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Make your agreements during divorce formal

October 3, 2012 • J.J. Montanaro

Q: I got divorced in July 2012. The divorce decree states that my ex-wife will be tak­ing a per­cent­age of my retire­ment once I retire in 2019. One month after the divorce we reverted back to our orig­i­nal agree­ment before the lawyer insti­gated an argu­ment between us. (He wanted more money).

I have agreed to help her with extra money every month until my son turns 18 (On top of child sup­port and alimony), in return she will not touch my retirement.

Do I need to amend the divorce decree or can we make it offi­cial on a cer­ti­fied nota­rized let­ter? Are there any offi­cial mil­i­tary doc­u­ments that she needs to sign stat­ing she has given up rights to my retirement?

–Anto­nio, Chicago, Illinois

A: Some­times a lit­tle money today can save a lot of money and headaches down the road. With that in mind, con­sider cir­cling back to your attor­ney to for­mal­ize your new agree­ment. Sure, it may cost you some money today, but it seems to me it could head off poten­tial issues when you retire.

 A for­mer spouse that is apply­ing for mil­i­tary retire­ment awarded dur­ing a divorce is required to sub­mit a cer­ti­fied copy of the court order to the Defense Finance and Account­ing Ser­vice (DFAS). Sure, your ex-spouse may not apply for your retire­ment given your infor­mal agree­ment, but if she were to send the cer­ti­fied court order that awards her a por­tion of that retire­ment to DFAS your headaches would begin.

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