spouse died before the retired servicemember.
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The National Defense Authorization Act of 2016 (Public Law 114-92) has changed the landscape of the military retirement system, as follows:

1. Persons entering the military on or after January 1, 2018, will be under the new "modernized" retirement system.
2. Servicemembers with less than 12 years of service as of December 31, 2017 (i.e.
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