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Texas Law - Can Pension Plans Be Divided? Pension plans of either party may be divided. The court uses one of two ways to do this. The two ways are:
The pension plan does not have to be vested in order to have value that may be divided. The courts will assume for the purpose of division that the employee will work until retirement or divorce, whichever comes first. Cases: Wade (1996) 923 SW3d 735 (The husband was an insurance agent during the marriage and at the time of the divorce. After the divorce, he continued to work for the insurer. The wife sued for a portion of "termination payments" which had not been paid. The termination payments would be based on the policies he had sold during his work with the company. The court found that these were like retirement benefits, because they were based on work he had done during his entire career, and thus a part were marital property. Since the husband would have been entitled to receive them if he had quit his job on the date of divorce, it concluded that they were like vested unmatured retirement benefits, which also are community property. The wife's share is: value at divorce * 1/2 * (# years employed / # years employed-and-married)). Trevino (1977) 555 SW2d 792 (dividing a doctor's interest in his pension plan, even though it had not vested). Cearley (1976) 544 SW2d 661 (pension rights, whether or not vested, represent a property interest. To the extent that such rights arise in the course of employment during the marriage, they constitute community property subject to division in a divorce).
Disclaimer: We are not giving legal advice. No warranties. We disclaim all legal liability. More... Click here to go to top Texas legal page. Click here for the Texas legal divorce legal table of contents. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
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