Navigating a divorce is difficult, especially as you seek to protect those things that matter most and those you worked hardest for. Regardless of how cooperative or combative your spouse is, hiring an experienced family lawyer like those at Beller Law, PL, can help you walk away better off. Contact us to learn more about how we can use our 25 years of experience to help you.
How Are Retirement Benefits Handled When You Divorce?
When you divorce in Florida, your marital assets and liabilities must be divided equitably. Dividing equitably does not necessarily mean dividing equally. However, a court charged with dividing marital assets and liabilities begins with the presumption of an equal division.
Factors in Dividing Property
From that presumption, the court considers:
The contributions each spouse made to the marriage and household,
- The economic circumstances of the spouses,
- The length of the marriage,
- Whether either spouse experienced interruptions to their education or career,
- Contributions by one spouse to the other’s education and career,
- The significance to either spouse of retaining specific assets,
- Each spouse’s contributions and improvements to marital and nonmarital assets,
- Whether one spouse should retain the marital home, and
- Any intentional harm a spouse has caused to marital assets.
Weighing these factors may result in an equitable but unequal distribution.
Marital and Nonmarital Assets
Marital assets and liabilities include most property and debts acquired individually or jointly during the marriage. Assets may include:
- Salaries and wages,
- Bonuses,
- Real property, and
- Pensions.
Liabilities may include:
- Mortgages,
- Car loans,
- Credit card debt, and
- Student loan debt.
Nonmarital assets and liabilities include:
- Those acquired before the marriage;
- Gifts or inheritance;
- Any assets or liabilities agreed to be separate in writing; and
- Liabilities fraudulently incurred by one spouse.
That means that your spouse is usually entitled to an equitable share of the retirement benefits you earned while married.
What Makes Firefighter Pensions Unique?
In Florida, the Department of Management Services runs a uniform retirement benefit system for firefighters and police officers. Retirement benefits either earned cannot be assigned, executed upon, or attached to by “any legal process whatsoever.” This means that your benefits cannot generally be divided during a divorce, although there are specific ways around this.
A court cannot order your benefits be paid to your spouse. In some cases, however, the court can order you to deliver a portion of your benefits to your former spouse yourself. This payment may be included as part of alimony or separate from it. Yet, going this route can be cumbersome and contradicts the clear intention of the state government in protecting the benefits to begin with., so some courts prefer to find different options.
How Can You Protect Your Retirement Benefits?
Designing a key strategy for protecting retirement assets in divorce is often a matter of determining your priorities. And, if you and your spouse can reach an agreement regarding how to distribute assets and liabilities without court involvement, you can typically both get more of what you want.
Usually, this means you give up some rights to some asset or take on liability in exchange for keeping your benefit rights. For example, you might agree to let your spouse keep the house. Or you might pay out a sum right away to compensate for the funds your spouse will miss out on later. The possibilities are nearly endless and depend on you and your spouse’s priorities, interests, and relationship.
Negotiating
If you negotiate directly, you may be able to minimize costs, acrimony, and time. You can maintain more control over the outcome as well.
For some people, the thought of negotiating with a spouse sounds next to impossible. However, your lawyer can help you minimize contact with your spouse throughout the process. With the support of your attorney and working through your spouse’s attorney, negotiation can be an effective and efficient strategy to safeguard your retirement benefits.
Mediation
Mediation is an ideal solution for those who are unable to agree but want to avoid the time and expense of court. When you attend mediation, you sit down with a neutral third party, the mediator. With the information you provide in advance, the mediator leads a conversation in a cooperative, collaborative environment. If you are both represented by attorneys, you do not even need to see your spouse and allow the mediator to communicate separately with each of you in an effort to help you reach a comprised resolution. The goal is to walk away with both spouses satisfied with where things end up.
Letting a Judge Decide
Some circumstances make direct negotiation and mediation untenable, particularly if your spouse is uncooperative, unforthcoming, or outright combative. You may have no choice but to take your divorce to a family law judge to resolve the issues between you.
Although going to court is more formal, more costly, and takes longer, there can be financially beneficial reasons to present your proposed resolution to the judge as to how the assets and liabilities should be distributed. Ideally, the court sees your side and protects your retirement benefits.
Beller Law, PL, Can Help Protect Your Assets
Firefighter retirement benefits are protected by law, so divorce strategies for firefighter pensions typically focus on identifying your priorities among your other assets and liabilities. Depending on your relationship, you may negotiate, attend mediation, or go to court. Regardless, safeguarding retirement benefits in a firefighter divorce is a matter of designing a strategy centered around you and your spouse’s unique relationship and history.
If you are a current or former firefighter involved in or considering a divorce, Beller Law, PL, has the experience to help make the process smoother. We can negotiate on your behalf, protect your rights during mediation, or present your case in court to let the judge decide. Contact us today to learn more.