TSP can provide a spouse with the plan participant’s account statements to help the spouse, in divorce, develop a proper court order. Obtaining this information is very helpful in both military divorce and Federal Civil Service divorce. The information that TSP will provide includes:
- Participant’s account balance;
- Participant’s outstanding loan balance, if any; and,
- Annual or Quarterly statements for the period requested.
A subpoena is not required to obtain the info above. A proper written request from the spouse, or the spouse’s attorney, is sufficient. A proper request must include:
- Participant’s name and account number OR social security number;
- The name of the person requesting the info and the relationship of that person to the Participant;
- A description of the information needed (e.g. quarterly statements for the period starting at date X and ending at date Y); and,
- A statement of the purpose for which the info is being requested (e.g. to determine the existence and amount of Participant’s TSP for division of community property in divorce under Cause No. 2017-CI-12345 in the 224th District Court of Bexar County, Texas).
Know that a Participant may have more than one TSP account. If you are positive that only one TSP account exists (i.e. a Federal Civil Servicemember has never served in the military, or, a Military Servicemember has never served in the Federal Civil Service), then designation of the type account for which you want information is not required. If two accounts might exist, be sure to refer to the military account as the “Uniformed Services” account and the Federal Civil Service account as the “Civilian” account.
Requests must be sent to he following address: TSP Legal Processing Unit, P.O. Box 4390, Fairfax, Virginia 22038. Requests may also be faxed to the TSP Legal Processing Unit at (703) 592-0151. By this author’s experience, the TSP Legal Processing Unit responds quickly. This author has received full response in less than 2 to 3 weeks time.
Author Jim Cramp is a retired active duty colonel and the founder and principal attorney at the Cramp Law Firm, PLLC. The firm provides a spectrum of family law-related services to clients in the greater San Antonio region, across the United States and throughout the world. The firm specializes in Federal Civil Service and Military Divorce matters. The firms also provides Wills and Estates and Probate services.
Source: “Court Order and Powers of Attorney,” Thrift Savings Plan, September 2014.