CP
Biography
Often one of the most stressful and highly contested areas of divorce in Los Angeles involves property and finances. And this isn’t limited to just divvying up physical possessions. It extends to all assets of monetary value, including retirement funds and pensions. Although often dismissed or overlooked (especially for those going through divorce when they are still young), pensions can often have more value than all your possessions combined and, as such, make up one of the most important and complex aspects of divorce litigations. Naturally, this can cause immense mental strain, since a great portion of your life as an employee has been dedicated to saving up for a peaceful and satisfactory retirement. Thus, knowing you could lose a large portion of that can be worrisome, to say the least. Of course, if you did not work during the marriage and spent your time caring for your home and children, it can also be incredibly stressful to consider retirement. After all, you probably did not have the time to build up a pension.
If you find yourself in either situation, our Los Angeles pension division attorneys can help. We want you to be able to comfortably retire at a reasonable time, and ensuring that pension is split fairly is part a huge part of making that happen. While we will provide some general information on the process of pension division in the following paragraphs, this should not be taken as legal advice. Pension division in California is highly volatile, and your situation could call for a different course of action. That is why we provide completely free legal consultations, so that you can have your questions answered before you make any commitments.
As mentioned before, the way in which pensions are divided differs from case to case. However, there are some general guidelines for pension division in California that the judge will use to determine how your pension is split up.
Mediation to Decide Pension Division in Los Angeles Sometimes, however, it is not even necessary to go before the judge to divide your retirement. Rather, this can be done through mediation, where you and your spouse will negotiate the terms of pension division. These terms will include the amount both of you will receive, the timing of payments, any benefits included in the pension division, how the payments will be made, etc. If you choose this route, it is incredibly important that your mediation attorney have experience working not only with family law but with finances as well. This will ensure that the pension is divided accurately and fairly and that your rights are always upheld. Once you agree on how the retirement will be split, your mediation attorney will write up a settlement agreement. This will most likely be a small section within your property settlement agreement devoted specifically to your pension. You should only sign off on the marital agreement once you have reviewed it and your attorney has informed you of what each decision means for your future. That way there are no surprises when you finally get to enjoy retirement and we do not want you to be taken advantage of in any way. For more information on how we can help you through mediated pension divisions, please look here.
Pension Division in Court Of course, we know that mediation is not always a viable option for couples. Sometimes, disputes arise that are impossible to resolve without the judge there to make the decision for you. Thus, if you must go through court for pension division, we are prepared to go there beside you as your advocate. The way the judge divides pension in California depends on a number of thing factors, each of which will be presented when you fill out the pension division forms.