Massachusetts Divorce Law...

Massachusetts Law - Can Pension Plans Be Divided?

Pension plans of either party, whether vested or not, may be divided.

The court uses one of two ways to do this. The two ways are:

• Current value. The court estimates the current value of the pension, using statistical projections. Then it awards the non-employee spouse a portion of that value in cash. The courts prefer this method, if there are sufficient cash assets to make the payment. The portion awarded to the non-working spouse is typically a third or a half of the marital portion of the pension. The marital portion of the pension is: # years married and employed / # years employed.
• Actual distribution. The court decides what portion of the pension the non-employee spouse should get. Then, when the pension is actually distributed, the non-employee spouse gets that portion of each payment.

Section 34.

Cases:

Early (1992) 604 NE2d 17 (The court assigned 60% of the present value of the husband's pension to the wife. The payment was to be partly in cash, and partly in the form of a Qualified Domestic Relations Order.)

Peterson (1991) 568 NE2d 649 (The court gave the wife a portion of pension benefits attributable to the period of the parties' marriage. In this case, both husband and wife were both age 42 and both in good health. The wife was a registered nurse and thus capable of employment.)

Dewan (1991) 566 NE2d 1132 (The court could assume that the husband would retire at age 65, and did not have to assume the earliest possible age, in computing present value of husband's pension. An earlier retirement age would have given the pension a higher present value, due to more payments being received during the husband's lifetime.)

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