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Ohio Law - Can Military Retirement Pay Be Divided? Military Retirement benefits may be divided like a private pension. The federal Uniformed Services Former Spouses Protection Act (10 United States Code Annotated Sec 1408) allows division in marriage dissolution proceedings of military retirement benefits for pay periods beginning in 1981. The pension does not have to be vested to have value. But if it is not vested, the court should try to estimate a cash value and divide it at the time of the trial, rather than wait until later to divide the pension payouts. Cases: Cherry v. Figart (1993) 620 N.E.2d 174 (At the divorce, a separation agreement provided that the wife was entitled to receive "the share to which she was legally entitled" of husband's military retirement pay, when he retired. He retired after 22 years of service. Fifteen of those years had been during the marriage. Thus, she was entitled to her half of 15/22 of the retirement payments.) King (1992) 605 NE2d 970 (This case involved a military serviceman. His pension was not yet vested -- he had nine years to go. The lower court had said it would meet again and divide the pension when the husband became vested. The appeals court found that this approach gave the husband an incentive to quit the military. The court also found that the value of the pension was too speculative to justify keeping the legal system involved in the couple's lives. Presumably, the lower court judge was supposed to make his or her best estimate of the value of the pension, which would be very small, and have a cash division of that value. There apparently was enough equity in the couple's home that could be allocated to paying for the wife's share of the pension.)
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